Shelley Bartolotti

“The Character Lab will provide resources to be used for future activities focused around the key virtues Kindness, Growth Mindset, Respect, Responsibility, Courage, Empathy, Mindfulness, and Upstander. The character lab was created from existing evidence-based practices. Honesty Through our Character Lab virtues teaching we will promote our Green Team initiative. Materials provided in this grant will support our school's green teams; which promote a deep connection with nature. SEL books for teachers; which will offer peer educator support and multiple copies of books for SEL. The character lab and green teams are designed around student outcomes and are student-led with a mentor staff member. In addition, our Character Lab will focus on specific virtues and apply them in our personal lives, family lives, and as contributing members of our community. Community Projects (Environment Awareness/Earth Day), schoolwide initiatives such as our Green Team, The Positivity Project, Empatico Virtual Learning Opportunities, and even our Mentoring Program revolve around SEL. Our school environment is one where we weave SEL throughout our classroom lessons in ELA, social studies, and science. Opportunities to write on SEL topics in ELA, work on novel engineering projects where we solve a community problem through our invention, and discuss how peaceful methods have solved issues throughout history will be an ongoing connection to our Character Lab impact goals.”