Character Education at Laurel Park Elementary

“The Heartwood Curriculum”

Character Education in WCPSS

1993 – Wake County adopts the following eight character traits to promote the importance of character education in the classroom and to help create a positive learning environment:

Courage Good Judgment Integrity Kindness Perseverance Respect Responsibility Self-Discipline

April 5, 2005 – the Board of Education puts into policy what has been practice in the classroom for more than 10 years. The result: Character Education Policy 5130.

Character Education in Year-Round Schools

Different schools have different approaches, e.g. adding additional character traits, spreading the 8 character traits to cover the year.

At Laurel Park, we are going to spread the traits out over the course of the school year.

The Heartwood Curriculum“Teaching Life Lessons through Literature”

A literature based approach to teaching character and ethics.

Focuses on 7 attributes: Courage Loyalty Justice Respect Hope Honesty Love

The stories have ethical themes that are positively presented. At the point of the story when the problem arises, the ethical theme is introduced and the problem resolved in a positive manner.

Aligning WCPSS Character Traits with Heartwood’s Curriculum

WCPSS Character Trait

Heartwood Attribute

Respect RespectCourage CourageKindness Love

Self-Discipline LoyaltyIntegrity Honesty

Perseverance HopeGood Judgment JusticeWhere’s Responsibility? It’s Everywhere! Responsibility is

woven into all the books, as well as, a daily focus in all classrooms.

Delivery of the Heartwood Curriculum

Seven blocks (see 2015-16 schedule) Parent volunteers 30 minute visit – Read story and

discussion questions Volunteer will directly contact teacher to

schedule date/time of visit beginning with Block 1 - Respect.

Structure of Lesson

Introduction of character trait – write trait on board – discuss with students the trait and its meaning

Say, “Today I want to read a story to you. Afterwards, see if you can tell me why we talked about this word.”

After the story, ask the discussion questions listed on card.

Thank students for their contributions, and accept all ideas except obvious errors that must be corrected for the sake of clarity.

Volunteer Instructions• Parents must be a registered volunteer. You can access the

online system to become registered in the Laurel Park Media Center between 8:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m.

• Volunteers will receive a Master Schedule that lists all the Character Ed blocks and the associated dates. These are the dates that will guide you as to when you should schedule your class visits.

• If there are two parents assigned to a classroom, please work out with the other parent to determine how you are going to split the blocks

• Contact the classroom teacher that you have been assigned to…• Introduce yourself as the character ed. volunteer(s) • Discuss with the teacher about preferred times for you to

visit the class for the lessons (let the teacher know if there are day/time restrictions on your end)

Note: Some teachers prefer to schedule ahead several months or even for the whole year and others prefer month to month.

Volunteer Instructions contd.

It is always recommended that you preview the book before visiting the class so you will be familiar with the story and concept. You may preview the book at Laurel Park by doing one of the following:

• Check the online calendar (instructions for using the online calendar are provided on a later slide) and see if anyone has it checked out. If not, you can reserve it for a brief preview.

OR• Allow yourself 10-15 minutes of preview time right before

your class visit.

There are 2 folders of Character Ed books for this program. You may choose the book from either folder.

A list of questions is already provided in the file with the book. Feel free to either ask questions as you go through the book or wait until the end to elicit discussion from the questions.

Where do I find the books and materials for my class visits?

• Please sign in as a volunteer in the main office. • After signing in, walk towards the Media Center. As you get closer, you

will see a hallway on your right – turn there.• Look for the doorway across from the elevator – walk inside this room to

find your materials! • An automated light should turn on as you walk into the room. If the light

does not turn on, you may need to wave your arms to activate the motion signal (I know, this does sound a bit silly!) OR flip the light switch on your right OR as a last resort, prop the door open and allow light into the room.

• On your right hand side, there is a tall shelf against the wall. Heartwood Curriculum materials are located in yellow boxes on the bottom two shelves. Each box is labeled with a grade level (K-5). In the box for your grade level, you can find lesson materials organized by character trait.

• Hanging on the outside edge of the shelf, there is a clipboard with yellow sheets for check-out of materials. Please sign the sheet with your name, grade, teacher, and time of check-out. After your lesson, note the time that materials were returned on the yellow sheet.

• Please be mindful of returning all of the materials to their proper location. Thank you!

Using the Online Scheduling Calendar

When you have a date set, the next step is to access our online Character Ed calendar. This helps us to avoid “double booking” a grade level set of materials. • Go to: http://tinyurl.com/LPcharactercalendar• Follow the directions located in the lower left corner to create your

reservation• Be sure to list the character ed. trait, grade level, and teacher for

that particular lesson in the reservation title• List your name in the reservation details under the “Who” section

Note 1: Please allow extra time for previewing and returning the materials. (i.e. you may want to give yourself 15 minutes before the class visit to preview and then 15 minutes after the forecasted end of the lesson. So, if the lesson is 30 minutes, add +15 for preview and +15 for return. Total time listed on calendar is 1 hour.)

Note 2: If someone else is already listed on the calendar for the same grade level materials during the time that you wanted to reserve, you can reschedule or you can contact the other parent to coordinate who will use which of the two book options for their visits.

If you have any questions, you may contact one of the following people:

Character Education Parent Coordinator:Kathleen Neff - kathleen@trioptimum.com

Laurel Park School Counselor:Anne Ruoff – aruoff@wcpss.net