Wisdom

Listen.  Be engaged in your learning.  Participate.

Ask questions.  Learn from your mistakes and try harder every day.

Work with your teachers to set goals and measure growth.

Believe that you can achieve your dreams, no matter what seems to be in the way.

 

Justice

Learn about and understand other peoples’ culture, history, and values.

Help us to understand your family’s culture, history and values.

Treat others fairly.

When you see someone do wrong, don’t ignore it.

 

Courage

Have the courage to always do and be your best and to help others do and be their best.

Be resilient – learn from mistakes and try again.

Do the right thing.  Find peaceful way to solve problems with others.

Stand up for what you believe.

 

Compassion

Be kind, be safe, be responsible:  everyday, with everyone.

Be giving of yourself and your time.

Listen to other people’s ideas or points of view, and share your ideas respectfully.

Show empathy for others.

Go out of your way to help others.

Use good language and good manners with everyone.

 

Hope

Believe in yourself and your classmates!  Never give up!

Know that you can make a difference!

Know that SHCPS is only the beginning.  Focus on college, career and beyond!

Think and talk about your hopes for the future.  Take actions every day to make those hopes and dreams come true!

 

Respect

Respect your heart by always being and doing your best.  Don’t allow others to determine who you are.

Respect your mind by learning new things, accepting and persevering through challenges.

Respect your body by feeding it well, getting fresh air, exercise and sleep.  Establish safe and healthy boundaries grounded in your values and goals for your future.

Respect others by accepting them for who they are, listening to their ideas and pushing them to be and do their best.

Respect differences.  Everyones’ uniqueness makes them special!

Respect others’ right to learn by following school rules, expectations and procedures.

Respect your environment. Take care of nature, your home, school community and belongings.

Respect your education.  Know that education is your key to opportunity!

 

Responsibility

Follow school and community rules.

Come to school on time, in uniform, ready to learn. Bring a signed agenda and a positive attitude.

If you make, or see, a mess, clean it up.  If you make a mistake, admit it and help to fix it.

Do what it takes to be a good learner.  Do your homework and class work, read every day, and work together to solve problems.

Understand that the more you try, the more you will grow.

 

Integrity

Be true to yourself.

Hold fast to your dreams.  You are going to be a successful student, worker and citizen if you work hard and make good choices in your life.

Do the right thing, even when nobody is looking.

 

The above commitment was written to provide clarity around the key behaviors that will help to create a safe, positive and productive culture for learning.  Although we have strong systems in place to enable all students to successfully learn and meet these expectations, there will inevitably be times when things happen that are out of alignment with our school’s expectations.  In those instances, staff will use the following Open Circle strategies.

 

Reinforce rules.

Staff will regularly review rules and their rationale.  They will ask students to share the rules or expected behavior by sharing key concepts from previous lessons and they will refer back to the rules when they are broken.  Saying, “What’s our community rule?”

Assign seating.  The staff member may ask a disruptive student sit next to him/her, or another student who would not be disrupted by the behavior.  Sometimes it is helpful for a child to sit across from the teacher with some established non-verbal signal for inappropriate behavior.

 

Acknowledge response rather than person.

Staff will respond to silly behavior by focusing on the response, not the person.  They may use comments such as “That’s one idea.  Can you think of another?”

 

Focus on behavior to work on.

Staff may talk individually with the student before class begins, about appropriate behavior.  S/he will identify one specific behavior that the student agrees to work on.  S/he will notice and praise the behavior during and after the lesson.

 

Use disruptive group behavior as basis for discussion.

When several members of the group are acting in a nonproductive way, the staff member may stop and say, “Let’s talk about our learning goal and how we can get the community on track to accomplish it.” This is an opportunity for the group to share responsibility for getting back on track.

 

Stop the group, or shorten lesson time.

If a number of students are having trouble attending to a lesson, the staff member may shorten or stop that activity for the time being, and use strategies to allow them to get out some physical energy, “brain breaks.”

 

Allow the child to take 5.

A staff member may ask a disruptive child to sit outside the group until s/he is ready to return with appropriate behavior. (Note: “Take 5” strategy will not be effective if the student doesn’t want to be a part of the lesson.) Take 5 rules must be clear and are non-negotiable:

• The student must be quiet in the Take 5 space.

• The student must return to the activity and participate appropriately once Take 5 has been

• completed.

• Take 5 must be short – five minutes would be appropriate. Prior approval from the Head of School or Academy Director must be obtained before any time out can occur that will last   more than 30 minutes.

 

Note:  Resources in the Take 5 Space include five calming down strategies based on Open Circle principles:

• Flower Breathing

• Candle Breathing

• Bubble Breathing

• Give yourself a time out

• Count backwards from 10.

 

Provide alternative reflection space and support. In an extreme situation, or if a student returns to the group and continues to be disruptive the student may benefit from time to de-escalate in a buddy classroom or process in the Reflection and Recovery Room.