Our Schools
Character Education
November 2015 - Take a Stand, Lend a Hand
This October, the New Providence School District introduced its district-wide Character Education program, entitled "Take a Stand, Lend a Hand." All schools will focus throughout the year on the common unifying message of students actively helping each other out.
Please find below a summary of the activities that each school used to kick off this new and exciting program.
To view the district's introductory video, please click on the button below. You will need to sign into the district website
Allen W Roberts
AWR kicked off the Week of Respect and the Character Education theme with a surprise assembly to watch the release of the district’s Character Education video. Following the assembly, each class created a poster featuring cut outs of their hands representing how students at AWR can positively contribute throughout the year. The posters were then displayed in the hallway as a constant reminder of how AWR students can “Take a Stand, Lend a Hand.”
To reinforce our Character Education message, AWR participated in “Drop Everything and Teach Character Education” with all students engaged in interactive lessons on how to recognize normal conflict and bullying behaviors, and conflict resolution strategies. Parents received letters about each lesson that was taught at school so they could continue the conversation about what their children learned at home.
Salt Brook
At a surprise assembly, Salt Brook staff and students kicked off this year’s Character Education theme by watching the district’s Character Education video. An interactive discussion followed with Mrs. Drexinger and Mrs. Inzano asking the students if they could think of different things they could do to “Take a Stand, Lend a Hand”.
After the assembly, a “Take a Stand, Lend a Hand” visual was prominently displayed by the courtyard entrance. This will be used throughout the year by each grade level to track the different ways they are helping people in our school, at home, and in our community.
In addition, students in each classroom discussed the different ways they can practice the Character Education theme leading to some students writing letters to other schools in the community, practicing random acts of kindness around the school, and creating classroom visuals to help students keep track of how often they are lending a hand.
Middle School
The Middle School Character Education theme started with a school wide kick-off video followed by the Week of Respect.
Middle school students started with an activity involving writing on paper links about situations in which they feel respected and then linking all the responses together. This created a paper chain that was used to surround the display case under the idea that "Respect is like a Chain Reaction".
The week of respect continued with a variety of fundraising and collection activities pitting the color teams against each other and concluded with a lip sync competition between all the color teams using songs related to respect.
Middle School student service members created a "Keep Calm and Chill Out" banner for Anti-Violence Awareness Week and students distributed ice pops to reinforce the idea of staying "cool" instead of getting angry.
The Red Ribbon Drug and Alcohol Abuse Prevention Week kicked off with the a presentation by the Union County K9 officers and dogs, continued with a National Guard Fly-In on the West Field and ending with the Peer Leaders School Dance.
"Respect is Like a Chain Reaction"
Anti-Violence Week Banner
National Guard Fly-In
High School
The High School community is also focusing on lending a hand to the custodial staff, particularly in the cleaning of the cafeteria.
In addition, the football team hosted a fundraiser entitled, "Pioneers for Lucas." Lucas is a 9 year old from New Providence who has been fighting inoperable brain tumors since he was 2. The New Providence Pioneers wanted to show their support for Lucas's fight by raising funds and dedicating a football game day to him . On one memorable Saturday, Lucas got to be a member of the team for the day, participating in the pregame speech, being on the field with the team, handling the coin toss, etc. The school continued to promote this inspiring cause in the weeks that followed this game.
Sign in to the District's web page for a preview of the Pioneers for Lucas video.
While all of this has been a great kick-off to this year's Character Education theme, the high school community has a lot more exciting events coming in the months ahead.
"Take a Stand, and Lend a Hand!"
Our Schools
Email: webmaster@npsdnj.org
Website: http://www.npsd.k12.nj.us/
Location: 365 Elkwood Avenue, New Providence, NJ, US
Phone: 908 464 9050