One of the reasons Phantom Lake was interested in learning about how to incorporate the virtues into our school culture was to support student behavior. This year, we have seen a decrease in office referrals, which is, we believe, a positive outcome of teaching the virtues to students. Now, even if children do need to come to the office to discuss inappropriate behavior, we are now able to use the language of virtues to help the students identify the virtue that was missing from their actions and what they can do differently do demonstrate the virtue in the future.
-Tracy Maury, Principal, Phantom Lake Elem., Bellevue, WA
This is the first time in all of my teaching that I can see the impact of what I'm teaching right now!
-Pat Hannam, Health & Family Life teacher, Lakes H.S., Lakewood, WA
Betsy Lydle Smith engaged every adult in the discussion, helping them identify and "own" their virtues. This personal approach allowed for deep reflection and transfer of knowledge to help individuals focus on our students. Our teachers have remembered and applied the skills learned in the Virtues training.
-Jill McLeod, Principal, Phantom Lake Elem., Bellevue, WA
-Tracy Maury, Principal, Phantom Lake Elem., Bellevue, WA
This is the first time in all of my teaching that I can see the impact of what I'm teaching right now!
-Pat Hannam, Health & Family Life teacher, Lakes H.S., Lakewood, WA
Betsy Lydle Smith engaged every adult in the discussion, helping them identify and "own" their virtues. This personal approach allowed for deep reflection and transfer of knowledge to help individuals focus on our students. Our teachers have remembered and applied the skills learned in the Virtues training.
-Jill McLeod, Principal, Phantom Lake Elem., Bellevue, WA
Incorporating The Virtues Project™ into our school is absolutely seamless. We have incorporated it into our regular curriculum, our class and school rules, and our student and teacher interactions. Our students and staff have become more considerate, tolerant, and in integrity in the four years we have used this program.
- Betsy Hill, former Principal, Medina Elem. School, Medina, WA
The Virtues presentation was the most valuable part of this year's conference. I'm using this in my troop immediately. I will implement it into my trainings.
-Trainer, Girl Scouts-Totem Council, Seattle, WA
I will use friendliness now. I never talk to anyone at school; I usually sit by myself, but now I will make an effort to talk to others. I know I have this virtue of friendliness.
-High school student, YMCA Connections Conference, Everett, WA
- Betsy Hill, former Principal, Medina Elem. School, Medina, WA
The Virtues presentation was the most valuable part of this year's conference. I'm using this in my troop immediately. I will implement it into my trainings.
-Trainer, Girl Scouts-Totem Council, Seattle, WA
I will use friendliness now. I never talk to anyone at school; I usually sit by myself, but now I will make an effort to talk to others. I know I have this virtue of friendliness.
-High school student, YMCA Connections Conference, Everett, WA
From a fourth-grade teacher's perspective, the Virtues Program has been a great asset to our classroom this year. Knowledge of the virtues vocabulary has enabled my students to develop an awareness of personality qualities that they'd like to have. We've also used virtues in our writing; they've been helpful in describing some of the characters we read about in literature, and they've also been helpful when we've written about friends in our classroom.
-Kay Lynn Odle-Moore, Grade 4 @ Tok School, AK
-Kay Lynn Odle-Moore, Grade 4 @ Tok School, AK