A Character Education Project Created By Pam Lowe

      We can change the world,  you and I,  one good deed at a time.   One by one,  we can change the way people think and behave making the world a better place.  We are going to begin with ourselves and our classroom.

Task

      Your task is to try to change a small part of the world around you for the better.   You will set out to prove that one person can make a difference in many lives.  You and your peers will listen, share, explore, and reflect on your experiences.  You will cultivate knowledge for purposeful living.  You and your classmates will learn through resources, writing, participation in the project and throughout the existing school character education curriculum the benefits and consequences of behavior.  You will learn the power of choice.  You will learn to appreciate the qualities of being human and to share your appreciation and knowledge at home, in school, and in your community. 
 
 

Process

       The concept of One By One is simple and one that we will be working on all year.   The concept is this:

                     Step 1.  Each Monday we will sit down and write out a plan.  A plan to help make the world a better place.  We will sit down and think about someone that we can help in some way during the week.  The Resources or links below provide some inspiration for your weekly plan.   We will put our plan into writing in our One By One Journal.  The plan will include the steps we will take to carry out our plan.

                 Step 2.  Perform the good deed for another person.

Rules For The Good Deed:

                    a.   The assignment includes the fact that the good deed we do must be one that we think of and not one that has been asked to be done.

                    b.   If or when the person thanks you for the good deed ask them to do a good deed for someone else.

                    c.   Then ask that person to report back to you about the good deed they did for someone else.  The idea is to get a chain of good deeds.

                        Step 4.   For a visual representation we will also create a paper chain of the people we have helped so that we may see the total effect of our behavior.  We will label our first strip with our name and then on  Friday  add a link to our paper chain of the person we helped that week.  For a fuller explanation click on the link below.

                              Step 5.   Every Friday we will share our experiences with each other.  We will discuss what we learned and the results of our efforts to make our world a better place in which to live.

          The evaluation of each child's progress in this project comes through the teacher observations of the journal writings, each month's paper chain progress, monitering students discussions about their results and feelings,  plus watching the personal growth of each student as they embark on this journey involving human nature.  Students will be evaluating themselves as well as they write in their   journals, observe their paper chains and listen and share ideas about their projects with their classmates.

              Each one of us should strive to be the best person that we can be.  There are small things that each one of us could do as human beings to help those around us.  Every time you do a good deed for someone else, you not only help someone, you grow as a person as well.  This project was made to inspire you to do great things and to realize that every person affects many lives.  Make the things that you do affect others in a positive way.  The possibilities with this project are endless and can affect many people including yourself.  How exciting that you are about to begin a project that will change the way you think and behave as well the people around us!