Junior League & EPACS

I. What is our role?
II. The Five Principles
III. Core Concepts (attitude, action reflection, EEMO)
IV. Roundtables
V. Roundtable Conduct Guidelines
VI. Additional Topics (concern meetings, evaluations)

I. What is our role?
We are the facilitators – not there to solve problems, but to talk. To get the dialogue going: start the thinking process.
JL is the neutral party (i.e. teachers are not neutral) – the outsider.
Our job is to get the kids on the road to growth in realizing their Unique Potential

II. The Five Principles
These 5 principles guide the dialogue of character development.

Unique Potential	Everyone has a unique experience / path. Realization of our personal gifts and talents. Used to be destiny
Conscience	Kids are good people who know right & wrong – need to respect that knowledge and live by what we value. Courage to continually apply ideals. Conscience is the mechanism to achieve truth.
Truth	Responsibility to expect truth from others, not just themselves. Honesty is the process.
Integrity	Correlate between what you believe and how you act.
Team	Working together to achieve Unique Potential.

III. Core Concepts
(1) Action – Reflection, breaking the habit cycle
This is a thinking process meant to break stagnant behavior. Conscious choice allows us to grow towards goals. Roundtables will reflect on “are we in a stagnant cycle?” and how we can get out of it through active reflection.
3 questions designed to help students reflect on habit cycle:

Who am I?

Where am I going with my life?

How will I get there?

(2) Attitude
Behavior is the demonstration or expression of attitude.
3 types of attitude:
Good Attitude: willingness and enjoyment of doing something
Overt Bad Attitude: obvious unwillingness or resentment for doing something
Underground Bad Attitude (the most problematic): Not obvious undermined without technically breaking rules. Usually involves internal objection and does not address their individual responsibility.
* Attitude is different than aptitude / academics.

(3) EEMO scale
This scale is used to personally measure one’s participation in an activity. This is a self-evaluation tool and is used across the school’s coursework. It will be an important component of journaling.

Excellence	Ef	I get it! Going above and beyond to pursue unique potential.
Effort	Ex	I almost get it all of the time. If I have to do this, I might as well do it well.
Motions	M	I don’t understand it, but if I move the body and mind will follow.
Off Track	O	I don’t want to get it.

IV. Round Tables
The round table group is composed of 10-15 students with a volunteer facilitator. It is an intimate circle of peers designed to experiment with the Action-Reflection cycle, learn the Five Principles and about ourselves and good character.
All Roundtables will follow the same format:
* Structure & format are essential
* Use of a “talking stick” can be helpful
* Build a fun and trust-driven atmosphere

Read the Conduct Guidelines	These should be read at the beginning of every session as they will help focus and remind students of their responsibilities. Sets the tone.
Clear the Decks	Always set aside time for this. It is an opportunity to take out hidden agenda’s from meeting. Kids will not often say anything, be OK with the silence.
New Risk / Challenge	Activity. Curriculums will be given at retreat.
Journaling	10-15 minutes where students respond to journal questions.
Reflections / Feedback	Select students or format for sharing (either verbalizing or reading from journal) of individual reflections. Allow for feedback from peers.
Action Steps	When appropriate, list out next steps for individual action.
Closing	Close session on a positive note.

V. Roundtable Conduct Guidelines

1. Confidentiality: everything that is said here, stays here. Sometimes a staff member must break this confidentiality in order to intervene on behalf of a student’s safety.
2. Respect the speaker: no side conversations or distractions. Get honest: we will only grow if we are honest with ourselves and all who are in our lives.
3. Do not respond to feedback except to clarify facts: if the shoe fits, wear it; if not, throw it away.
4. No advising, blaming, defending, explaining or protecting.
5. We each have a personal obligation to make this group work: we will actively participate.

VI. Additional Topics
Concern Meetings: Rare, initiated by student or teacher or leader to help a specific kid who is seriously struggling with something either personal, social, academic or communal. Follows a revised format.
Evaluations: Students will be evaluated by peers every quarter. Teachers and league volunteers will also be evaluated.


Want a copy of these notes? Download this word document: Character Education Training Notes.7.27.03.doc

// posted by Natala @ 6:26 PM

Here are the slides Kim presented at our training. I'll upload my notes to these slides later in the week.
JL.EPACS.Training.7.13.03.ppt

From Jill:
Ideally, EPA Charter would like us to participate in the entire retreat, beginning Tuesday August 12th at 11 am and concluding Wednesday August 13th at approximately 2pm. The retreat will be at the Presentation Center, 19480 Bear Creek Road, Los Gatos (approx 30 miles from Menlo Park). You may log on to their website for additional details: www.prescenter.org The Presentation Center has single and double occupancy rooms to spend the night, and it may be easier than driving back and forth.

If you are unable to attend the whole retreat:

Please be at the retreat on Tuesday August 12th from 1:00 to 5:00 pm. If possible, stay for the night time activities which will last until about 9:30 pm. The evening activities are structured to get real personal with the kids, and to get them to begin opening up to their group. For example, one of the activities they will do is called crossing the line. They will say something like anyone who has an alcoholic in the family cross line; any one who knows someone in the neighborhood who is an alcoholic cross the line, etc. The purpose is to expose their background/vulnerabilities.

Please be at the retreat from 9:00am until approximately 2:00 pm on Wednesday August 13th.

Please confirm your participation so that I can get back to Kim Alvarez. Kim will also be handing out the curriculum for the year at the retreat, and will be available to answer questions.

nick romagnolo, mike berman and i presented to the advocacy on the project and how advocacy could help. the advocacy committee was great! they had a TON of questions and were genuinely interested in learning more about EPACS, charter schools in general and what we would be doing at the school. below are the slides presented.
EPACS Advocacy Presentation.ppt

Meeting Notes.6.26.03 .doc At our meeting we discussed the following topics and made the following decisions. Agreement of Committee Norms:

Starting/ending meeting on time (precede by ½ hour social)

Meetings will be ½ day (1.5 hour meetings) ½ evening (2.5 hours). Evites will be sent for each meeting.

Respect committee members, keep cell phones available or turned off

Create a "parking lot" for off-topic questions (addressed at end of meeting)

Agreed to keep matters confidential to our committee (specifically regarding EPACS students) Committee Goals:

1. Attend assigned sessions
2. Make kids feel listened too
3. Feel personally rewarded
4. Achieve understanding of character development & how achieved
5. Recruit new members & educate the league

How do we define success? As part of the goals discussion we addressed what it meant to define success: Quantitatively: Attending required # of sessions Qualitatively: End of quarter student/teacher feedback and self-eval * Committee members were asked to submit questions for the evaluation during the quarter. Committee Communication

2 week notice for planned missed school session

48 hour e-mail / phone responses (tent) The committee meeting was adjourned precisely at 9:00 p.m.

// posted by Natala @ 11:25 PM