Houston

Independent

School District

Student Support Services

4400 W. 18th St.

Houston, TX 77092

Tel: 713-556-7097

Fax: 713-556-6814

DR. MARTHA SALAZAR-

ZAMORA

ASST. SUPERINTENDENT OF

SCHOOL SUPPORT SERVICES

KAREN WASHINGTON

PROGRAM MANAGER

TRACY ELAM

WRITER-TRAINER

FLORA ALLEN

WRITER-TRAINER

DDDEEEBORAHBORAHBORAH JOHNSON

PARENT TRAINER

HARRIET STURGEON

UNIVERSITY TRAINER

MARIA MOLINA

SECRETARY

DECEMBER 2009

Volume 6, Issue 4

Assured reliance on the character, ability, strength, or truth of someone or on something; one in which confidence is placed; a charge or duty imposed in faith or confidence or as a condition of some relationship.

CHARACTER EDUCATION Word of the Month:

BUILD TRUST! Be Trustworthy By Bob Vásquez, Chief Master Sergeant,

US Air Force Academy’s Center for Character Development

Excerpt from

Heirpower! Eight Basic Habits of Exceptionally Powerful Lieutenants

June 2006 (has been edited for length)

Recall, if you will, the first time Dad let you have the keys to the car so that you could go out on a date. Did he give you the “I brought you into this world, and I’ll take you out and make a better one—and it’ll be more fun this time!” talk? In case he didn’t, let me play that role with you now.

Dad: “I’m trusting you with this vehicle that I’ve worked hard to pay for. I’ve sweated countless hours so that the family would have a decent car to travel in. Now, I’m going to trust you to take care of it. I know, however, that sometimes things happen. If something should happen to the car—for instance, if someone runs into you—I expect you to tell me about it. I’d rather you tell me about it than I hear of it from someone else. Don’t ever lie to me. I can deal with an accident happening; it happens to all of us. What I won’t put up with is your lying to me about it. Understand?”

Of course you understand, and you tell him so (although, you didn’t know how to listen back then—consequently, you shut him off eight seconds after he started).

That conversation has do with building trust. Trust is the most important thing you’ll have to develop among your troops if you’re going to be an Exceptionally Powerful Lieutenant. Trust binds people together so they can accomplish whatever mission lies ahead.

Whom do we trust? Wait a minute. Before we get to that, let me ask you to define trust. What comes to mind when I ask you to define that word? I’d bet my huge retirement paycheck that you said something to the effect that “trust is when people are honest” or “it’s when people do what they say they will do.” Am I close? I won’t say that you’re wrong, but let me get back to that issue after I answer the question “Whom do we trust?”

We trust people who are competent, who are confident, who keep us informed, who listen to us, who are considerate (who care), who make themselves available, who are con-sistent, and who are principle-centered. Let me tell you that trust is built from a combina-tion of these eight traits. You can’t build trust by doing only one of them. The more of them you have, the more trust you’ll build.

Remember when I asked you to define the term and you came up with ways others display trust? Here’s the truth. The only way to develop trust is for you to be trustworthy. You have to do those eight things you nodded our head about. You have to be willing to make the effort to be trustworthy. Others don’t develop trust. You do! Do it now!

December 2009 * Page 2

Materials

11th Grade Science (Chemistry) Lesson

Reaction Rates

Unit 5.1

Periodic Table, Sugar, Water, Pen and Chemistry Journal, United Streaming video segment Solubility and internet access.

Suggested website: http://clear.houstonisd.org/clear1.4/horizontalView.do

Chem.4C Investigate matter and identify and analyze properties to classify matter as mixtures or pure substances.

Chem.5A Investigate and analyze changes in matter, determine the nature of the change, and ex-amine the forms of energy involved in the change.

Describe the physical and chemical characteristics of an element using the periodic table and make in-ferences about chemical behavior.

Trust. Through dialogue…student should form their own definitions of trust. Students analyze what it means to trust and individual, response or belief.

What does the term “Blind trust” mean? Is this a good quality to have? What does the term “unwavering trust” meaning? Would you want someone to have that kind of trust in you? Can you trust the outcome (results) of an experiment if you follow all of the steps and procedures exactly?

1. View United Streaming Video on solubility (10 mins.)

2. Teacher engages the student by conducting the experiment of dissolving sugar in water. Teacher asks class what makes sugar dissolves in water. Allow various answers to be given.

3. Student will conduct the following lab experiments utilizing all safety procedure and record the results in their lab notebooks. See http://clear.houstonisd.org/clear1.4/horizontalView.do for a greater variety of experiments.

4. Student conduct experiment attempting to dissolve as much sugar as possible into a 100ml of water using the sugar dissolve rate provide in 5Emodel on www.houstonisd.org

Allow student to elaborate by recording the Effects of temperature on KNO3. Into a journal notebook.

STEP 1: Identify your objective(s)

STEP 2: Real-world experience

STEP 4: Ask a question

STEP 3: Select a core value

STEP 6: Assessment

STEP 5: Select a strategy

December 2009 * Page 3

Ode to Trust

Trust, you will keep for life,

But lying can cut through friendship like a knife.

Trust is good unless a secret is spoken.

If that happens,

Trust is broken.

If trust is kept,

You keep a friend,

And if you do,

Fun’s around the bend.

If you lost trust,

I feel I may bust.

If you don’t believe what I say is true,

Ask my friends.

They trust me, too.

Fourth-grade student at Bel-Air Elementary in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Promising Practices in Character Education, edited by Dr. Phillip Fitch

Vincent

things that are essential to building trust are the following:

1. Trust develops only over time. It requires an investment of time, consistency, and sincerity.

2. Trust requires a measure of toughness. Everyone must have the possibility of achieving the same high standards, and all parties are held accountable for their performance, regardless of their standing in the hierarchy.

3. Trust must be practiced. It takes a lot of skill, practice, and sheer willpower to get it right.

December 2009 * Page 4

(El, MS)

Provide drawing paper, markers, crayons, and magazines to the students. Ask the stu-dents to think about someone they trust and what kind of job or profession that person has. Ask the students to draw a picture or search through magazines to find pictures of a person that depict that person’s profession. Example: Policeman, fireman, doctor, teacher, etc. On the bottom of the sheet, ask the students to complete the following sen-tence stem: “I trust___________ because---:” For middle-school students, have them interview people they trust and ask them what values they think are important in their job. Students are to write a re-port of the interview and attach it to their subject’s picture.

Engender trust in children by doing the following: Model dependability - keep promises, be on time, carry out threats, and follow

through with plans you make unless you have an honest reason for changing them. Choose your words carefully - instead of saying “I promise,” say “We will try” or “We might.”

Demand that children keep promises - help children to be judicious in their prom-ises and follow through on ones they make.

Establish duties that build responsibility - help your children to learn to do the things they have to do before they do what they want to do.

December 2009 * Page 5

Parental Trainer, DeBorah Johnson and Jack Yates High School Pa-rental Partners attended HISD’s annual Parent Involvement Day Cele-

bration on Thursday, November 12, at Northwest Mall.

The Jack Yates High School PTO is just one of many outstanding lights at Yates this year. Shown at the left, the Yates PTO dis-

cusses ways to boost participation and support the students. Dur-ing the past two years, participation has risen approximately 25 %.

Keep up the good work, Jack Yates High School PTO!

**IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT**

Beginning in Spring 2010, Student Support Services will offer the following Character Education Workshops

**Core Curriculum - Character Infusion Process**

**40 Developmental Assets Training**

**Peer Mediation**

Register via e-TRAIN.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS