Character, Leadership & SEL Solutions for Secondary Schools – Hudson, MA

We are having lots of meaningful conversations and the kids love the movie excerpts.  Those are a great opportunity to transfer ideas and messages to our “real world” lives. Thanks for your continued support and encouragement!

The kids coming into JDC typically have very stressed and impoverished family backgrounds and are either starved for your attention or try to keep you as far away from knowing them as possible. What I enjoy about the lesson activities and lecture topics are the open ended discussion questions and the hypothetical scenarios that allow for the students to have a voice and share their opinion without judgment. They LOVE to be asked what they think or to be asked to create an argument for or against a topic. This promotes WILLING student involvement which is a slice of heaven. In addition, many of the topics within the curriculum hit very close to home for our students, i.e. discussing self-control, loyalty, duty, and tolerance. Often times the discussion stemming from the activity or topic takes us down a really interesting road of healthy debating, the sharing of new perspectives, and story telling which is very healthy for these students. I am enjoying this curriculum and feel that most weekly topics can be adapted to fit a variety of student cultures and populations.

I have been an educator for 30 years and I can honestly say this year teaching with your curriculum has been my favorite. I teach 2 sections of Leadership (wish it was more) and feel that in one year we have made a difference in the culture of our school. My principal told me she could see the difference it has made in our school. Kids are more polite, respectful, and quick to offer of help when they see someone in need. It is being noticed by our administration and my fellow teachers. One student who was struggling at the beginning of the year came to me on the last day of school and said, “I just want to let you know that your class changed me. I am a different person…thank you.”I want to thank you so much for this curriculum and I am looking forward to even bigger and better experiences next year.

The Character Development and Leadership Curriculum is phenomenal. The program is beneficial because the material ties into what the kids are going thru – from their community to the classroom. I have to say my favorite component is the weekly ethical dilemmas. The dilemmas allow the kids to dig deep and really think about making the right decisions. The fact that each kid must stand up and present to the class, builds confidence. Being a new employee and fresh out of College, I feel very lucky to be able to use this material.

My name is Janelle Odinga and I am a secondary education major at Michigan State University. I first became familiar with your program while volunteering at an alternative high school in Lansing last year. Since then, I’ve done a lot of reading about it and I am amazed. I just wanted to drop you a quick line and let you know how excited I am to share this program with other people. Thank you for addressing some of the most critical issues that are facing young students today. I can’t wait to have this in my own classroom.

I am no longer teaching the class.  I have moved into administration at a local middle school.  Tyler is going to be taking over the leadership class at Broome.  I have thoroughly enjoyed teaching the course and have made many memories that will last a lifetime!  Former students still contact me telling me it was the best class they ever took that prepared them for “life”!Thank you again for all you have done and are doing to reach our young people!

The class went very well— it ended up only being a 9 week class– the kids enjoyed the lessons and particularly enjoyed the readings— which was very surprising to me!! The curriculum is great!!!

With this book Joe Hoedel continues his mission to reinvigorate character in today’s youth. This is an excellent follow up to his Character Education and Leadership course. An interesting read that captures the essence of Character with role models our youth can identify with and emulate.

We are having a great time teaching the class and the kids think it is the best class they have.