Wise News

GREETINGS from WiseSkills!®

In This Issue of Wise News:
(also available as a PDF document)

1.  Letter from WiseSkills President

Dear Educator:

Greetings from WiseSkills and welcome back to school!  
I hope you had a refreshing summer and are ready to begin the important work of strengthening the character of your students.   The interesting thing is that character education is all about who each of us are inside--it is not just teaching a subject area, but it revolves around the kinds of life we live, the choices each of us make everyday.  And, as you know, with children you can't hide much.  Whether it is young children who pick up on subtle inconsistencies, to teens who can easily see through adults whose walk doesn't match their talk.

Yet, we are all in process.  The important thing for us is to struggle--and, according to Michael Josephson, founder of Character Counts!, to "struggle visibly."  That is, where we admit and acknowledge to those around us when our own character falls short.  In a society and culture which justifies being rude, taking vengeance, blaming others, and pursuing selfish ambition, it is important that each of us engage in a struggle for our own character--and quickly admit to others when we blow it. 

For educators, this may involve apologizing to a student, or a whole class, as I did when I forgot to tell some of my 5th grade boys about football league tryouts.  "I am really sorry," I told them in front of the class.  Suddenly, there was a hush over my classroom as my students were shocked that a teacher would apologize for something.  But they forgave me, as they saw how seriously I tried to take my injunctions to them about the importance of keeping your word. 
For parents, this involves acknowledging to your children when you fall short of your own values and not try to make excuses or minimize your actions.  In fact, one of the well-known 12 steps--which have helped thousands of alcoholics and drug addicts get free of their addictions--involves doing a "fearless and searching moral inventory,"  admitting to yourself, and then to others, the things you have done wrong.  Only after a person is brutally honest with themselves and others, can they have true integrity.

This "struggling visibly" is an important principle of life and will only increase your moral authority as you seek to develop character in your students.  As they see you struggle openly on the journey of character, they themselves will strive to become people of integrity. 

Wishing you the best in the journey.

Sincerely,

Seth Schapiro
President, WiseSkills Resources
 

2.  Character Tips:  Parents as Speakers

In addition to providing classroom activities and discussions that build character, another critical ingredient is providing positive role models who share about how they show character in their daily lives, especially in the workplace.  This allows you both to promote career awareness as well as demonstrate the importance of good character in the real world. 

Speakers can powerfully demonstrate to students that having good character is not just about behaving in school, but about being a successful adult .  You can invite parents to speak as well as ask them for other people they know who may be willing to share with students.  In order to keep students' attention, have speakers share briefly (about 10-15 minutes) and then open it up for questions.

Some speakers may feel more comfortable being interviewed by you.  Here are some questions (excerpted from the WiseSkills Community Connections Kit) that you can ask speakers:
       1.  What is your job?
       2.  What exactly do you do at work?
       3.  What made you choose this career?
       4.  What training or education did you need?
       5.  What do you like about your job?
       6.  What do you not like about your job?
       7.  When you were young what did you do that helped you succeed?       
       8.  As an adult, what personal skills do you feel are important to be successful?
       9.  What advice can you give to students about school or their futures?
Check out the attached WiseSkills Ready Reproducible for a simple way to find career speakers in your local community!

3.  FREE WiseSkills Ready Reproducible:  Career Speakers

In order to provide hands-on resources for educators, we will now regularly include in the Wise News a FREE, ready-to-duplicate reproducible page. Each WiseSkills Ready Reproducible will be a simple, hands-on tool that will help you strengthen the character of your students.   The page will be available in PDF format, but if you need a hard copy, just e-mail us at: wisenews@wiseskills.com.

Attached to this e-newsletter is our first WiseSkills Ready Reproducible.  This convenient page will help you gather information from families about people in your local community who may be willing to share with students about their career and how they have applied principles of good character to find success.  This page is not copyrighted so feel free to make as many copies as you need for you or your colleagues!  If you are unable to print out this form, just e-mail wisenews@wiseskills.com with your street address and we will send one out to you.

