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1. Mission Statement
Sharing ways about "being caring" ... We believe that the
best way to teach caring to children is to be caring. Examples of
the caring ways of teachers will be prominent on our web site. We
will also provide an opportunity for teachers to share lessons caringly
taught.
Appreciate "why" it is important to define caring ... If
we know what caring means to us, then we also know when we are being
caring and when we are not. We hope to help build this enthusiasm
for others.
Share and encourage use of self-help tools ...There are
self-help approaches that can be used singly, in pairs and in small
groups that give us opportunities to read and discuss situations
and approaches that will help us toward enhancing our care giving
skills. Some formats are from organizations long in existence ...
and others are adaptations of articles and books that we feel worthwhile
to present in a "self-help" format.
The importance to write about caring in understandable language
... Another important aspect is to aim our writing in the newsletter
and web site at a level that is not too laden with difficult words
nor is overly simplistic. To this end we will use some visual illustrations
in addition to words alone.
Encourage and join campaigns small and large to spread 'caring
ways' ... We can find ways to come together via the internet
as well as workshops and conferences to mount campaigns - little
and big - to spread the word and build enthusiasm regarding ways
to be and teach caring. This can include posters, slogans, celebrity
spokespersons and more. In this way, we meet fellow teachers who
are already giving much attention to being caring and encourage
involvement of others whose caring spirits are currently less in
use.
We hope to clarify caring in context with other values ...
to what extent is it contained in another value (respect for example)
and to what extent are other values contained in the process of
caring. We believe that this is an area where clarification can
bring more effectiveness.
Appreciate the "universality" of caring and the word "caring."
... We see that there are many processes described to help a
teacher or child be more caring. While each process has important
aspects to it, we believe that the sheer number of these call for
a need to find a common thread, a common word that flows through
each of them. Whether we speak of building tolerance, violence reduction,
random acts of kindness, emotional intelligence, social and emotional
learning, character education ... to name just a few ... we believe
that they all contain caring approaches and caring goals. Finding
and making this connection more often can be useful.
Wanting to care ... How do we build the motivation to be caring.
Once we know what caring is and realize that it is worthwhile ...
we can then seek ways to help ourselves and our students become
more desirous to act caringly in a spontaneous way. We believe that
an important element in this involves the reciprocity that occurs
in caring ... not only the carer receiving the cared for ... but
the cared for - the student responding and giving something back
to the carer - the teacher. This is a big area that we look forward
to having much sharing on.
Who we serve ... As the second part of our newsletter title
says " ... for teachers and those we relate to." We also believe
that there are "ways" of being and believing that may differ with
different individuals. We hope not to offend any person. If any
visitor to our website is concerned about expressions in any of
our updates, please share this with us.
Our involvement ... We appreciate the opportunity to share
our views and help you to share information and your views with
one another. We try to not be commercial in what we do. We have
had the opportunity to receive books and some free registrations
at workshops and conferences. We receive these appreciatively and
aim to pass on our impressions and learnings to you.
Regarding conflict resolution and behavior management ...
The aim of our website is to concentrate more on how we can provide
a caring environment and caring approaches. In doing this, the need
for dealing with difficulties is lessened. While we will present
writings and discussions in these areas, it is not a primary focus
of what we will provide.
We will explore many aspects of expressing and learning caring
... This will include such areas as the arts, deeper connections,
words from children, sadness and joy, letters, prose ... and more.
We look forward to learning some of your suggestions.
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