Learning From Mistakes Doesn't Happen Until 12

I received this summary of an article this afternoon, and thought it was an interesting study on how students react to the different kinds of feedback.


Study: Younger children learn best from positive feedbackBefore they reach adolescence, children aren't really capable of learning from their mistakes, according to a new Dutch study published in The Journal of Neuroscience. The brains of adults and 12- and 13-year-olds are more strongly activated by negative feedback, but the brains of eight- and nine-year-olds barely registered it and instead were triggered much more strongly by positive feedback. ScienceDaily (9/25)

Parents' Night Comments on Honor

Below are my comments for Middle School Parents' Night:

My name is David Skeen. This is my second year as Dean of Students at Calvert, and I am really excited about the prospects for the 2008-2009 school year.

Ethic development is an integral part of any middle school student’s education and Calvert continues to dedicate significant time and resources to the creation and refinement of a program for moral development. As a school, Calvert has taken major steps towards this goal in three areas: Calvert’s Canon, the schedule, and the Dean’s Office.

Calvert’s Canon:

Mission: our mission statement breaks down three main goals: that our students will master academic skills, love learning, and have developed a strong moral character.
Philosophy: the closing paragraph of our school philosophy speaks exclusively to the moral development of the student.
Faculty & Administrative Perspective: during numerous faculty reflection meetings a Portrait of the Calvert Graduate was developed and one-third of the attributes discussed were character based.

Schedule:

Outreach: we have set aside time in our schedule for community outreach.
Advisory: has monthly themes for character development.
Assemblies: Monday assemblies include a reading on ethics.

Dean’s Office:

Teachable Moments and Black & Gold Point System
Student Activities and Ethics Curriculum Integration
Honor Code: Selfless Servants, Moral Courage, and Commitment

The Honor Code is the latest step towards an identifiable set of ideas that shape our students’ understanding of Honor at Calvert and in the world at large. Many of you may have noticed the additions to the hallways in the middle school. Running across the beams of each grade level quad are the three main ideas of our Honor Code: Selfless Servants, Moral Courage, and Commitment.

We want our students to see these phrases (all three can be seen at once when one stands in the center of the lobbies) and take it as a challenge -- a challenge to live up to and exceed the expectations of the Honor Code each and every day. The presence of the phrases is a physical reminder that Honor is everywhere – you don’t leave it at the classroom door, you take it with you wherever you go.

As a school we have begun a continuing conversation about what these three phrases mean to us - as a community, as constituencies, and as individuals. We want you to be a part of the conversation as well. Over the last few weeks, your child’s advisor discussed the Honor Code with the students. Their next step is to sit down and discuss the Honor Code with you. Please take this time to take part in the school wide conversation on the Honor Code. You can check out the Honor Code at my blog: http://www.deanskeen.blogspot.com/ and log your comments about it’s role at Calvert.

Thank you for coming tonight and I hope to be hearing from all of you on my blog soon.

NY Times Article on "Facebook" relationships

Thanks to David Portnoy, High School Principal at Beth Tfiloh, for sending this intriguing article along. This is a great insight into the relationship ramifications of "life-status" social websites like Facebook, Twitter, and others. It is lengthy, but valuable in its outlook. Just click on the NYTimes link below or in Understanding Generation Y on the left hand side of this blog.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/07/magazine/07awareness-t.html?scp=1&sq=September%205%20-%20Totally,%20digitally%20close%20to%20you&st=cse

I'm So Totally, Digitally Close to You.

By Clive Thompson, The New York Times

Character Website

I came across this website today while searching for some insight on the developmental stages of moral character of our students. The website below, from SUNY Cortland, has some great resources, especially the articles they have collected. One in particular, provided a nice synopsis of the moral stages of development: http://www.character-education.info/Articles/stages_of_moral_development.htm

I recommend taking some time to explore the website as a whole. You can access it below and under Honor on the left hand side of the blog.

Center for the 4th and 5th Rs:

http://www.cortland.edu/character/default.asp

Honor Goals

A Fifth grade teacher brought me the journal entry below. The students were asked to write about their goals for the year. One of her students wrote the passage below:

"My goal is to live up to the honor code. The way I am going to get there is to get nicer everyday, one step at a time. To demonstrate commitment I will recycle, go on fundraiser tasks, and to do community service. To show selflessness I will help people with books, laptops, and lockers. Finally, I will show moral courage by standing up for people who are getting picked on and abused. I believe I can do it."

Monday Ponderance 9/15/2008

This reflection is from Michael Josephson's Character Counts website:



July 14, 2008

Benny: The Man on the Bus 575.2

This is a parable about leadership.

A teacher assigned her 12th graders an essay about a leader they admired. Most kids wrote about famous people, but one student turned in this:

Benny: The Man on the Bus

I’ve been taking a public bus to school for years. Most passengers go to work and never talk to anyone else.

About a year ago, an elderly man got on the bus and said loudly to the driver, “Good morning!” Most people looked up annoyed, and the bus driver just grunted.

The next day the man got on at the same stop and again said loudly, “Good morning!” to the driver.

On the fifth day, the driver greeted the man first with a cheerful “Good morning!” and Benny replied loudly, “My name’s Benny. What’s yours?” The driver said his name was Ralph.

That was the first time any of us had heard the driver’s name. Soon all the passengers began talking to each other and saying hello to Ralph and Benny.

After a month, Benny extended his cheerful greeting to the whole bus. Within a few days, his “Good morning!” was returned by a whole bunch of “Good mornings.” The entire bus seemed friendlier. If a leader is someone who makes something happen, Benny was our leader in friendliness.

A month ago, Benny didn’t get on the bus. Some of us thought he had died. No one knew what to do. The bus got quiet again.

So I started to act like Benny by saying “Good morning!” to everyone, and they cheered up again. I guess I’m now the leader.

This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.