Recognition
Through the Character Education Partnership in Washington D.C., this program won The National Schools of Character Promising Practice Award. In October 2005, I attended the forum in Atlanta, Georgia, where I received this honor.
Photo: Myself with Janice Stoodley, Program Director, CEP
Testimonials
“Characters of Character has made an incredible impact on our students, and has really helped to improve the climate and culture of our school. The entire school embraced the characters and the citizenship traits they represent .As the year went on I saw teachers and students talking about being a good friend, respecting each other, and being responsible. I am confident these conversations would not have occurred in such great numbers if it were not for you and your wonderful characters. The characters made it simple to explain difficult concepts to even the youngest of students.” |
| Jennifer Glickley, Principal |
“Mrs. Downey’s Characters of Character provided our kindergarten through fourth grade students with excellent models for core character development. The students identified with the characters and were excited to participate in activities involving them. This program is an exceptional cornerstone for teaching social skills and tolerance to children.” |
| Kathi Patton, M.A. Psychologist |
“My class liked the bookmarks. I loved the way the new character was introduced each month. It helped my students behave during times that might be rough or difficult.” |
Felicia Smith, |
“Most were motivated to earn tags. The students loved getting responses to their letters. They used their journals to write notes to the characters.” |
Kathy Ellison, |
“My children have loved the program! They have written about them and praised each other recognizing the traits. I even had a student dress as a character for Halloween.” |
Keri S. Fedenia, |
“The kids loved the program and constantly showed what they earned.” |
Edna M. Smyth, |
“Cute, kid friendly characters! Great names! Cute mailbox display, wonderful posters, bulletin board displays etc. Fantastic!” |
Mary Rose, |
“I’d refer to the characters when I wanted to talk about a trait. We loved the classroom pointers.” |
Helen Gebler |
" Joni's Character Education program has been a FANTASTIC addition to ourcurriculum. What a change we have seen in our students after it was implemented. They have really become attached to the characters. It is a very effective program. " |
Colleen Irvin |
Periodicals
CORNERSTONES OF CHARACTERBy C.J. Waller Daily Herald Staff Writer
What do you get when you combine a monkey, a duck, and a hippo? Character. Or at least the students at Woodview School in Grayslake think so. Manners Monkey, Doer Duck and Healthy Hippo are among nine characters students have been trying to emulate this school year. Woodview teaching assistant Joni Downey created the characters that students are using for a character development program. Not only did she write books and poems about each character, but she also used her artistic ability to design and draw each character for posters, bulletin boards, stickers, reward bags and bookmarks. She also created character forms that sit on a pretend mailbox in the library. Students have been writing letters to the characters and responses are handled by Downey. “They are part of our culture and the way we do things now,” Woodview principal Jennifer Glickley said. A character was introduced each month and Glickley said students have been anxious all year to meet the next character. Many school systems purchase character development programs, but with money so tight at Woodview, Downey’s program provided help in more ways than one. And by using reward stickers for behavior, Woodview has graphed results that show student character is improving. The entire student body at the kindergarten through fourth-grade building in Grayslake recently participated in an assembly demonstrating what they learned from each character. Along with the monkey, duck and hippo were Respectful Rabbit, Responsible Rabbit, Friendship Frog, Behavior Bear, Warm-hearted Walrus and Self-Esteem Elephant.Downey said she started out making paper bag puppets to teach lessons of character a few years ago and she advanced the effort to meet the needs of the school and make it interesting for students. She also wrote a children’s book called, “Will You Be My Friend?” Downey was recognized for her character education program by the National Schools of Character Promising Practices in Washington D.C. Woodview kindergarten teacher Helen Gebler said the characters have created “A positive environment” “She set the stage and they flew with it,” Gebler said. Fourth-grade teacher Kathy Lett said her class was a bit hesitant to adopt the characters, thinking they might be a bit too immature, but when they were teamed with kindergartners, the program became more acceptable. “My kids feel like they were teaching them,” she said, adding that no matter what age, all students need to remember the characteristics of each animal in the program.
