Department of Specialized Instruction & Student Services Strategic Plan – Initiative 4

What ideas does the PAC have to ensure all students develop the skill of empathy?

Looking to align resources within health, social studies and language arts curriculum Work group to be formed within District – looking to institute Fall, 2016 All areas of school system (Admin, teachers, social workers) Meet January thru March Grade specific Standards (K-1; 2-3; 4-5; 6; 7; 8; 9 – 12)

Develop parent programs that focus on teaching parents the 11 Principles of the Character Education Partnership (“CEP”). Offer programs as a web series for parents who are unable to attend working sessions Work with building PTA/PTOs to set up coffees within each building to build on these workshops Encourage community groups to participate in workshops. Create a supportive environment for teachers and staff.

Promote core ethical and performance values as the foundation of good character. Defines “character” comprehensively to include thinking, feeling, and doing. Use a comprehensive, intentional, and proactive approach to character development. Create a caring community. Provides students with opportunities for moral action. Offer a meaningful and challenging academic curriculum that respects all learners, develops their character, and helps them to succeed. Foster students’ self-motivation. Staff is an ethical learning community that shares responsibility for character education and adheres to the same core values that guide the students. Foster shared leadership and long-range support of the character education initiative. Engages families and community members as partners in the character-building effort. Regularly assess its culture and climate, the functioning of its staff as character educators, and the extent to which its students manifest good character.

Develop a grade level program that the counselors can focus on and teach on a weekly basis to each class. Building Blocks: Make sure that students have a voice and that all voices are heard. Emphasize with students what feelings are (including reading people's faces and body language) as well as how to name those feelings. Teach students to how to express their feelings and how to interpret when others express feelings.

Focus on teaching students more about acceptance of all as opposed to focusing mostly on bullying issues Include parent population in assessments. It may be beneficial to learn which character traits are emphasized at home. Embed 11 Principles of CEP into core curriculum. Have teachers guide students to identify school problems and encourage them to work together to come up with solutions. Service Learning Projects should include input from the students!

Cooperative learning using a variety of group structures designed along an instructional path. work together think together plan together Focus on developing "cognitive empathy," a mind-to- mind sense of how another person's thinking works. The better we understand others, the better we know them -- pointing toward (among other virtues) greater trust, appreciation and generosity.

Encompass ideas of global awareness and ethics. We would like to see more students working together to solve global problems. Allow for more “team” projects that focus on learning to interact with others as opposed to being grade centered. Offer students more opportunities to interact with students outside of the BPS district