When we begin lessons on character education we mainly focus on feelings and the proper ways to express those feelings. We use music, games, and stories to illustrate “The Six Pillars of Good Character,” and how to appropriately process and express negative feelings. We want our students to be able to continue to communicate their feelings to us and each other, which is why we continue to teach these important topics such as:

Trustworthiness

We want our students to be honest, not to deceive, cheat, or steal, to be reliable and to do what you say you’ll do. We intill in our students to have the courage to do the right thing at all times and to build a good reputation for themselves and Stewart Home & School. We want our students to be loyal and to stand by your family, friends, and school.

Respect

Respect is an important topic. We want our students to respect themselves, as well as each other. We want them to treat others with respect and follow the Golden Rule. Our students are all very tolerant and accepting of differences, but we want them to continue this awesome virtue.  We work on using good manners, not bad language, and we practice this when we are on town trips and other school trips and activities. We want our students to be considerate of the feelings of others, not to threaten, hit or hurt anyone. And something we want to work on more this semester is dealing peacefully with anger, insults, and disagreements. It is hard to deal with anger, insults, and disagreements, but we want to teach our students how to communicate these feelings without anger.

Responsibility

This is a big one. We want our student to do what you are supposed to do! We want them to be able to recognize what they are supposed to do and then follow through. We have great students who lead by example on a daily basis and are proud of how well our students do just that. We want our students to plan ahead and to make good decisions that will help in their pre-planning! We want our students to persevere: keep on trying! Oh my, do our students do this. They are an inspiration to us all. We want our students to always do your best. We want everyone to always to try do their best, even ourselves. Everyday. We want our students to use self-control  and to not respond impulsively. We have had quite an improvement from many of our students and we couldn’t be prouder. We could all use a little more self control. We want our students to be self-disciplined. We want them to recognize what the correct thing to do is, then do it! And we want them to be able to think before they act and consider the consequences. Our students are wonderful examples of improving on these skills. We also want our students to be accountable for their words, actions, and attitudes and to set a good example for others.

Fairness

We teach our students to play by the rules and to take turns and share. This may be hard, but we all have to share! (o: We want our studens to be open-minded and listen to others and treat each other fairly. We don’t want our students taking advantage of others or blaming others carelessly.

Caring

We don’t think our students have a hard time with being kind to each other, but sometimes showing compassion can be difficult to do. We want our students to be kind, be compassionate and show you care. We want our student to express gratitude for all they do and receive. We want our students to be forgiving and to help others in need. They LOVE helping others in need!

Citizenship

This is a big award we give out at the end of the school year to the students who show the best citizenship. We want our students to do their share to make your school and community a better place. We want our students to cooperate with others and to get involved in the school affairs in a positive manner.  We want our students to be good neighbors to each other on the buildings, and good classmates to each other in classes and we want them to obey the rules and respect authority. Our students do a great job of caring for our campus and volunteering to help out each other and staff.

This semester, we will be focusing on how to accept disappointment and how to respond to those feelings. This is a difficult topic, but we believe our students are up for the challenge.