Good morning. Before we present our student highlight, I’d like to announce the winners of the poster contest from last month. All students who participated will receive Block H points for the posters they contributed. The following are our grade level winners who will each receive a $10 iTune certificate:
6th grade: Caitlin Hilligoss
7th grade: (we had 2 winners) Hannah Schneider and Alyssa Westfield
8th grade: Emily Doherty
These posters will be displayed in the library, and our winners can pick up their certificates from me in the office. Congratulations and thanks to all who participated.
Now, our student highlight. Today we’ll hear about three 8th graders who were nominated by Hillview teachers.
Our first star, nominated by Ms. Payton was Esmeralda Garcia; Mr. Doroquez nominated Abby Thornberg, and the student Ms. Keller spoke so highly of was Kei Masuda. Congratulations to all three of you. Your friends, Iza Moya, Analise Holh, and Greg Owen think you’re incredible friends as well.
Now on to today’s lesson. It’s an important one and a cornerstone to good character for adults as well as students. Let’s hear what two 7th graders have to say:
Being responsible is incredibly important. In sports, in schoolwork, and in relationships. It implies dependability and reliability. It means people can count on you. You might have bad days, you might make mistakes, but you won’t purposefully or carelessly let others down. You’ll show up, even when you don’t feel like it, or when you’d rather be doing something else.
In school, it means you’ll be punctual and you’ll honor your commitments. It helps to be organized; to keep notes, mark due dates, and keep to-do lists. If you blow it, be honest about it, admit it, and then make a commitment to try to do better.
In addition to personal responsibilities, we all also have moral responsibilities, legal responsibilities, family responsibilities as well as responsibilities to our community, our traditions and our cultural beliefs. I asked some students and teachers what they thought their most important responsibility in life is….Take a minute to think about how you might answer that question….
Slide: What do you think is YOUR most important responsibility in life?
So people have different ideas, you may have come up with something completely different, but everything that was mentioned is incredibly important….Now let’s take a look at what the co-creator of Spiderman, Stan Lee, has to say about this topic:
Video
“If you know the right thing to do, you have the obligation to do it….”
How often do we all “look the other way, and think, I don’t want to get involved?
When we know that a car has been keyed
Or the bathroom gets thrashed
Or the school’s been egged, TP’ed, or paintballed
Or a classmate has cheated on a test or surfed inappropriate websites….
Stan Lee says that even without super powers, we often have opportunities to do the right thing, AND, even though it’s not always easy, we have a responsibility to do it.
Remember, your character is defined by what you say, and how you act; even when noone is watching!
Activity
Trivia Contest
Teachers: Please do not give out these questions until AFTER the lesson concludes!
And
No help from you!
1) Ms. Devoto lists several different kinds of responsibility. What are they:
2) Where will the posters from the poster contest be displayed?
3) The student highlight section was filmed in Ms. Devoto’s office. Who was the artist of the picture behind the teachers’ heads?
4) In introducing the Stan Lee video clip, Ms. Devoto made a mistake. What was it?
5) Who did Spiderman have the opportunity to save, and didn’t?
6) Why is it not always easy to be responsible?
7) What are some strategies for being responsible in school?
TIE BREAKERS:
There are five Hillview staff members who were also students at Hillview. Who are they?
Which one was in Ms. Devoto’s 5th grade class?
Your character is defined by what you say, and how you act,
Even when no one is watching.
