Character

Education

• Centre for Advancement of Ethics and Character- It is a center of ethics and character that focuses on the education of teachers, by providing hundreds of present and future teachers with opportunities and resources for helping students understand and respect humanity’s highest moral ideals and traditions of civility. Situated at Boston University.
• Centre for the Fourth & Fifth R's - (Respect & Responsibility) Site by Cortland University. Dr. Lickona is a well known educator who has written the book "Educating for Character: How Our Schools Can Teach Respect and Responsibility". Also many pages with information on character education and a bibliography of resources on character education.
• Character Resources - An excellent list of online resources, and online resources for character education.
• Connecting with Kids - is a leading creator and distributor of reality-based broadcast programming and educational products focusing on the health, education and well-being of children.
• Good Character - A site that has many free resources to help implement character education in classes, in sports , for community programs and links to many other character education or educational sites.
• Heartwood Institute - This is a 'package deal' but you can look at their site for suggestions - a good list of books and ideas for incorporating character education into the curriculum.
• Joy in Learning - This site is based on the book "Learning to Play, Playing to Learn" that gives educators and students simple, eloquent and even fun techniques to manage aggressive behaviors, build self-esteem, resolve conflicts peacefully, encourage diversity tolerance, practice core values and promote character education.
• Moral and Character Education - Information on Piaget, Kohlberg and many other links.
• Safe and Caring Schools - An initiative begun by the ATA (Alberta Teachers' Association) in conjunction with Alberta Learning and three universities in Alberta which includes violence-prevention and a character-education endeavor designed to encourage socially responsible and respectful behavior.(Click on ATA Safe and Caring Secondary Database)
• Scottish Schools Ethos Network - The Scottish Schools Ethos Network is a Scottish Executive funded project which aims to promote the importance of developing a positive school ethos.
• Teaching Values.com - Great resource for book, stories, music and videos to help teach and instill values in children.
• The Virtues Project -The vision of The Virtues Project is to serve humanity by supporting the moral and spiritual development of people of all cultures, by helping them to remember who they really are and to live by their highest values. Just a new site and not all information is there.
  
  

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• Teaching Values.com - Great resource for book, stories, music and videos to help teach and instill values in children.
• The Virtues Project -The vision of The Virtues Project is to serve humanity by supporting the moral and spiritual development of people of all cultures, by helping them to remember who they really are and to live by their highest values. Just a new site and not all information is there.

• Centre of Civic Education - The Center for Civic Education is a nonprofit, nonpartisan educational corporation dedicated to fostering the development of informed, responsible participation in civic life by citizens committed to values and principles fundamental to American constitutional democracy. It is based in Los Angeles, CA.
• Centre for Collaborative Education - CCE aims to strengthen the network of public schools that teach children to use their minds critically and purposefully, and ultimately, to inspire others to do the same.
• Centre for the 4th and 5th R's - Based at Cortland University, disseminates articles on character education, sponsors an annual summer institute in character education, publishes a Fourth and Fifth R's newsletter, and is building a network of "Fourth and Fifth R's Schools" committed to teaching respect, responsibility and other core ethical values as the basis of good character.
• Developmental Studies Centre - Centre that developed the Child Development Project.
• Educators for Social Responsibility - ESR's mission is to make teaching social responsibility a core practice in education so that young people develop the convictions and skills needed to shape a safe, sustainable, democratic, and just world.
• San Diego International Centre for Character Education - An excellent source for online resources, character education forums and discussion areas regarding character education.
• Urban Programs - Teaching kids to care. Character education is about celebrating what's right with young people while enabling them to develop knowledge and life skills for enhancing ethical and responsible behavior.
• The Virtues Project -The vision of The Virtues Project is to serve humanity by supporting the moral and spiritual development of people of all cultures, by helping them to remember who they really are and to live by their highest values. Just a new site and not all information is there.