Published in the Daily Herald, Wednesday, June 8, 2005
PUPPET PALS DEVELOP MODEL CITIZENS
By Laura Jastram ljastram@lakelandmedia.com Joni
Downey, with the help of Principal Jennifer Glickley, will be introducing her character development puppet program at Woodview school this fall. The puppets each posses a character trait representative of a model citizen. Downey said she has been working on this project for years and it began as an art project. There are nine characters that make up the program. Some of them include: Respectful Rabbit, Manners Monkey, Friendship Frog and Behavior Bear. Downey created and developed her educational program using paper puppets, posters, bookmarks, writing journals, word searches and more. “(Downey) is incredibly creative and always has ideas flowing,” Glickley said. Glickley said she wanted to lend Downey a hand to get her program more organized and formalized. Downey said she has been using variations of this program in classrooms she assists in. When she introduced the characters to her learning behavior disorder students in Round Lake, Downey said it “helped bring out the good in them.” During the summer months Downey has been creating posters and writing and illustrating books for each one of her characters. Beginning Aug. 30 all of the characters will be introduced over the Woodview broadcasting system and every first Monday of the month following, a different character will be introduced. Manners Monkey is scheduled to be the first of the characters to be introduced. Downey said the program would include all grades K-4 allowing the children to earn certificates of achievement and bookmarks, among others, to reward them for their actions. “I am so excited for it to start” Downey said. “I just love it." Glickley said her staff seems very excited and enthusiastic about the program. She said they plan to keep the program in the face of the student to remind them of the characteristics of a good citizen.
Published in the Lakeland Press, May, 2005
BAGFUL OF MANNERS Teacher’s aide develops “special’ Puppet project By JEFFREY WESTHOFF The Northwest Herald
Manners Monkey, Behavior Bear, Responsible Rabbit, Do-er Duck and Warm-hearted Walrus don’t sound like characters that would appeal to boys. But even in this Era of Nintendo 64/ Playstation mayhem, this well mannered menagerie is a hit at Fox Lake’s Gavin Central School. The characters are puppets created by Joni Downey, a teacher’s aide in Bari Pink’s classroom for students with behavioral disorders. Downey, who lives in Johnsburg, has used the puppets to get the nine boys in the class to discuss good behavior. The project has evolved so that the students have redecorated the classroom to look like a rain forest. Downey is as surprised as she is delighted that the project has taken on its own life. This is Downey’s third year as a teacher’s assistant. Last year she was in a learning disability classroom at James C. Bush school in Johnsburg. The previous year at Bush School, she assissted a handicapped student. Downey always had admired teachers, and her years as a teacher’s aide has increased that respect. A teacher to me has to be a friend, a nurse, a psychiatrist- “Oh my God, they carry quite the load,” Downey said. “Sometimes I wonder how some teachers get along with out an aide at all.” Downey has three children, ages 17, 15 and 10, and said she is the type of mom who always volunteered at school. “I was the snack lady at the junior high school,” she said “I was the room mom and yada, yada, yada.” Because of her volunteerism, Downey was asked to become the handicapped students inclusion aide. Downey now hopes to combine her role as a teacher’s aide with her love of crafts into an offshoot career. She has compiled two books of projects. One featuring bulletin board ideas and another featuring puppets-that she hopes to have published. Downey designed the puppets about a year ago. They consist of construction papr faces glued on to lunch bags, so she titled the book of puppet projects “Brown Bag Specials,” To compile the book, Downey drew the patterns by hand, then scanned them into a computer. “Then my son had to give me a course on the computer.” She said, laughing. Downey submitted the books to a publisher in December. “It’s been a couple of weeks and I’m waiting to hear something.” She said. She knows getting a book published can be a long process, but Downey takes heart. “Dr. Seuss took 27 times before he found a publisher,” she said. Downey always has treated her children to craft projects. When “101 Dalmatians” was hot, she designed Dalmatian goody bags for her daughter’s Birthday party, and a pin the tail on the Dalmatian game. “I’ve always putzed around with this stuff,” she said. “And I always did it with my kids.” Downey now shares her crafts with students. She enjoys the reaction that finger paint, construction paper, scissors and paste can produce. “I think I’m having a ball seeing that I can touch a child” Downey said. “There’s nothing more rewarding than turning that frown upside down. It’s a corny saying, but it’s true.” And sometimes the students imagination outstrips Downey’s. It was the students at Gavin Central School who gave the puppets names and turned them into learning aides. Downey muses that those well-mannered puppets might have a career outside the classroom.. “Teletubbies can be a hit,” she said, “Why not Warm-hearted Walrus?”
