BNICE - Bridging the Gap

As a leader in character development of our youth, it's important to not only be able to talk about the subject, but provide resources as well that can help kids learn ways to display character and for educators to teach it. This is an ever growing page to help supply you with BNICE with Chris French materials but also other resources in character education. We're all in this together. 

There is an incredible amount of quality character development articles and programs out there. 

BNICE Calendar App

calendar_icon-460x375Positive character is a muscle that needs to be exercised regularly. Most of us generally try to do good in a day, and we succeed for the most part. However, physical exercise, eating healthy and improving our mind, takes a certain degree of work. The BNICE iCalender is a super easy way to integrate being nice into your life. The acts of being nice in the calendar are super easy! "Tell somebody you love them today" or "Text a friend who's currently not in your texting history". It the little effort that will make a huge difference. 

Click HERE for more info! 

BNICE Guides & Lesson Plans

How to BNICE PicBNICE with Chris French offers sustainability in a number of ways. One of which is by offering lesson plans and a curriculum that can aid the classroom. We call it "BNU - BNICE University". These are materials that are meant to spark creative discussions with our youth. Even experienced teachers can take a quick look at the materials and conversation topics and build from there. 

We offer a "How To BNICE" guide as well as a starter kit of lesson plans for elementary schools that focus on the values of caring, respect, responsibility and trustworthiness. 

Click HERE for more info!

Here are some articles and companies dedicated to the character education of our youth. 

COMPANIES 

Character Counts!

Character.org - Join the movement (and all the other schools) and make your district or school a "School of Character"

Compassion It - Making compassion a verb and a movement. A pro-compassion approach to bullying.

One Billion Acts of Kindness - an Orange County Department of Education Initiative.

Project Human Kindness - A site on spreading kindness in the world. 

The Road to Character - A website based on a book by David Brooks. Should you live for your resume, or your eulogy?

We - Join the WE movement. Turning Me into WE.

ARTICLES

"5 Myths Working Against Character Education in Our Schools". - This is a fantastic article from our friends at Edutopia about WHY character is needed at schools. 

 

GAMES WITH PURPOSE

Coming soon! We're building a new comprehensive group activity guide where the kids can get up, move around and have a blast, but also learn something in the process. 

That said, if you need help or want ideas on activities and games, contact me through the site or email me by clicking the email icon at the bottom of this page. As a former camp director, I have access to a ton. 

 

CHARACTER QUOTES

Caring

“I think... if it is true that there are as many minds as there are heads, then there are as many kinds of love as there are hearts.” ~ Leo Tolstoy

“The only time when you should look down on someone is when you’re reaching your hand out to pull them up.” ~ Rev. Jesse Jackson

“It's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice.” ~ John Cassis

"It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important.”

"Love and be loved in return."

“No one knows for certain how much impact they have on the lives of other people. Oftentimes, we have no clue. Yet we push it just the same.”

"Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible."

"A good character is the best tombstone.  Those who loved you and were helped by you will remember you when forget-me-nots have withered.  Carve your name on hearts, not on marble." 

"Treat everyone with politeness, even those who are rude to you - not because they're not very nice, but because you are.  ~ Author Unknown

Honesty

“Honesty is the first chapter of the book wisdom.” ~ Thomas Jefferson

“No legacy is so rich as Honesty.” ~ William Shakespeare

“Who lies for you will lie against you.” ~ Bosnian Proverb

“A lie has speed, but Truth has endurance.” ~ Edgar J. Mohn

“This above all; to thine own self be true.” ~ William Shakespeare

"Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable. Be honest and frank anyway."

“If you do not tell the truth about yourself you cannot tell it about other people.”

“To believe in something, and not to live it, is dishonest.”

"Truth is generally the best vindication against slander." ~ Abraham Lincoln

"You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all the people all the time." ~ Abraham Lincoln

"The Truth which has made us free will in the end make us glad, also." ~ Felix Adler

Respect

“The truest form of love is how you behave toward someone, not how you feel about them.” ~ Steve Hall

"One of the most sincere forms of respect is actually listening to what another has to say." ~Bryant H. McGill

“Respect yourself and others will respect you.” ~ Confucius

"A great relationship is about two things, first, find out the similarities, second, respect the differences." 

"Be a reflection of what you'd like to see in others! If you want love, give love, if you want honesty, give honesty, if you want respect, give respect. You get in return, what you give!"

"Treat people the way you want to be treated. Talk to people the way you want to be talked to. Respect is earned, not given."

"When you are content to be simply yourself and don't compare or compete, everybody will respect you." 

"I'm not concerned with your liking or disliking me... All I ask is that you respect me as a human being."

"Respect for ourselves guides our morals, respect for others guides our manners." 

"I firmly believe that respect is a lot more important, and a lot greater, than popularity." 

“I speak to everyone in the same way, whether he is the garbage man or the president of the university.”

“The earth does not belong to us. We belong to the earth.”

Responsibility

"The time is always right to do what is right." ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

"You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today." ~ Abraham Lincoln

"If you take responsibility for yourself you will develop a hunger to accomplish your dreams." ~ Les Brown

"Friendship is always a sweet responsibility, never an opportunity."  

"A hero is someone who understands the responsibility that comes with his freedom." 

"Character isn't something you were born with and can't change, like your fingerprints. It's something you weren't born with and must take responsibility for forming." 

"Accept responsibility for your life. Know that it is you who will get you where you want to go, no one else." 

“If you hang out with turkeys, you're going to gobble and if you hang out with eagles, you're going to fly.”

“To say you have no choice is to relieve yourself of responsibility.”

“The right thing to do and the hard thing to do are usually the same.”

“In dreams begin responsibilities.”