Congratulations, South Milwaukee!
From the South Milwaukee School District …
The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s School of Education (SOE) in partnership with the Wisconsin Character Education Partnership (WCEP) is pleased to announce the Wisconsin schools recognized in 2019 for their personal, creative successful initiatives integrating character education into the curriculum. SOE understands the value of WCEP’s mission to promote the intentional, proactive effort by public and private K-12 schools and school districts to instill in all Wisconsin’s students, core universal ethical values such as integrity, honesty, fairness, responsibility and respect for themselves and for others. Character education enables these accomplishments.
Six schools win awards: one for becoming a National School of Character (NSOC) and five for Promising Practices as State Schools of Character.
Wisconsin schools participating in Character Education (CE) annually promote and succeed in doing something adults often fear to attempt-make the world a better place. CE is not a program; rather CE is a practice amongst the entire school community. The purpose of the practice is to improve the emotional, caring environment necessary for terrific academic achievement and opportunities to exercise becoming good citizens as the students grow up. Dedicated teachers, staff, eager students and their caring families purposefully team up to improve their worlds in all categories.
Yearly, some schools arrive at exceptional ideas. They are recognized statewide as Promising Practice Winners. A statewide panel judges each school’s idea to be so successful they deserves to be shared with others. The schools’ innovative practices exemplify the following basic principles that Schools of Character adhere to.
Those principles promoting core ethical and performance values as the foundation are from Character.Org Eleven Principles of Effective Character Education:
- Define “character” comprehensively to include thinking, feeling and doing.
- Use a comprehensive, intentional and proactive approach to character development.
- Create a caring community.
- Provide students with opportunities for moral action.
- Offer a meaningful and challenging academic curriculum that respects all learners, develops their character and helps them to succeed.
- Foster students’ self-motivation.
- Have an ethical learning community that shares responsibility for character education and adheres to the same core values that guide the students.
- Foster shared leadership and long-range support of the character education initiative.
- Engage families and community members as partners in the character-building effort.
- Assess school culture and climate, the functioning of its staff as character educators, and the extent to which its students manifest good character.
Here’s how winning schools around the state responded this year.
SOE congratulates the following schools for their achievements.
National School of Character Category
South Milwaukee High School Veteran’s Day Program
Students work all year for this special day for veterans including a reception and gifts for veterans using fund raiser money. The program has grown from 75 students to well over 200 students and the recent Veterans Day program honored 100 veterans.
They will be honored at the Character Education Conference held at Alverno College on June 19-20, 2019.
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