4.  Character Quotes

"What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us."
         - Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Character is that which reveals moral purpose, exposing the class of things a man chooses and avoids."
         - Aristotle
"Fame is a vapor, popularity an accident, riches take wing, and only character endures."
         - Horace Greeley
"Conscience is God's presence in man."
         - Emmanuel Swedenborg
"There is no witness so terrible, no accuser so powerful as conscience which dwells within us."
         - Sophocles
"A nation, as a society, forms a moral person, and every member of it is personally responsible for his society."
         - Thomas Jefferson
"Life is not so short but that there is always time enough for courtesy."
         - Ralph Waldo Emerson
"We are all angels with only one wing. We can only fly while embracing each other."
          - Luciano De Crescenzo
"It is in the shelter of each other that people live."
          - Irish proverb
"Morality is stronger than tyrants."
         - Saint-Just
"Ethics is a code of values which guide our choices and actions and determine the purpose and course of our lives."
         - Ayn Rand
"Without civic morality communities perish; without personal morality their survival has no value."
         - Bertrand Russell

5.  Media Watch
Helping Students Evaluate Values Messages in the Media

About Media Watch
All stories and most art contain values messages.  The themes of justice, love, sacrifice, courage, and goodness are present in most human expressions of creativity.  The popular media inundates young people with many stories and images along with their underlying values messages--both positive and negative.  The Media Watch section in Wise News provides resources to assist educators in helping young people analyze the themes and messages contained in a variety of current popular media, including films, videos, music, television, and other media. 

As the mass media exerts more and more influence in the lives of young people, it is critical to have discussions with students about the media they are regularly exposed to.  Discussion questions are designed to help students think about and discern the values messages they are receiving through the mass media.  In helping young people sift through these messages, it is critical that they learn how to:
       1. Recognize the values messages they are receiving
       2. Evaluate if those messages promote values in line with principles of good character

If you use the popular media with your students, we welcome contributions to Media Watch.  Just e-mail wisenews@wiseskills.com.

Media Focus:  Movie
Movie: Finding Nemo
Rating: G
This light hearted film takes place when the nervous Marlin and his son Nemo are separated in Ocean.  Nemo is unexpectedly taken for his home by scuba divers and he finds himself in a fish tank in Australia.  Marlin is frantic to find his son and goes through many exciting and comical adventures. Marlin stumbles upon Dory, a happy go lucky fish, who is happy to help but has short term memory loss. Nemo and his father both go through exciting adventures to find each other, with the help of many other creatures along the way.

Activities created by:
David Betz
WiseSkills Media Consultant

Talk About It
1. What was physically different with Nemo than with other fish?
2. What mistakes did Nemo make when he was on the field trip?
3. Did Nemo show respect or disrespect when His father gave instructions?
4. Did Nemo show his dad that he was trustworthy when he went against his father's instructions? What were the consequences?
5. What are some of the character traits that Marlin, Nemo's father, showed once Nemo was taken?
6. What were some of the trials that Marlin and Della went through to find Nemo?
7. What type of character traits did the three sharks have? How did the sharks try to show self-control?
8. What character trait did Nemo's father Marlin finally show when he let go of the whale's tongue? What did he show Darla by letting go?
9. What positive character traits did the fish in the tank?
10. What did Nemo try to demonstrate to the others when he tried to stop the flow of water in the tank?
11. What was the attitude of the sea turtle? Did it seem positive or negative? What other character traits did they possess?
12. When Nemo finally escaped down the toilet, what was the attitude of the other fish? Were they jealous or thankful?
13. What did Nemo show his father when he let him go into the net of fish to free them from the fishermen? What was the result when Marlin trusted others?
14. Who showed that they were trustworthy towards Marlin during the movie?
15. What are the character traits that you like the most in the movie? Why?

Think About It
1.  Was it smart for Nemo to not listen to His father? Was there a time when you didn't listen to a parent or a teacher and there were consequences?
2.  Nemo had a lucky fin, which was smaller than the other fins. Do you have something that is different about you? Do you let it slow you down or not? What character quality does it show when you do not give up like Nemo did?
3.  Have you ever been lost? What did it make you feel like? What happened? Who should you go to if you get lost?
4.  Do you think Nemo could have escaped from the fish tank on his own, or did he need others' help? Who do you turn to when you are in a difficult situation?
5.  Do you help others like those who helped Nemo and has father? Who has helped you in your life?  Who can you help?

