Processes

Student Needs:

Take time to study out and discuss the needs of the students you are teaching. Determine exactly what character traits, ideas, goals that you want to teach the students in your community. Give members of your community an opportunity to contribute to this process so they have some ownership in the overall project.

Integration:

Over time you will find that your original plans will need some fine-tuning. Also, as teachers in your community see how beneficial the program is, they will want to participate too. Utilize their enthusiasm by helping them create curricula that interface with special storytelling events like workshops and performances.

Infusing the Vision:

In Midland, Texas, as the teachers became more enthusiastic about the program they and their administrators found ways to infuse character education programs into their individual content areas and job responsibilities.

Leading the Pack:

Train a group of teachers from the district in the areas covered by the goals of the program. This core of teachers can then serve as disseminators of the information and training they received to the rest of the teachers in the district.

Team Selection:

In Texas, they trained 45 carefully selected elementary and secondary teachers to receive staff development in group-dynamics, and storytelling arts. These teachers served as a network for diffusing information, instruction, and suggestions to colleagues. Since the selection of those original 45 educators, the network has grown to 190 educators. One thing that has been important is the continual research and professional development of these teachers and administrators.

Total Incorporation:

Make certain that once you have decided what your students needs are in facing this ever-evolving world that you incorporate storytelling into their course work, ever reinforcing those traits.

>> Techniques