character education that works

[parkermak]

I teach in an urban charter school in Flint Michigan. I really need to find a program that works for character education. Our kids are mean to each other. They tell you the right thing to do and go back to the wrong thing every time. This is true in students from k-6. Any suggestions will work.
Thanks

 

[LaFish]

I hope this helps

I don’t remember the name of the program. Maybe if someone reads this description, he/she will know the name of it.
I am old and retired. It has been some years since we used it but I think it was the most useful program. The class would watch a video on a VHS tape and we would have a short discussion about the video. I remember a few: “Katie O’Hara Learns to Share.” and “Tattling vs Reporting”. A friend said that you can find a few of those videos on YouTube. We also had a word for the entire month. One was character-it is how you ACT. Then, you would highlight the word ACT in the word character.
Our school counselor put the words and videos together for the entire school. I think she took pieces of one program and merged it with another one.

 

[Tiffany]

character program

My school is a mess when it comes to this. We are currently using 2 different programs and are probably adding a third. It'd be nice if we could all decide on 1 program and use it district wide. I just saw a news report talking about Flint's educational system in crisis due to the increase in special ed population, linking that to lead poisoning

There is a program that I came across last year that looks promising. It is free and has lesson plans/activities for each grade level. It was started by a Sandy Hook mother.
https://www.jesselewischooselove.org/

One thing that has been successful in our school has been implementing a Cloverbud 4-H program after school. The principal wrote a grant to fund the program. The program targeted Tier 2 behavior students. We ran the program for 2 months in May and June, 2x/week. Then we had 8 sessions over the summer. When we tracked behavior via discipline referrals, we saw a decrease of 40% in just the 2 months that the program ran. I think the key to the program was having enough adult supervision and giving them opportunities to practice self-discipline and conflict resolution strategies.

 

[parkermak]

Thanks. I will look into this program. I teach at a charter, but there is a definite issue in this area with behavior etc. I am not sure what the issues are lead poisoning and many other things I think.