The Character Team

     This year, I have been an active member of the GWA Elementary Character Team Committee. Together, our team is responsible for teaching and promoting character education throughout the elementary school. We focus on one character trait per a month (i.e. honesty, punctuality, responsibility, courage, etc.). At the beginning of each month, we organize and execute a school assembly where we introduce the new character trait, teach the students a chant to help them remember the definition, give out character awards, and then act in a teacher skit to demonstrate the character trait. Throughout each month, we look for ways to reinforce the character traits in the classrooms. There is also a student character committee, made up of 4th and 5th grade role models, who work alongside us to promote quality character education.
    The Character Team Committee is also responsible for organizing several charitable fundraisers. Recently, for example, we collected clothes school-wide to donate to poor children at a local school. The elementary classrooms competed against each other to determine who could bring in the largest amount of clothes. I (alongside one other member of the Character Team Committee) was responsible for organizing and monitoring this collection. The winning class was rewarded with a pizza party. In all, we collected over 30 large garbage bags stuffed with clothes!
     This week, we went on a field trip to deliver the clothes to the kids! Anne (the other Character Team member who helped me organize the collection), myself, John (the leader of the student character team), all of the members of the student character team, and about 16 members of the elementary soccer team (and their coach) were invited to attend this special field trip.

on our way...with 1/2 of a bus full of clothes

the student character team

      As soon as the clothes were unloaded, the local school boys geared up for a soccer game against our GWA boys. The students from the character team interviewed the local school girls, who were watching the game on the sidelines, in order to find out how their lives and school differs from the lives and the school dynamic of GWA students. We were also given a tour of the local school.

yes, that's a real donkey in the background...

the students came running out to greet us

the kindergarten classroom

first/second grade classroom

third/fourth grade classroom

     The school has modernized tremendously over the last few years. They acquired running water only recently; and they were finally able to paint the interior and exterior walls of some of the classrooms this year! Each classroom holds about 48 students! Since there are only about 5 classrooms, the grade levels are largely mixed together. I can't imagine teaching in such an environment!
      The kindergarten classroom stuck out because it was filled with close to 50 students between the ages of 3 and 5. They have absolutely no teaching supplies, and no toys. The teachers begged us for help because they truly have nothing. We plan to respond by organizing a casual dress day to raise money, which will allow us to buy new toys for their kindergarten classroom. This small gesture will make such a difference for the school, but only slightly. Seeing this school up close makes you realize how blessed we are to be teaching in classrooms that are adequately equipped with textbooks, supplies, desks, etc. I'm in the process of writing another post about my third grade classroom. When you see the pictures of the classrooms side by side (GWA vs the local school), you will be shocked to read that this local school is only 5 minutes away from GWA.

-Nicole