Galt Elementary schools teach with Heart, Head, Hands

Vice Principal Kathy Pettibone talks about the Heart Head Hands program being implemented in Galt-area schools. The program strives to build students' character. (Jennifer M. Howell/News-Sentinel)

Galt Elementary schools teach with Heart, Head, Hands

By Amanda Dyer
News-Sentinel Staff Writer

Saturday, September 1, 2007 8:05 AM PDT

Comments (3 comment(s))

Two second-grade boys at Fairsite Elementary School run up to Vice Principal Kathy Pettibone Tuesday afternoon, bursting with news.

"I got four stars," they say one right after the other.

"Give me a high five," Pettibone replies.

Suddenly struck shy, the boys raise their shoulders and lower their heads as they slap hands with Pettibone before disappearing back into the lunch crowd.

Individual classes at Fairsite Elementary earn stars for exemplary behavior. Once a class receives four stars the principal and vice principal visit the class to celebrate.

The reward system is just one part of a program, called Heart Head Hands, designed to develop values in elementary students by incorporating life lessons into the school district's curriculum.

The Alameda County Office of Education, which developed the program with the help of teachers from Fremont and Hayward, incorporates the lessons taught by Heart Head Hands into the grades' current reading curriculum.

Teachers say that this approach to character education, the process of teaching students the life skills that they will need to be responsible citizens, allows them to conserve already precious instructional minutes by pairing the lessons together.

Lodi Unified School District runs a similar program that teaches students life skills, according to Catherine Pennington, assistant superintendent of elementary education.

Unlike Heart Head Hands, though, Lodi Unified's character education program is not incorporated into the district's curriculum.

"(It's) making character education not an add-on, but something that they're already doing," said Evan Goldberg, coordinator at the Alameda County Office of Education.

Project Heart Head Hands

Project Heart Head Hands, which was recently adopted by Galt Joint Union Elementary School District, is designed to help instill good character traits in students by focusing on three areas:

Heart — Fostering development of character traits using the Eight Great Traits — caring, honesty, responsibility, integrity, respect for others, citizenship, planning and decision making and problem solving.
Head — Building social-emotional skills (e.g. effective communication, conflict resolution).
Hands —Engaging students in service learning, meaning performing acts of service for their communities.

Source: Project Head Heart Hands

Galt Joint Union Elementary School District is the first Central Valley school district to use the Heart Head Hands program, which has already yielded improved reading grades and better discipline in Fremont and Hayward schools.

So far, Galt teachers love it.

"I've never seen them get this excited about a program," Pettibone said.

Fairsite second-grade teacher Kitty Setberg and her class arrived late to lunch Tuesday afternoon after discussing decision making — one of the program's Eight Great Traits — in a story about a dragon, who bought too much food at the market.

Setberg had to tear her students away from the activity in which they evaluated the dragon's decision making skills.

Outside of classroom activities, students can receive gold raffle tickets from anybody at the school site — including secretaries and other support staff — as a reward for exhibiting caring, honesty or any one of the program's Eight Great Traits.

If a student's ticket is drawn on raffle days, he or she receives a small prize.

Second-grade teacher Kitty Setberg explains how the curriculum and program, Heart Head Hands, work together, on Tuesday in her classroom at Fairsite Elementary School in Galt. (Jennifer M. Howell/News-Sentinel)

Two weeks ago, at the beginning of the school year, administrators held a school assembly outlining the new program to students and sent information home to parents, soliciting their help in incorporating the program.

Pettibone hopes that if students hear the program's lessons echoed in all areas of their lives — whether that be on the playground, at home, or in the school's office — it will help reinforce behaviors and make them better stewards of their community.

Later in the year Setberg and Pettibone hope to start a second-grade recycling program, an activity that fits into the community-service-learning portion of Heart Head Hands.

"I hope some of the characteristics become imbedded into what they're doing," Setberg said.

Contact reporter Amanda Dyer at amandad@lodinews.com.

Reader Feedback

Gene Bedley wrote on Sep 2, 2007 2:30 PM:

" As the Executive Director for the National Character Education Center my Congratulations to the Galt Teachers, parents and Adms who have placed Character Development on the front burner. When kids are sure of their values they are sure of their value. I have found over the years that the problems of the heart are the heart of the problem. Keep up the great work! www.ethicsusa.com "

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Rog 1 wrote on Sep 2, 2007 2:15 PM:

" If the values mentioned, "help instill good character traits in students", and also helps the students academically, then why not be on board? Of course, the true measure of its success, as with all else in school, will depend on parents' involvement with their children, with their schoolwork, and their children's teachers. "

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Major Ben Johnson wrote on Sep 1, 2007 7:45 PM:

" isnt this a cheap rip-off of the "4 H" program that has been around for more than a half a century?? "

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