Character Educators of Southwestern Ontario

2009-03-03T14:40:00.001-08:00

Good afternoon folks. Thought I would share the following video link with you. Comes from TED. Well worth the time. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lA-zdh_bQBo&feature=channel_page
Thoughts?

LKDSB Blog vs Wiki

2009-01-23T10:31:00.001-08:00

Hi folks, I am looking in to creationg our own blog for LKDSB people to share character lessons and projects. Can anyone tell me what the advantage is to a blog or a wiki?...Al

2009-01-09T09:02:00.000-08:00

Hi folks, thanks for the invitation...Al

2009-01-09T08:55:00.001-08:00

Hi all. Looking forward to seeing everyone again. T

Welcome Back!

2008-04-09T19:03:00.000-07:00

Driving to London today was a good omen. The sun was shining, the window was down, music was playing and the smells of spring were all around. What better day to re-connect with and rejuvenate our professional relationships. Once again, many thanks to Jan for organizing the day. Listening to everything that is going on is very exciting and certainly a long way from where we
were a year ago (see last entry). Debbie Green and I spent a few minutes chatting after the session and thought that this might be a good time to re-introduce this blogging format as a vehicle to share ideas, strategies and practices that support character development. It really is fairly easy to use...simply comment or if worse comes to worse drop me an email stephen.rensink@yrdsb.edu.on.ca and/or attached file if you have something you would like to post as a resource and I will ensure that it gets placed on the blog. With that in mind it would be great to be able to post all of your amazing logos and slogans somewhere on this page. At the same time, there are other technologies readily available in most if not all Boards that we can use to share ideas, collaborate on projects and training sessions happening in each of our Boards. These technologies are very simple to use and in most cases only require access to a computer and a high speed internet connection. If any of you are interested in exploring this further let Debbie and I know and we will work on putting something together.

A few words on data collection. There is no denying that we work in a data driven profession. I was happy to hear Jan bring forward the notion of data driven inquiry vs. data driven decision making. What a rich way to think of data. Just think of the impact this way of thinking would have on our purpose for collecting, what we collect, how we collect data etc. With that said I might offer a few questions (in no particular order) for consideration when thinking about collecting data (some have already been mentioned above). Many of the questions below were things I heard around the table today.

1. What is our purpose for collecting data in the first place?
2. Do we have a plan for sharing results of the collection?
3. What kind of data are we collecting? (quantitative/qualitative/artifacts)
4. Will our initial collection need to be followed up with a secondary collection (i.e.
focus groups, forums etc.)
5. How will we "treat" the data? How do we plan to use the results?
6. How will we go about collecting the data?
7. Who are we collecting data for? and, Who are we collecting data from?

I think these are key questions that need to be answered even before we set out on the task of creating the collection tool(s).

In York Region, as mentioned, we have done some preliminary research on identifying the "markers" (indicators) of implementation. If anyone is interested in hearing more about the process we employed please call or email. We have also supported a number of schools in the collection of data to inform everything from school climate to effectiveness of a variety of initiatives to ESP (Empowered Student Partnerships). A number of our schools have also used the "Tell the from Me" tool focus on students). If you would like to hear more about that I can certainly facilitate that. Finally, you might be interested to know that the Centre for the 4th and 5th R's (see link on the right) has a large number of inventories/instruments on their site. You might find these helpful as you consider the question of data over the next few weeks.

Great to see some familiar faces today. Even better to meet some new ones. Looking forward to seeing you on the blog!

Steve

Helpful Websites

2007-04-26T21:11:00.000-07:00

Please find links to some significant websites on the right column of this page. What follows is a brief synopsis of each.

Center for Character and Citizenship This is where you will find the likes of Dr. Marvin Berkowitz and Dr. Vic Battistich. Marvin's work has provided some of the "science" behind character education. I think you will find his work informative no matter where you are in your implementation process.

Vic's work focuses on positive youth development...youth as promising rather than youth at risk. The paper you received offers some interesting critical reflections on current practices as they relate to youth development. This one is well worth the read. A good one for team and/or staff discussion.

CASEL Probably one of the best sites for current research and strategies supporting academic, social, and emotional learning.

Centre for the 4th and 5th R's Tom Lickona and Matt Davidson have really led the field in showing the relationship between performance and moral character (or ethics and excellence). Smart and Good High Schools can be found electronically at this site and can be downloaded for free. For those interested in survey inventories they provide links to a host of inventories on just about every aspect of character development, climate and culture you can imagine.

Character Education Partnership A number of useful resources can be had at this site. They also offer up recognition for promising practices in character education to schools throughout North America. These are recognized at their National Forum held each year in the fall. See their site for more details.

The Responsive Classroom This site offers some really practical strategies for addressing character development in all dimensions of schools (curriculum, extra-curricular, and operations). They offer up a great little newsletter which is always filled with lots of handy tips.

The Attribute This newsletter has many more resources, links and useful ideas than can be listed here. Check this site for links to book distributors who carry character development resources, speakers, organizations etc. Please feel free to send in suggestions, submissions and other useful links. Follow the directions for submissions.

Steve

Posting

2007-04-25T15:14:00.000-07:00

Good afternoon. Once again it was great to meet all of you.

A few instructions about the blog. If you wish to post rather than comment only you need to sign into the blog. Do this by going to blogspot.com and signing in (top right corner) using the USERNAME and PASSWORD that you can obtain by emailing or calling me. By limiting who gets the password we are able to maintain control over the content.

This will take you to a new page where you must click on "view blog". When you arrive here look to the upper right corner where it says "New Post". Click this and you will be taken to a window that looks and operates much like Word. Enter you post and then click the "Publish" button at the bottom of the page. Your post will appear on the blog main page. This might be the best way if you are responding to a question, casting out a new idea or something else that takes a bit of room. If you are simply commenting just go to http://swceo.blogspot.com/ and enter a comment on the most recent post. (You will need to create a google account before you post the comment. The process is very user friendly. You will be guided through it right there on the page).

For posting larger documents, (i.e. implementation stories and strategies) I suggest you send them to my email stephen.rensink@yrdsb.edu.on.ca and I will post them on our server and then link them to the page in an appropriate block (see the right of the page).

Happy blogging

p.s. If you have any problems drop me a line or give me a call.

Steve

Welcome!

2007-04-25T11:58:00.000-07:00

Feel free to post your questions about implementation here. Please remember to "publish" your post by clicking the button below when you are finished. A block for sharing documents is under construction. Instructions to follow.