Teaching

Integrity Quotes that Teach Kids the Importance of Character | Roots of Action

Integrity Quotes That Teach Kids the Importance of Character

Integrity quotes help children recognize that standing for what they believe is important for achieving a meaningful life. Integrity is the ability to act in ways that are consistent with the values, beliefs, and moral principles we claim to hold. It’s about doing the right thing, even when no one […]

Integrity
Quotes About Curiosity to Inspire Kid's Life-Long Learning | Roots of Action

Quotes About Curiosity That Inspire Kids’ Life-Long Learning

What if some of the best quotes about curiosity could stimulate children’s thinking about themselves and how they learn? Like a well-written poem or song, an inspiring quote can spark self-reflection and action! Curiosity is the ability to seek and acquire new knowledge, skills, and ways of understanding the world. […]

Curiosity
Young boy shows compassion for his dog with a big kiss

How to Instill Compassion in Children

How do children learn to care? How do adults instill compassion so children feel connected to their communities and know they can make a difference in the world? The answer isn’t as complex as it might seem. Like many college students who became committed to social and environmental causes, Danielle talked about […]

Empathy
Academic Integrity in the Classroom

Academic Integrity is Essential to Learning

Most educators agree that academic integrity plays an essential role in learning. Will artificial intelligence (AI) destroy or facilitate academic integrity? How do teachers create a classroom culture of integrity, despite fears that AI and programs like ChatGPT (“Generative Pretrained Transformer”) can encourage plagiarism and dishonesty? While we do not […]

Integrity
Teach students to achieve goals

Teach Students to Achieve Goals

Understanding how students achieve goals is critical knowledge for today’s teachers. This involves more than simply imparting information about goal setting. It’s about fostering skills in planning, organizing, decision-making, and problem-solving. These skills are foundational for developing resourcefulness in students, the ability to use available resources to achieve goals and […]

Resourcefulness
skeptic teenager

Skeptic or Cynic? How to Model Positive Skepticism to Children

Skeptics has been given a bad rap in modern society. Why? Because skepticism is often confused with cynicism. Let’s explore the distinctions and why it’s important to teach children the art of becoming a skeptic. A cynic distrusts most information they see or hear, particularly when it challenges their own […]

Curiosity

Family Engagement: A Two-Way Partnership

I’ve been an advocate for family engagement in education for many years. But throughout those years, one of the most challenging tasks has been to define this two-way partnership. What is it that parents and teachers need to understand about working together? And why is this partnering so important to […]

Compass-Inspired
Caring children

New Strategies to Grow Caring Children & Compassionate Citizens

Do you describe your sons, daughters, or students as caring children? In today’s divided political climate, does it matter if children and teens find meaningful ways to connect with and care about others who are different from themselves? The importance of educating and raising caring children was brought to national […]

Empathy
Tackling poverty through service-learning

Service-Learning Fosters Lifelong Development

When I was a teenager, we didn’t have a term for service-learning. There were opportunities to volunteer in our communities but not many people thought about the lifelong value of such experiences. As I reflect on my early volunteer experiences, I know for certain that my life was changed as […]

Empathy

Building Resilience in Your K-12 Classroom

Over 100 years ago, the great African American educator Booker T. Washington spoke about building resilience: “I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles overcome while trying to succeed.” Research has since established […]

Resilience