TRRFCC Character

William Wood Elementary recognized students with outstanding respect at their first Aviator Character Education Ceremony on Friday, September 23rd. Aviator Character Education Academy, or "A.C.E." Character Academy was started this year so students could focus on character development and be recognized for their outstanding character within the school community. Texas 956 JROTC is partnering with William Wood Aviators to present these prestigious awards. Kindergarten and 1st grade students are named "wingmen", 2nd and 3rd grade students are named "pilots", and 4th and 5th grade students are named "aces".

Guadalupe Elementary also recognized students with outstanding respect at their first TRRFCC Character Education Ceremony on Monday, September 26th. Community members are selected to present the awards at each ceremony. Mayor Polasek and Dr. Jaklich were invited to be our presenters for the character pillar "respect" because their character and respect leads our community and schools to success.

Character education is a part of the state guidance curriculum, but William Wood and Guadalupe have incorporated character in all subject areas. Teachers took part in professional development before school started and learned about character education. The schools are focusing on a character trait each month in their regular classroom lessons. Character isn't something that is added to the curriculum, but it is taught with "intention". All staff had the opportunity to nominate students that would be candidates to receive the award.

Guadalupe Elementary and William Wood are using the Character Counts Curriculum and they will focus on six character traits throughout the year. The six traits are trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring, and citizenship. The acronym for all the traits is TRRFCC, which is pronounced like "terrific", and helps our students remember to have TRRFCC (terrific) Character.

Congratulations to all of our character award recipients!

Respecting Others: Don't be an Interrupting Chicken

Reading Interrupting Chicken  by David Ezra Stein reinforces our whole group expectations during this time of year. Students often blurt out answers in class and are reminded to not be an "interrupting chicken" so they can be good listeners. Good listeners show respect to others by not interrupting. After we read the story, the students write their own story. The authors of these creative stories narrate the stories as fellow classmates act out their original story starring Interrupting Chicken. The students are proud of their work and take pride in seeing their writing come to life in a classroom drama. 

  

Building Community using Kagan Structures

Students used the Kagan Structure "Fan N Pick" to learn how to actively listen and respect each other. Each group was given a set of questions about school and students rotated through group roles as they answered different questions. In order to be successful the students had to interact with each other with respect and respond to the question and answer. Through cooperative learning, the students are able to gain social skills and value their classmates in their group.