Schools

AWR Character Education Program Is In Full Swing

AWR's character education program, "AWR P.R.I.D.E — Putting Respect and Responsibility in Daily Event," is going well. Principal Hansen said the first "Pride Days" were a success this fall.

Before the school year became, s new Principal, Gina Hansen, sat down with all faculty members to look at what should be focused on for the year ahead.

After all faculty members took a survey, which asked about what’s working and what’s not working in the classroom, Hansen and her faculty came up with a new spin on an old character education program called AWR P.R.I.D.E — Putting Respect and Responsibility in Daily Events.

“The survey results showed that students need to improve on their manners, teamwork and kindness. Pride is not a new concept. They’ve done pride before, but it was not respect and responsibility,” Hansen said. “Our goal is to have students understand what pride is. So my goal is when I ask a second grader, ‘what is pride?’ They will say, ‘It’s putting respect and responsibility in our daily events.’”

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Over the summer, several teachers volunteered their time to beautify the courtyard in the center of the school, paint the AWR P.R.I.D.E logo and motto all over the school, and help make banners about the new character education program.

“The teachers came in on their own, on hot days, and cleaned everything up. It was unbelievable,” Hansen said. “Our whole goal here is to make this school more warm. We painted all the walls, we put up our wall of pride… This is something the teachers really thought through and we’re so excited.”

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But Hansen said she and her faculty couldn’t do this alone. With the help of the custodial staff, the character education program was put together for the first day of school when all parents and students were invited to come to the school early, have some coffee, obtain more information on the new character education program, and see the entire AWR staff in their AWR P.R.I.D.E t-shirts.

“We [the faculty and I] believe character education is something that has to be infused on a daily basis. Character education is something that’s going to change the climate of the building because you need to have people care about each other,” Hansen said. “The key is if you really want climate and culture to change, it has to change in the hallways, in the cafeteria and on the playground.”

Hansen said grade levels would be divided up into groups for the year: first and fourth grades, second and fifth grades, and third and sixth grades.

“Everything we do will be school-wide. Each team will be doing a project that is school based, a project that is community based and we will do a project that is global,” Hansen said. “So this way, they can see how they are connected to their school, how they’re connected to their community and how they’re connected to the world. Teachers decide this with their students. It has to come from the students.”

The AWR “Pride Days,” held in the fall, were a part of the school’s character education program and part of the state-mandated "Week of Respect" that is part of the new Anti-Bullying legislation.

The school’s three groups were divided up into paired classrooms. Each pair, or team, played different games together where the only way to be successful was to work together. Every older student had a younger student to look after and encourage throughout the day.

“Teachers talked about when you see your buddy, what’s the proper way to say hello,” Hansen said. “The big kids, who will think at their own age is not as cool or might not take it seriously because they’ve done this for so long, now they’re the teachers so they have something to live up to. We say to them, even right from lunch, the kids are watching you and will imitate you so we want you to be a good example.”

While there were eight activities for the students to participate in, not all groups were able to get to every activity.  

“It’s whatever the students can get to,” Hansen said. “Some groups are going to work better as teams so they’ll complete one activity faster and move on to the next.”

Mrs. Marcia WanVeer, the school’s guidance counselor, said the goal of “Pride Days,” which she helped organize, was to give students a hands on experience with character education rather than just having an assembly.

“We’ve paired buddy teams this year, older and younger students. This is Grades 4 and 1, and they have buddies. They had some pre-discussion about what good teamwork is and using encouragement and including others, and we’re seeing it,” WanVeer said. “It’s so neat. You think something in your mind and how it’s going to work out but when you see it work out, it’s wonderful.”

WanVeer said the faculty saw a lot of the students encouraging one another throughout the way and working together very well.

“We’ve seen a lot of the older students taking that natural responsibility for the little ones. It’s very sweet,” she said. “The whole goal is to achieve something together. We have these different activities that would not be successful unless they are cooperative.”

After the activities, the teachers talked with the students about how their own groups organized themselves, how all group members worked together and participated, and what they would do differently next time.

Mrs. Jennifer May, one fourth grade teacher, said she thought the day was very successful.

“It’s given them a chance to analyze themselves and how they interact with kids and it’s really good for them to reflect on how they did and what they can do better,” May said. “I think they’ve gotten a lot out of it so far.”

At the end of the day, the students sat in their groups and discussed what they liked the most from the entire day. One student said, “we liked how everyone worked together in all the games,” while another said, “me and my partner thought we did a really good job and we really liked the cage ball.”

Hansen said she hopes to have a school-wide activity every marking period, and the next one will be after the holidays.


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