Word of the Month: AUGUST

RESPONSIBILITY: To be able to carry out a duty and be trustworthy
Vs. Unreliability
EspanÕl - responsabilidad

**Please review the following suggestions for content and appropriateness to your child and/or student/s**

Suggested Reading:  
Now One Foot, Now the Other (Tomie DePaolo)
Horton Hatches the Egg (Dr. Seuss)
Horton Hears a Who! (Dr. Seuss)
Leah's Pony (Elizabeth Friedrich)
The Pearl (Helme Heine)
Responsibility  
When the Boys Ran the House  
Backyard Angel  
Romans 14:12
The Story of Johah (Kurt Baumann)
Samuel Eaton's Day: A Day in the Life of a Pilgrim Boy (Kate Waters)
Good Griselle (Jane Yolen)
The Great Kapok Tree: A Tale of the Amazon Rain Forest (Lynne Cherry)
In My Mother's House (Ann Nolan Clark)
Miss Rumphius (Barbara Cooney)
The Summer of the Swans (Betsy Byars)
George Washington: A Picture Biography (James Giblin)
Rikki Tikki Tavi (Rudyard Kipling)
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (C.S. Lewis)
The Legend of King Arthur (Robin Lister)
Kate Shelley: Bound for Legend (Robert San Souci)
The Barn (Avi)
Andy Buckram's Tin Man (Carol Ryrie Brink)
A River Ran Wild (Lynne Cherry)
My Brother Sam is Dead (James Lincoln Collier)
The Ballad of Lucy Whipple (Cushman)
The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
The Slave Dance (Paula Fox)
Lincoln: A Photobiography (Russell Freedman)
Summer of My German Soldier (Bette Greene)
Have Space Suit, Will Travel (Robert A. Heinlien)
Across Five Aprils (Irene Hunt)
Sing Down the Moon (Scott O'Dell)
Lyddie (Katherine Paterson)
The Sign of the Beaver (Elizabeth George Speare)
Call it Courage (Armstrong Sperry)
When the Road Ends (J. Thresman)
Tom Sawyer (Mark Twain)
Dicey's Song (Cynthia Voight)
Where the Lilies Bloom (Bill and Vera Cleaver)
Flour Babies (Anne Fine)
Old Yeller (Frank Gipson)
The Red Pony (John Steinbeck)
Silas Marner (George Eliot)
The Things They Carried (O'Brien)

Suggested Movie:  
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington not rated 
It’s a Wonderful Life not rated

Family Activity:

Ø       Parents can give their children tasks and duties at home where they can demonstrate responsibility such as washing dishes, running errands, etc.

Ø       Teach your children to honor their responsibilities to the community by volunteering with them to work for a charity group for a period of time.

Ø       Talk to your teenage children about the responsibilities of being a parent; of providing for a child; and the commitment of time, money, and energy required to raise a child. Help them to at least partially understand what an awesome responsibility it is to be a parent.

Ø       Encourage your children to tell the truth about their mistakes. Make it clear that you expect them to admit to their mistakes and take responsibility for their actions. If they admit to doing something wrong before they are caught, thank them and let them know that since they took responsibility they are in less trouble then if they had tried to hide it.

Ø       Take this opportunity to thank your children’s teachers for their efforts to help you educate your child. Let them know that you appreciate their willingness to help you educate your children.

Class Activity:

Ø       Each day make one or two students responsible for a task; for example, handing out assignments or making sure chairs are put up.

Ø       If students are seated in groups, make each member of the group responsible for a task during the day, such as collecting assignments or distributing books and supplies.

Ø       Have students put on a skit that demonstrates a person taking responsibility for a mistake and making things right.

Ø       There are times when people have a responsibility to speak up and tell people in authority about another person’s behavior. This is usually when a person is doing something that is dangerous to themselves or to other people. Discuss this with your class and have them give you some examples of times when people have a responsibility to do this.

Ø       Meaningful Work by Randall Sprick and Mickey Garrison is a way for students to take responsibility for a job and discuss with them the importance of being relied upon to do their job.

High School Activity:

Ø       Have students keep a binder with all of their returned class assignments to be turned in at the end of the semester.

Ø       Talk about some problems facing our community, or our school, and ways that people can take responsibility for solving those problems. How can people who want to improve things influence the community and our governmental leaders to make a positive change? If you see a need to improve something but you do nothing but complain, do you have the right to complain? Or do you have a responsibility to suggest positive ways to solve the problem and bring them to the attention of our leaders? What are the limits of our responsibility to help other people? How much must we be willing to sacrifice to help another person? Are there times when you have a responsibility not to intervene to help someone? Under what circumstances is it the right thing to do, to let a person we care about fail?

Quotes:  

"Success on any major scale requires you to accept responsibility...in the final analysis, the one quality that all successful people have...is the ability to take on responsibility."
                    -Michael Korda

"With great Responsibility comes great Power"...(adaptation from Spiderman)  
                    -John Alexander

“You are responsible for your own education.”  
                    -Anonymous

“Responsibility is the thing people dread most of all. Yet it is the one thing in the world that develops us, gives us manhood or womanhood fibre.” 
                    -Frank Crane  

“If you do the crime, you’d better be able to do the time.” 
                    -American saying  

“If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem.”      -Adage  

“The only way to get rid of responsibilities is to discharge them.”           -Walter S. Robertson  

“You can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make him drink.”           -American saying  

“We want a society in which we are free to make choices, to make mistakes, to be generous and compassionate. That is what we mean by a moral society.” 
                    -Former British Education Minister and Prime Minister, Lady Margaret Thatcher  

“You can’t escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.”                         -Abraham Lincoln  

“To protect those who are not able to protect themselves is a duty which every one owes to society.” 
                    -Edward Macnaghten  

“I am only one, but still, I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And, because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do what I can.” 
                    -Edwin Hale  

“It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness” 
                    -Chinese proverb  

“Responsibility is to keep the ability to respond.” 
                    -Robert Duncan  

“Our duty is to be useful, not according to our desires, but according to our powers.” 
                    -Henry F. Amiel  

“The questions for each man to settle is not what he would do if he had the means, time, influence and educational advantages, but what he will do with the things he has.” 
                    -Hamilton Wright Mabee  

“We cannot do everything at once, but we can do something at once.”
                    -Calvin Coolidge  

“The value of life is not in the length of days, but in the use we make of them; a man may live long yet very little.” 
                    -Michel de Montaigne  

“Any man’s life will be filled with constant and unexpected encouragement if he makes up his mind to do his level best each day.”
                    -Booker T. Washington  

“I long to accomplish some great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble.” 
                    -Helen Keller  

“A man can do only what he can do. But if he does that each day he can sleep at night and do it again the next day.” 
                    -Albert Schweitzer  

“Don’t worry that children never listen to you. Worry that they are always watching you.” 
                    -Robert Fulghum

Perform a Random Act of Kindness Each Day