Seventh grade Fairbanks student Kristin Dellinger is pictured helping her father, middle school head custodian Bill Dellinger, sweep the floors at the school. Kristin chose to help her father as part of her participation in the school’s community service program, which challenges students to help others in the community and learn valuable lessons about character from their work.
(Journal-Tribune photo by Jacob Runnels)
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Fairbanks Middle School (FMS) has a new program that gets students to volunteer in the community.
FMS principal Joey Newell, along with intervention specialist Kristi Payne and language arts teacher Beth Morse, recently created a program that challenges students to perform community service projects. They said the program helps teach valuable traits based on the school’s “six pillars of character,” which involve respect, responsibility, fairness, trustworthiness, caring and citizenship, with an emphasis the final two traits.
“We were trying to get the kids to move from caring and citizenship being just terms to being actions,” Payne said. “We wanted to get them to participate and show those two things.”
Payne and Morse compiled a list of community service projects students could perform, in or out of school.
Participating students had to pick a community service project, take a picture of themselves doing it and write a short essay about the project.
Recently completed projects included putting positive notes on lockers, baking cookies for senior citizens and helping carry food to people’s cars..
Students who participate in the program will earn a reward that involves seeing the movie “Wonder” on Friday. This movie was chosen because it demonstrates the value of caring.
“They didn’t know what the reward was going to be,” Morse said. “I think that’s nice how we’re not putting a carrot in front of them and it’s more intrinsic.”
Payne said the program started during the third grading period at the school and it received a positive reception. Newell said 87 out of the 257 students in the school signed up for the program, and all of the staff are in full support of it.
“This helps (the children) see the needs in the community,” Payne said. “It also helps them… to see all of the volunteer opportunities there are. Union County is rich in volunteer opportunities, and there’s a lot people can do to help others.”
Because of the success the program, Payne and Morse said they will be continuing it for the next grading period, with the idea of bringing all of the pillars of character into focus.
Newell said FMS is “test-piloting” the program which could be a school-wide project in the future.
Newell, Payne and Morse recognized the importance of experience with the program and said it could definitely be used as a positive catalyst for a successful future.
“Our view of the middle school is we want to set these kids up for success once they get out of Fairbanks,” Newell said. “The pillars are planting seeds in the middle school that hopefully get watered in the high school and so on, and we’re making sure those seeds are planted.”
FMS staff members use other methods of teaching the pillars of character to students.
Teachers often weave the pillar characteristics into their lesson plans. Students also receive positive action evaluations, where they show how they have implemented pillars in various ways and their efforts are rewarded.