Technology Coaches Win National Award

Bright School Wins National Character Education Award

BRIGHT SCHOOL RECOGNIZED FOR ‘PROMISING PRACTICE’ 
IN CHARACTER EDUCATION   

Character Education Partnership selects winners to be honored in October

Washington, DC – Over 130 schools and districts from around the United States as well as from Canada and Mexico will receive 153 awards for “Promising Practices” in character education. Bright School will receive an award for the “Bright School Technology Coaches” program.

The Character Education Partnership (CEP) gives the annual awards for unique and specific exemplary practices that encourage the ethical, social, and academic growth of K–12 students through character education. By publicizing these awards, CEP hopes to recognize educators for their efforts and to encourage others to learn from and even replicate these successful initiatives.   

Winning practices included creative ways to engage parents and community members, encourage student voice and leadership, and offer students opportunities to serve others. “These educators have found exciting new ways to help and encourage all members of their school communities to be more involved and more caring,” stated Lara Maupin, program coordinator. “The results are kids that feel connected and are therefore more ready and able to learn.”

The “Bright Technology Coaches” were a group of fourth and fifth grade students with affinities for technology and a desire to participate in community service.  The student coaches traveled two times to Dalton, Georgia, to offer email and computer instruction to senior citizens.  The Dalton-Whitfield Senior Center and the Northwest Georgia Regional Library were the school’s partners in the project.

“This award is truly gratifying because it recognizes the service of young people sharing their unique skills with an older generation in dire need of those skills,” said O.J. Morgan, Bright’s Head of School. “Their work is a perfect example of the school’s mission to graduate wise and compassionate citizens of the world.”

The Bright School will receive its award at the 15th Annual National Forum on Character Education to be held October 17-19, 2008, in Arlington, Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C. In addition, all winning practices will be featured in CEP’s annual National Schools of Character publication and on the CEP Web site.

In May, the “Technology Coaches” program also received recognition winning an Incline Award in the Community Relations category in a competition sponsored by the Lookout Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America.

The Promising Practices awards program is administered by CEP and made possible by generous support from the John Templeton Foundation, the UAW-GM Center for Human Resources, Enterprise Rent-A-Car Foundation, and Lockheed Martin. Based in Washington, D.C., CEP is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, nonsectarian coalition of organizations and individuals dedicated to helping schools develop people of good character for a just and compassionate society. To learn more about CEP and its national awards programs, visit www.character.org.