Below is a letter written by an Australian educator, in America to complete her PhD in the field of Character Education.  She joined us at a Friends! assembly at Burning Tree ES in Bethesda, MD.  Here is her feedback:

Dear Debbie,

I loved your show.  You certainly held those kids, and had the attention of all the teachers (and me!).  There are lots of points I saw as strengths:

*  Teachers seemed to respond to the books coming out of the boxes and associated with the virtue, heard some hmmm's and ahhh's each time, like they knew the book and either now knew the value of the book, or felt confirmed that they had used it in that way and were on the right track.  Most certainly these are well known and loved titles;

*  The dramatic demonstrations of how each virtue looked in action really had the kids, they responded with wrapped attention, and that you used child actors they knew, brought it all home to them much more!

*  What a good idea to weave in the school counselor, as it made the kids feel it was all familiar, and the teachers would feel they could go and ask her if they forgot anything;

*  Those hand signs (must be American sign language) are really heart reaching, and the kinesthetic quality of kids actually doing those hand signs, and including them in the actions for the song, really captivated them; and using the signing for crowd control was very effective.  (I loved how the Friendship Triangle got put in their pocket, and taken out of their pocket!)  

*  Your flexibility in adjusting to the situation of shorter time, short microphone cord, kids not quite getting their part right, and so on, really showed up your talent;

*  The chants you sang is a terrific way to help the kids to actually memorise things, so they can call on it when they need.  Great idea to include that, so you really were using multiple intelligences theory in the presentation.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for inviting me to see you in action.  I loved it.  It was also nice to see inside my first American school.  The kids in this school are so multi-cultural, I was surprised.  It must be a great school for these teachers to work in.

All the best,

Dorrie Hancock