This program was designed for use in the classroom. The Teachers Guide was written by Jeanne Webster CPC and Jason Broadwater, BA, MFA, combining the skills of a Life Skills professional with a teaching professional, it brings you the best of both worlds. It is intended for students in grades 8 through 12.

Why This Particular Curriculum?
Much of the character education material on the market today for grades 8 through 12 is a collection of anecdotal stories about people who exhibited fine moral character. These are wonderful tools for modeling character but it is also historic in value. Many of these models are from past generations and do not face the challenges, pressures and situations that today's youth face.

Extracting and teaching just character or just life skills leaves the students unable to connect the value of each and how they build upon one another. It is necessary to have good character when making life decisions. How that character is built and used in today's world is often left to the imagination of the student. So is the correlation between good decision making and life mapping or planning your future. This curriculum specifically intertwines awareness of choice, foundation principles and how we build our foundations, self definition, career exploration, character, decision making, emotional control, master life intentions, and value and ethics together to show students a continual line of reasoning and choice on which we build our lives.

These are essential skills that must answer the students' unconscious question "What's in it for me?" By defining these tools and showing students exactly how they work together to bring them great success in life we are giving them a road map into the future. Omitting any of these pieces or leaving them to chance is like sending them out to cut down oak trees with a butter knife. They are totally unprepared.

The Text
"If You Could Be Anything, What Would You Be?" is a two time National Award Winning Book written by Jeanne Webster CPC. It has the distinction of being a 2004 iParenting Media Award Winner and the U.S. Book News "Best Book of 2004" in the young adult non fiction category. The text is easy to read and written in a workbook style to insure individual results to powerful questions.

We highly recommend that each student receive a workbook during the teaching of this course and keep a folder of all class work for future reference.

The Curriculum
The curriculum contains seventeen daily lesson plans and can be taught simultaneously or once a week as the teacher chooses. It contains student handouts for some lessons and homework options. All necessary worksheet, exercises, assignments, etc are provided as part of this document.

The teacher may choose between several options depending upon his or her preference and teaching style. As you sculpt the curriculum to your class and make it your own, feel free to add or remove assignments as you see fit.

Also provided to educators is an introduction to the program CD that gives the three coaching techniques used in teaching this curriculum. Included on that CD are the concepts of perspectives and judgments, powerful listening and active questioning. On going support is available and training is available.

The first lesson is an introduction to the curriculum. The final lesson is a final assessment. The lessons in between will correlate to the chapters of the textbook.
Each lesson could be styled for a 45 minute period or each lesson could take longer, depending on assignment e, assignment approach and discussion. Should the teacher choose in depth discussions and assignments it is conceivable the curriculum could fill a semester. No projected times have been put on the sections of the lesson plans, for each educator must teach in a way and speed appropriate to his or her class and manner.

As for grading, there are no rubrics or methods of grading included in this document. How you assess student in the completion of the included activities and assignments and what you write in your grade book, is for you to decide. The rubrics or methods that are used must be somehow based on participation and not content, for judging the content is judging a child's hopes and dreams. Please note that the suggested methods below are subjective.
  A/C/F Method - This method basically breaks down as follows. If the student does the assignment, then he gets an A. If he does it half way, then he gets a C. If he doesn't do it at all, then he gets an F.
  Participation Method - This method is very familiar, yet takes on many forms. One can weight the turning in/completing of assignments and the class participation in different ways, but please consider that some students love to talk in front of groups and others do not.
  The Folder - Grading the student's folders is another option. You could grade them for completeness and organization.

This unit mirrors the real world in which we live by:
  Making learning relevant to students' personal lives
  Approaching content as a "means" no an "end"
  Using the lives of the students as the actual content of the curriculum
  Fostering collaboration between students and teachers.

Unit Objectives
  Broaden Pre-existing knowledge
  Challenge accepted ideas
  Challenge personal beliefs
  Demonstrate enhanced thinking skills through written and oral activities
  Enhance discussion skills
  Enhance perceptive thinking skills
  Exercise time management responsibilities
  Exercise and develop insight
  Relate texts to their world
  Respond personally to texts
  Use critical thinking skills
  Use reflective thinking skills

For more information on the curriculum, Contact Claude Dupuis at or call 828- 524-9520.