Ways to Use Character Education in Your Classroom

The improvement of a child’s character is a difficult task. Without any doubt, this is the core value of the education systems around the globe. However, teachers often make a common mistake. They would rather give that task to parents and allow them to develop their child’s mentality and character in a way that will ensure them a happy life. Yet, not accepting that responsibility is a huge mistake!

In most schools around the globe, there are common pillars of character education. Some of them are

• Responsibility
• Fairness
• Caring
• Citizenship
• Respect, and
• Trustworthiness.

After reading the list above, you can easily conclude the task you have is way heavier than you might think. Because of that, we would like to highlight a couple of ways you can implement character education in your classroom. Applying the pieces of advice below will help you be a step closer to your goal. Let’s find them out together!

You Need to Be a Role Model

You can try out to give tips to your students every single day. However, the motto “Acta non Verba” or “action, not words” is something you need to implement in your classroom. More precisely, you need to be the role model that students will follow!

Without any doubt, ethical behavior is something that all teachers need to have. Yet, it is crucial that you get out of the box and add those tiny things that your students will easily notice whenever they talk or interact with you.

Let’s use an example to make things clear. Every single day, you will probably advise your little learners to say “thank you” and “please”. However, do you say these two phrases often in the classroom? The best way to teach them to do that is to act the same way. Whenever you want to give them tasks, say something “could you do that, please”. Your lessons will be more powerful that way.

Teachers often do not want to show their weaknesses in front of the kids. Instead of that, they would want to be some sort of authority (this is not necessarily bad). However, it is completely okay to confess that you sometimes make mistakes as well. In that way, you will actually show kids how they should act whenever they do something wrong.

Some Rules and Standards Need to Exist Inside the Classroom

Some teachers avoid setting up strict rules and standards inside the classroom as they feel bad for doing that. The purpose of rules, standards, and routines is not to control kids. On the contrary, you should use them as a useful tool for character education improvement.

However, if you want to reach your goal, the rules need to be completely fair. That is the reason why you should think of rewards for the students that are following them as well as consequences in case they do not do that.

Define the Reward System

Are you looking for a way to motivate students? Well, here comes the moment when you should make a mix of the previous two tips. You also need to respect those standards, admit when you break the rules and experience the consequences that are equal for everyone.

On the other hand, the reward system is something you need to define clearly. One of the options that you have is to create some kind of “treasure” or “reward” box that kids can use whenever they display certain positive attributes. You can even make some sort of point system and make character education look like a competition. When the kid collects 40 or 50 points, he or she can choose the reward they can find in a box.

However, there is one thing you need to be aware of! The items they can get when they collect the points must not be too expensive. These rewards are just a strong motivation that will inspire a young adult to act nice.

Role-Play Games Can Also Be Entertaining

Character education must not be monotonous. Kids will primarily consider it annoying, and, over time, they will even start to neglect the tips you provide them with. More precisely, annoying methods of character education can be counterproductive. Because of that, try to add as much entertainment as you can.

One of the ways you can do that is by organizing role-play games. You can think of some real-life scenarios where every student has a role. Give them a task that they should express some of the character traits that we mentioned at the beginning of this article. The dialogues should not be strict. Instead of that, you should give options to students to choose what they will say. For instance, you can give them an option to choose between three different sentences as a response. If they choose the right answer, reward them; if not, highlight their response as a wrong thing.

Cartoons/Movies Can Be Effective

Someone already made a plan of how kids can improve their character education. The question is – why do you not use them?

There is no reason to talk about scientific studies and explanations. You know that kids sometimes do not even hear you or notice that you are there when they are watching their favorite cartoon. Cartoons grab children’s attention, so you should use them to teach them something valuable. Try to use their focus to teach them the traits of character education. This way, they will consider it entertaining.

Final Thought

Your duty, as a teacher, is to do two different things. The most important thing is to be the person that you want your students to become one day. Despite that, your task is to think of the most creative and entertaining way to improve their character. Hopefully, the pieces of advice from the above will help you reach your goal.