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• California Department of Education - A great site for online character education sites, curriculum reviews of character education and an excellent annotated bibliography of books on the topic.
• Character Education - American sites that support the building of character into a program.
• Chicago District - A program that can reduce truancy, suspensions, student misbehavior, and other classroom problems, and at the same, increase academic performance, improve staff/student relationships, and bolster parent involvement.
  
• Kentucky School District - A source of many links to help in the development character. A helpful checklist for evaluation of resources, links to other well known sites and information about their program.
• Ohio Partners in Character Education - as it says.
• Utah State Office of Education - This site is intended as a resource for Utah educators, parents and others interested in how character education is part of the education framework in Utah public schools. In addition, numerous examples of how Utah schools and districts are implementing quality, comprehensive character education initiatives are included. This home page also includes many resources, links to other sites, and funding information. In addition they have an excellent site with resources.

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• California Partnerships in Character Education - Five elementary schools where selected to develop character education site plans to include: Parent/Community Outreach, Planning/Structure, School Climate, Curriculum, and Assessment. Second, all plans also focus on teaching six aspects of character: caring, civic virtue and citizenship, justice and fairness, respect, responsibility, and trustworthiness. Finally, all schools agreed that character education would not be an add-on but would be integrated into the school's existing culture and curriculum.
• Character Counts - This is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, nonsectarian coalition of schools, communities and nonprofit organizations working to advance character education by teaching the Six Pillars of Character: trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring and citizenship.
• Character Education Partnership - An excellent site. This site has been cited on many other sites. Includes the Eleven Principles of Effective Character Education™ - a program initiated by Tom Lickona, Eric Schaps, and Catherine Lewis who are well known in this field.
• CHARACTERplus™ - is the largest initiative of its kind in the country, representing over 30 public school districts, more than 400 schools and more than 250,000 students. The program includes involvement by many business and community organizations and the financial support of schools, businesses, foundations, individuals and federal and state grants.
• Child Development Project - revised Three components to the project decoding roe reading, caring community and strategies t build comprehension and character. The program has been around since 1981 and has a research component to it.
• The Virtues Project -The vision of The Virtues Project is to serve humanity by supporting the moral and spiritual development of people of all cultures, by helping them to remember who they really are and to live by their highest values. Just a new site and not all information is there.

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• Alfie Kohn Site - Articles written by Alfie Kohn. He often writes against the norm and makes one think about what is happening in education today.
• Theodore Sizer - No Two Are Quite Alike - an article about the differences in children and the importance of 'knowing' your students.
• Margaret Stimmann Branson: Making the Case for Civic Education: Educating Young People for Responsible Citizenship.
• Patricia Horsch, Jie-Qi Chen, and Donna Nelson - Rules and Rituals: Tools for Creating a Respectful, Caring Learning Community.
• Education Week - Objections (and Responses) To Moral Education by Joan F. Goodman. A Question and Answer article on Moral Education.
• Book - Connecting Character to Conduct - on line book by by Rita Stein, Roberta Richin, Richard Banyon, Francine Banyon, and Marc Stein.
• Developmental Assets - An Overview of assets to help children grow healthy and strong.
• Interview with Thomas Lickona Ph.D. - Discussion of character education today and its importance.
• Otten, Evelyn - ERIC document - Character Education (2000).
• NAESP - Character in the Basic School–Making a Commitment to Character
• NAESP - Creating a Powerful Community.
• Branun Newsletter - information on character education.
• Classroom online - Hey Beav, Whatever Happened to All That Character?
  by Kelly Maynard Vol. 5, Number 2, October 2001
• Nel Noddings - Thoughts about education.
• Nel Noddings - Thoughts about caring.
• Nel Noddings - More about caring schools
• Michael Slote - Caring and Philosophy

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Last Updated March 8, 2005

Please e-mail Susan Konopnicki if there are any links that are not active or if you have any comments on the site.

Thank You!

Susan Konopnicki