Character Curriculum Modification Woes!

I’ve been struggling with modifying a behavioral curriculum. As a part of the work I do with Restorative Practices we have chosen to implement the 2nd Step Character Curriculum. We tried it 2 years ago and it was met with mixed reviews by teachers and students. At the time I had hopped into a teaching role due to my 8th grade Science teacher no longer being employed. As a result I got to experience the 2nd Step Character Curriculum first hand as an executioner. I’ll admit the materials were rather clunky and didn’t function well in the moment. I say this because it was a scripted program that had several pages of text along with corresponding videos. However, even after thoroughly reading the lessons I found myself constantly highlight what to say as there was so much extraneous information on the page and struggling to find videos because they weren't numbered. I felt married to the page and the overall interaction felt inauthentic. In addition many student complained that the videos were not real as none of the students looked like them.
Due to this we decided to revamp the curriculum, by combining all of the clunky materials into simplified PowerPoint presentations with embedded videos. To do so I need to review the curriculum 4th-8th grade, create scope and sequences for 5th-7th grade, modify curriculum for 5th-7th grade, and make PowerPoints for teachers to execute lessons from. One issue I’ve had in accomplishing this is setting aside the time. As a leader this summer has been so hectic. We had someone quit at the end of the year, which resulted in us having 6 positions to fill. Not to mention having to find a long term substitute teacher for two long-term maternity leaves. In addition, my principal is out on paternity leave and my leadership team and I have successfully on-boarded 40+ staff members in his absence. To say the least time has been limited. One idea we have in regards to the videos is having our Theater Teacher work with students to re-shoot videos and create more authentic representations of scenarios. By doing so the teacher develops a new skill, while students practice character skills through video-taped acting sessions.

Another issue I’ve had is working with the 2nd Step Character CD-Rom itself and accessing the videos. Since they’re so poorly organized I thought it best to embed them in PowerPoints with pre-made lessons. However, due to the nature of the CD, the videos cannot be easily transported. I reached out to our technology specialist who is currently converting 200+ videos to a flash-drive. This will help me to easily insert them into PowerPoints thus allowing teachers to efficiently and effectively execute lessons without having to fumble through the CD. The gain is great, but it’s created a delay as I wait on the tech-specialist and the curriculum is slated to start in two weeks. My plan is to do as much as I can for now and embed the videos as I receive them. I also plan to start allotting daily time in my calendar to plan the curriculum as this seems to be the only way to get it done.

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