Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Presenting Character to Faculty and Staff

I've had several people e-mail me for help preparing a talk to either their own faculty or for a district seminar. Here are a few ideas:

1. I spoke recently at a conference for literature teachers. If it's not exactly what you're looking for, you might find several parts of it useful. It also comes with a handout and Power Point presentation.

http://character-education.info/Articles/Teaching_Literature_to_Change_Lives_.htm

2. Here is a list of motivational quotes concerning character which may be useful for your presentation.

http://character-education.info/Articles/Motivational-Character-Quotes.htm

3. Two suggestions people gave me after the presentation were that a) I use more visuals and b) that I actually give an example lesson plan. Teaching at the St. Louis Character conference, I gave a demonstration with the last point of my sample lesson at

http://character-education.info/resources/lesson_plans_example_lesson.htm

I presented the last point about Tom Cruise (from the bold "Endurance" forward). While I was talking about his early life, I showed the video clip of Cruise free climbing the cliff toward the beginning of Mission Impossible II. The clip showed the cool, successful Cruise. My story showed the painful struggles he endured to get there.

Another possibility for a demonstration would be to hand out (or use as a PowerPoint or overhead) the "Success or Failure?" quiz in that same lesson, using the discussion following that quiz to make the impact.

4. I spoke in St. Louis on "The Power of People Stories." If you want to speak on that topic, here's my presentation:

http://character-education.info/Articles/PeopleStories.htm

Let me know how I can help you further!