Do It
1.  Watch the movie as a class and have them write down positive character traits that they see in different characters.
2.  Have students work on their listening skills. Play Simon Says to work on listening skills and change the game to Marlins Says.
3.  Nemo and his father had many people help them along the way. Discuss that there are many people who need help along their way as well.  Examples could include the elderly, homeless, disadvantaged, and others who may need encouragement and help. Have students make a list of people who they could help. Do a service project as a class.
4.  Have the students draw a picture of a fish tank or the ocean with Nemo and his friends and write out a character trait for each story character.
5.  Discuss what students can do when they are lost and who they can ask to help them in a supermarket, park, or any public place. Discuss how we can help people when they are lost.
6.  Have students talk or write about their fathers and/or an adult that helped them when they were in a hard or scary situation. Have students write a thank you letter in appreciation.
7.  Have students close their eyes or be blindfolded. Ask them to walk around the classroom listening to someone telling them where to go and what to watch out for. Explain that trust is either built up or torn down with the accuracy of the person's input.

FREE Media Literacy Video

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention makes available a free short video that helps students analyze alcohol and tobacco messages in the media.  Media Sharp features excerpts from television commercials and comes with a discussion guide.  To order or for more information, contact CDC at:

Center for Disease Control & Prevention
Office on Smoking & Health
3005 Chambless-Tucker Road
Atlanta, GA 30341
1-770-488-5705
http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/mediashrp.htm

6.  National Schools of Character Program Seeks 2004 Appliants

The following information about the National Schools of Character is taken from the Character Education Partnership web site:  http://www.character.org

Now in its 7th year, National Schools of Character is an annual awards program recognizing K-12 schools and districts demonstrating outstanding character education initiatives that yield positive results in student behavior, school climate and academic performance. Although winners may differ in method, content, and scope, all emphasize core ethical values such as honesty, respect, responsibility and caring. CEP encourages school and districts involved in character education to look at the criteria "Character Education Quality Standards" to determine whether they might qualify.  Selected schools and districts receive a cash award of $2,000, national recognition, and a featured position in CEP's National Schools of Character publication.

Applications for the 2004 National Schools of Character awards program, are due December 8, 2003.
Applications for Promising Practices citations are due on February 3, 2004.  Finalists for the 2003 competition will be honored at CEP's annual National Forum in October 2003 in Arlington, VA.  Judges will use CEP's Character Education Quality Standards based on the Eleven Principles of Effective Character Education to review all applications.

For more information or to download an application, see:  http://www.character.org/eventsawards/nsoc/

7.  New K-8 Revisions:
FREE for WiseSkills Educators!

In response to requests by many educators, we have made some new additions to our WiseSkills materials for grades K-8: WiseWords (Grades K-2), WiseQuotes (Grades 3-5), and WiseLives (Grades 6-8).  These new revisions are available FREE to WiseSkills educators via a special web page (see below).  The revisions will now be included in our K-8 materials.
The revisions include new materials for each of the 8 WiseSkills Character Themes for grades K-8:
    1.  Positive Attitude
    2.  Respect
   3.  Responsibility
   4.  Self-Discipline
   5.  Relationships
   6.  Personal Goals
   7.  Citizenship
   8.  Conflict Resolution
In each WiseSkills Character Theme, we have now added:

1.  Interdisciplinary Projects
Presently, WiseWords (Grades K-2) and WiseQuotes (Grades 3-5) include monthly projects in 4 subject areas: Literature, Language Arts, Social Studies, and Art.  WiseLives (Grades 6-8) includes projects for Language Arts and Social Studies.  However, now these three resources have an expanded section in each theme that features additional projects in these subject areas:
       Science / Math
       P. E.
       Health
       The Arts
       Foreign Language (WiseLives only)
Now educators are provided with dozens of options for integrating each Character Theme into every
subject area.

