Ideas for character development without added cost ...

Ideas developed during The Minnesota Student Leadership Seminar faculty small group sessions or submitted via email or facebook -- submit yours today.

  • As a faculty member - be the example - always.  Be a leader of character in your interaction with students...with peers...with administrators...with parents.  
    •  
  • Conduct a personal values assessment - can be tied to current English or Social Studies curriculums by also doing values assessment for characters or historical figures. 
    •  
  • Discuss common ethical dilemmas that your students might face.  Press them to think critically about the situations, the people involved, the perspectives, the consequences.  Look here for example situations and discussion questions.  Click here for more situations - A new situation added every few weeks complete with a "framework for ethical decision makeing."
    •  
  •  You probably have a list of classroom expectations that you introduce to your students at the beginning of the year.  Take this a step further and have your students adopt expectations of eachother in the form of a classroom honor code. Click here for examples of honor codes.
    •  
  • Don't let the small "teachable" moments that come up in your classroom or on the playing field slip by without using them to reinforce the message that one's character is something to treasure. 
    •  
  • Download and print (for free) the leadership exercises that accompany Bill George's outstanding book True North.  Exercise #5 is about explicitly identifying "the values that are important to you, the principles you will use in leading, and the ethical boundaries that you will adhere to, even under great pressure. 
    •  
  • Looking for possible texts to incorporate in your curriculum that could include critical examination of values?  Here is a list developed by the Axios Institute of the top 100 leading figures in the history of values and the books associated with them.  Names range from Jane Adams to Jesus to Marx to Nietzche  (Axios Institute description from their website: Axios Institute is dedicated to the study of human values, both the valuations that we make and the ways that we go about making them.
    •  
  • Use the power of the subliminal.  This article contains tips on how to maximize the educational power of posters within the classroom.  While the article is about educational posters within the science classroom, the tips and theory behind the silent yet influential aspects of a classroom is easily applied to character development. Here is a link to values posters that you can download for free.  But assigning a value to a group of students and having them develop a poster that reflects what the value means to them or indluding a picture of that value in action may be more influencial.
  • Introduce your students to the StudentLinc leader training matrix.  The matrix was created to help student government leaders evaluate themselves at different stages in their year in student government, but it is just as effective in evaluating the leader of a project or study team.  Also, students should realize that they can use this same tool to evaluate themselves in leadership positions on sports teams, in other extra curricular organizations, as they interact with friends, and later in their adult life.  You don't need a title to be a leader.
  •  
    •  
     
 
Make a Free Website with Yola.