OUR SCHOOL CULTURE
Relationships Come First in Our Schools
Our teachers work together to ensure that all of our students find a place in our schools. Here's how:
· There is a place here for everyone.
· Friendships are forged that can last a lifetime.
· Students receive instruction by highly-trained faculty who engage in professional development opportunities to stay abreast of best practices and
teaching methodologies and pedagogy through national and local workshops.
· We have a challenging academic program with core classes in the areas of Humanities Language Arts, Math, Science, History and Social Studies.
· Tutoring and academic support available at the student's request.
1. Create meaningful parent involvement
Generating clear, open communication with the parents of your students can help you avoid misunderstandings and remove feelings of mistrust or hostility.
2. Celebrate personal achievement and good behavior
This means more than the occasional "good job." We have very active Positive Behavior programs organized and managed by our Deans and Social Workers.
Celebrating the achievements of our students is done on a larger scale which includes Honor Roll Celebrations.
3. Establish school norms that build values
Consistent classroom rules for all students are practiced daily
Our students participation in SEL daily which create school norms that focus on building positive values in class. This helps our kids to learn, not just what they should and shouldn’t do, but why they should or shouldn’t do it. To help our students apply these norms, there is consistency across the entire school building, inside and out.
4. Set consistent discipline
When rules are not followed, discipline must be administered see handbook.
5. Model the behaviors you want to see in your school
All changes have to start from the top. Our interactions with teachers and students are an example of the behavior that you want to see in our schools.
6. Engage students in ways that benefit them
Our students are learning more than just secular instruction. They’re also developing their social skills,
and learning how to become successful adults.
We help students develop essential social skills and are preparing them on an even deeper level for their future. One way we engage students and develop these types of skills is through social-emotional learning (SEL). See research below. In the research brief Social Emotional Learning in Elementary School, researchers found that SEL programs helped students make more ethical decisions, maintain positive relationships, set and achieve goals at school and at home, and manage their emotions. These programs promoted achievements at school, and reduced substance abuse and emotional distress.
7. Create rituals and traditions that are fun for students and teachers
Our school day — and school year — is punctuated with time for fun. This helps students engage with each other in positive events and builds morale in school.
WE use technology in the classroom -- as a reward or simply to supplement learning -- is a cost-effective way to introduce positive rituals for students on the level of the individual classroom.
8. Encourage innovation in the classroom
We encourage innovation in the classroom through our Master Teachers support.
They encourage teachers to try new methods of teaching. They hold regularly scheduled cluster meetings to discuss new research on teaching methods or new teaching tech, and how these can be implemented in our schools.
9. Professional development for teachers
Students are not the only people in our schools who are learning.
WE are a National Institute for Excellence in Teaching (NIET) School
> We believe learning is a collaborative and ongoing process. Like the students we serve, we must meet educators where they are and capitalize on their strengths. Together, we will support professional learning of tools and practices by providing opportunities to learn from each other.
> We believe in order to impact student learning outcomes and prepare them for their future, we must model the practices of learning, taking risks, reflecting and refining the application of new learning.
> We believe a "growth mindset" and personalized approach to professional learning will inspire change to enhance instructional practices.
10. Maintain the physical environment of your school
Our physical surroundings for students and teachers are a huge impact on the culture of your school. We maintain safe, clean student/ teacher friendly classroom and building. We ensure that all facilities are regularly inspected and are at or above regulation codes.
We participate annually in Ethics and Safe school training we all employees that work in our building are certified in Ethics and Safe School Practices.