GardenHills Elementary believes that education is a civil right that requires a collective commitment to social justice and equity. They aim to provide every child with a healthy, safe, engaging, and challenging learning environment where they can develop both strong foundational skills in math and literacy as well as the complex thinking demanded by experts. Effective teaching at GardenHills requires deep content knowledge, strong teaching skills, high expectations, and caring relationships to support student learning from kindergarten through 5th grade.

1. At GardenHills Elementary, we believe:
 Education is a civil right supported through a collective commitment to
social justiceand equity
 Every child deserves to go to school in a healthy, safe, engaging, supportive,
and challenging environment
 Every child must develop the key intellectual abilities that expert thinking
and complex communication demands as well as develop strong
foundational skills in math and literacy; our inquiry focus supports this
 Teaching school-dependentchildren is hard but rewarding work that
requires a growth mindset, grit, perseverance, and resiliency
 Deep content knowledge, strong pedagogicalskill, high expectations, and
genuine, caring and consistent relationships areessential to effective
teaching and student learning here at Garden Hills
 We servestudents in grades K-5; nothing is set in stoneand their potential
is unlimited. No child should be written off, especially not before their 13th
year of life. We should do everything that we can to highlight strengths and
possibility to our children and their families
 The focus on students who misbehave should be to supportthem in making
better decisions through social-emotional instruction in core classrooms,
PBIS, restorativepractices, restitution, and peer mediation; “punishment”
should be a secondary consideration as punishmentalone is ineffective in
leading to behavior change
 We learn by doing the work. As a learning organization, weare committed
to developing our practice. Collaboration is essential and no staff member
is an independent contractor working in isolation but instead every staff
member is willing to work in a community of practice whereideas are
developed, challenged, and refined