2.  Service-Learning Projects
Each theme now also includes ideas for practical service-learning projects that relate to each monthly               
theme.  These projects are designed to be easy for educators to implement and provide opportunities for students to apply the character qualities they are learning in WiseSkills.

3.  Media Issues
This section includes innovative ideas for helping students reflect on the movies, television programs, music and video games they enjoy.  Activities foster critical thinking in discerning the positive and negative values messages communicated through the mass media.

FREE Revisions for WiseSkills Educators:

If you are presently using WiseSkills, these new revisions are available to you FREE OF CHARGE through a special web page.  To receive the revisions to insert in your binders, just follow the directions below:
1.  E-mail your name, school, phone number and the WiseSkills titles you are presently using to wisenews@wiseskills.com.
2.  Within 2 weeks, when we confirm the materials you have, we will e-mail you a link to a special web page where you can print or download these new pages ABSOLUTELY FREE!
3.  Insert the new pages into your WiseSkills binders.

If, for some reason, you are unable to download or print these pages, just e-mail us at info@wiseskills.com or call our office at 1-888-947-3754 to request a copy be sent to your street address.

8.  A WiseSkills District Story:  Matanuska School District
Creative Funding Combines Character With Other Areas

The Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District in Alaska has purchased over 350 WiseSkills notebooks since 1999.  While many districts purchase separate materials for different programs, this district has combined character education with school to work along with drug and violence prevention.

Donna Affinito, the coordinator for the district, says that WiseSkills has allowed them to use a variety of funding sources to implement the program in the district.  "WiseSkills works!  It works great with employability skills."  The district was able to fund the program with a grant that paid for materials that equip students with important work skills.  As a result, all of of the district's elementary teachers use WiseSkills with their students.  

Affinito states, "Teachers like it !  It is easy and ready for the teachers to use.  Each teacher uses WiseSkills differently."  Every year, the district continues to train educators on the materials. 

Contact Information:
 Donna Affinito
 Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District
      125 W. Evergreen
       Palmer, AK 99645
       907-746-9211

Do You Have a Story?
If you have been finding success using WiseSkills with your students, we would love to hear about it and possibly include your school or district in an edition of Wise News.  Please e-mail us and tell us how WiseSkills is helping you build character in young people.  Or we can even e-mail you a simple form with some questions about the impact of the program on your students.  Just e-mail us at:  info@wiseskills.com.

9.  Special Back to School Offer!
Buy 2 WiseSkills Notebooks, Get 1 FREE
(Offer Expires October 31, 2003)

For a limited time, when you buy 2 WiseSkills curriculum notebooks, you can receive one curriculum notebook FREE.   That's right!  When you purchase any 2 of our innovative curriculum resources, you can receive another notebook of your choice at no charge. This offer covers all of our classroom resources:
    WiseWords Curriculum (Grades K-2)..............................$94.95/each
    WiseQuotes Curriculum (Grades 3-5) ..............................$94.95/each
    WiseLives Curriculum (Grades 6-8) .................................$94.95/each
    Wisdom for Life Curriculum (Grades 9-12) .....................$94.95/each
For more information about these materials, visit our web site at: http://www.wiseskills.com.   Download or print out FREE sample pages at: http://www.wiseskills.com/samples.html.   Call or e-mail for a FREE 30- day WiseSkills preview.

How to Order & Receive your Free WiseSkills Curriculum Notebook:
   1.  Phone Toll-free:  1-888-947-3754
   2.  E-mail: info@wiseskills.com
   3.  Fax: 1-831-426-8930
   4.  Mail:
      WiseSkills Resources
      149 Josephine Street, Suite B
      Santa Cruz, CA 95060

Just mention this Back-to-School Offer when you order!

Hurry! Back to School Offer Expires 10/31/2003

--

Sincerely,

Seth Schapiro
WiseSkills Resources 
149 Josephine Street, Suite B
Santa Cruz, CA 95060
1-(888)-947-3754
(831)-426-8920
http://www.wiseskills.com
Wise News e-newsletter: wisenews@wiseskills.com

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