Publsihed in the Northwest Herald, Tuesday, January 19, 1999
JET SET Woodview students in reading program that will really take them places
By Marc Jenkins Managing Editor
What do these words have in common: aloha, pineapple, luau, island, volcano and ukele? Students at Woodview School certainly know. And because of that, they're about to embark on a reading trip that will land them in the state best known for those words. Woodview teachers kicked off a new program that’s trying to make learning state history exciting. An all-school assembly this week had kindergarten to fourth grade students gather to watch teachers put on a mock “Wheel of Fortune” game show. Kindergarten teacher Helen Gebler, along with first-grade teacher Amy Wonsil, second-grade teacher Laurie Lambie, third grade teacher Doreen Churchill and fourth grade teacher Kathy Lett battle it out as they spin the wheel. The students got excited as the game wore on, as they discovered the answers. The program, in effect until the end of the school year, will have classes reading as much as possible, learning “frequent flier mileage” for the books they read. Students gave the loudest cheer when they were told that the winning team would win a trip to Hawaii. But a humorous groan went up when they were told it was a pretend trip. “I think it’s cool because it will get us to read more,” said fourth grader Allison Bowers. “Some kids don’t want to, so it will get them to read.” Progress reports will come in the form of a map of the U.S., with each grade moving a plane from Grayslake slowly towards the 50th state. “Especially in winter, it’s a way of motivating the student, ”said school information specialist Colleen Brown, who played the role of Vanna White at the event. “We hope they’ll get excited about reading.” Fourth grader Frankie Hannemann certainly thinks so. “It’s fun” he said, “In Hawaii you can lay on the beach and go swimming. I’ll read a lot more now and help my class win.” Students will be encouraged to Complete weekly reading tasks, as well as having their teachers read to them in class in addition to some home reading. IT’S ALL A PART OF THE SCHOOL’S LARGER PROGRAM, "READING BUILDS CHARACTER" EVIDENT IN LARGE, COLORFUL DISPLAYS THROUGHOUT THE SCHOOL.
Local News March 4-10, 2005
Teacher puts life lessons in print
By JESSICA PERSONETTE jpersonette@nwherald.com
Joni Downey of Johnsburg is a wife, mother and educator. Now, she can add published author to that list. Her children's book, "Will You Be My Friend? We Really Are No Different," is about being friends with everyone and treating people the same no matter what they look like or whether they have a disability. "I think a gentle nudge is needed to remind us all that we really are no different," Downey said. Locally, the book is being sold at Borders Books, Music & Caf & eacute; in McHenry. It was the culmination of a year long process when Downey, 46, noticed her book, her picture, and a poster about her May 22 book signing on the wall above her at Borders. "I was flabbergasted," Downey said. "It was heartwarming to say the least." The book was published by small Minnesota publishing house, The Place in the Woods. Roger Hammer, the publisher, said Downey's manuscript caught his eye because of its simplicity. "One of the things I think is so important is to make a concept understandable," Hammer said. "What Joni has done is very clever and creative." Downey is a teacher's assistant at Woodview Elementary School in Grayslake. Her work in education helped inspire the book, she said. At the school, Downey helped create a character education program using characters such as Manners Monkey and Behavior Bear. In October, she will travel to Atlanta to receive an award for the program. Downey said she always had enjoyed writing, but her three children took up much of her free time. Now that her children are 23, 21 and 17, she has more time to write, she said. After finishing the book, she sent it to publishers. She heard a response from The Place in the Woods after a couple of weeks, but the entire process of editing and illustrating took a year, she said. "The Place in the Woods is a smaller publishing company, but I jumped on it," Downey said. "It's a nice door opener." Downey is working on more children's books, and she is trying to get her character education program published so other schools can use it. Despite being a published author, she is not quitting her day job at the school. She loves it too much, she said. "It's just in my blood," she said. "I can't stop."
Published in the Northwest Herald, June 02, 2005
REMEMBERING SEPTEMBER 11
by Joni Downey
One wish is for moms to love their children more By Joni J. Downey I work in a kindergarten room at a public school, and after Sept. 11 I created, designed and wrote for my own sanity. As I could not go to New York to help, therefore I did what I do best. I prayed, as I know did many. Being in a school, we say the pledge every day. I know that kindergarten doesn’t know the symbolism or importance of it, but they will grow to learn. I wrote a poem how I feel. I also designed some things which are enclosed. I am fortunate enough to have not lost a loved one on that day, but my heart sure goes out to those who did. That day changed the world forever. May I just say how lucky we are to live here in America, yet how so many things are taken for granted. If I could make a wish, I would wish for mothers to love their children more. Hold their hands while crossing the street, hold their hands while walking in a store, and start and end their day with hugs and kisses. Give them your time, not your money, the world could do without a lot of material possessions. But it can’t do without the love of family. Moms used to be the glue that held a family together. Nowadays, if the glue isn’t sticky, they don’t put more on, they just walk away. Here in American, we have the freedom of so many thing, let’s feel free to love our families with simple things. Hugs, kisses, time spent together, conversation, and most of all dreams.
Published in the Daily Herald, 2004