Real Kids, Real Stories, Real Challenges


Book Description

Inspiring true stories of kids from around the world of kids who have overcome obstacles to create success for themselves. The third installment in the Real Kids, Real Stories collection again travels the world with inspirational short stories of young people who overcame adversity and persevered in the face of extreme challenges. Soosan Firooz broke barriers to become Afghanistan’s first female rapper and speaks out about the oppression and hardships women in her country must overcome. David Omondi in Kenya built his own radio station despite a lack of resources. And Kevin Breel speaks out about his own depression to help save lives. The thirty short stories in Real Kids, Real Stories, Real Challenges will inspire readers to believe in themselves, strive for success, overcome obstacles, and create change in the world—even when faced with a challenge. Note: Several stories in this book address intense and serious situations, which some readers may find unsettling.




Character Education Through Children's Literature


Book Description

Discusses the use of children's and adolescent literature in the classroom for helping to develop moral behavior in students.




Character Building Day by Day


Book Description

In elementary schools across the country, teachers are expected to provide at least five minutes of character education each day. This book makes it easy to meet that requirement in a meaningful way. It includes 180 character vignettes—five for each of the 36 weeks in the school year—grouped by trait. Each features kids in real-life situations making decisions that reflect their character. Each is short enough to be read aloud; all can be used as starting points for discussion, to support an existing character education program, or as the basis for an independent program. An excellent tool for the classroom or the character-conscious home.




PRIMED for Character Education


Book Description

Winner of the 2023 Outstanding Book Award from AERA's Moral Development and Education SIG! In PRIMED for Character Education, renowned character educator Marvin W Berkowitz boils down decades of research on evidence-based practices and thought-provoking field experience into a clear set of principles that leaders, administrators, and teacher-leaders can implement to help students thrive. The author’s original six-component framework offers a comprehensive guide to shaping purposeful learning environments, healthy relationships, core values and virtues, role models, empowerment, and long-term development in any PreK-12 school or district. This engaging and heartfelt book features tips for practice, anecdotes from award-winning schools, and straightforward tenets from moral education, social-emotional learning, and positive psychology.




Core Virtues


Book Description




Books That Build Character


Book Description

William Kilpatrick's recent book Why Johnny Can't Tell Right from Wrong convinced thousands that reading is one of the most effective ways to combat moral illiteracy and build a child's character. This follow-up book--featuring evaluations of more than 300 books for children--will help parents and teachers put his key ideas into practice.




Bringing in a New Era in Character Education


Book Description

The educational system in the United States has ended its failed experiment with separating the intellectual from the moral. Schools from K–12 to colleges and universities are increasingly paying attention to students' values and character. But how can we ensure this new era in character education makes the right kind of difference to young people? What obstacles in our current educational system must we overcome, and what new opportunities can we create? This anthology offers unique perspectives on what is needed to make character education an effective, lasting part of our educational agenda. Each chapter points out the directions that character education must take today and offers strategies essential for progress. The expert contributors reveal why relativism has threatened the moral development of young people in our time—and how we can pass core values down to new generations of students in ways that will elevate their conduct and their life goals. And they show the critical importance of reestablishing student morality and character as targets of higher education's central mission. Perhaps most important, they clarify the necessity of authority in any moral education endeavor—and show how it is a powerful force for developing personal freedom and building character.




Sometimes I Feel Like a Fox


Book Description

In this introduction to the Anishinaabe tradition of totem animals, young children explain why they identify with different creatures such as a deer, beaver or moose. Delightful illustrations show the children wearing masks representing their chosen animal, while the few lines of text on each page work as a series of simple poems throughout the book. In a brief author’s note, Danielle Daniel explains the importance of totem animals in Anishinaabe culture and how they can also act as animal guides for young children seeking to understand themselves and others.




Educating for Character


Book Description

Calls for renewed moral education in America's schools, offering dozens of programs schools can adopt to teach students respect, responsibility, hard work, and other values that should not be left to parents to teach.




Character Education Through Stories, Music, and Imagery


Book Description

Character Education Through Stores Music and Imagery encourages children to recognize and grow their own character traits. This book includes 20 stories, relaxation exercises, and short pieces of classical music. Included is a guide for teachers, parents, counselors, therapists, and program directors, with clear directions on how to use the Stories, Music, and Imagery process with children. The children listen to an original story, learn a relaxation technique to quiet their body and mind, focus their attention during reflective time to a short piece of beautiful classical music, then write, draw, or verbally share their experience. This process gives children a chance to express what the story means to them and how that character trait is present in their life. Ten stories for younger children explore character traits of beauty, clearing, cooperation, confidence, friendship, growth, honesty, patience, support, and trust. Ten stories for older children explore the character traits of acknowledgement, appreciation, choice, communication, expression, focus, gratitude, persistence, possibilities, and respect. The Stories, Music, and Imagery process brings together the power of the story, benefits of relaxation, clarity of focused attention, beauty of music, wisdom of the child, and support from the adult.