PRAIRIE-HILLS

 Curriculum and Instruction

The Curriculum and Instruction Department is committed to producing lifelong learners that are college bound, career ready and able to compete in a global society. We are committed to ensuring that all learners’ social, emotional, and cognitive needs are met so that all students can reach their full potential. We understand that instruction and learning must happen on a growth model continuum, where data analytics, planning, learning, and evidence of learning operate in a feedback loop to personalize learning. We continue to work to ensure that our schools and classrooms are places where enriching, rigorous, and holistic learning experiences occur, while maintaining high expectations for our students, staff, parents and community members.

The Curriculum & Instruction Department encourages and embraces creativity, diversity, and individuality in instructional practices and learning.  We continue to be committed to ensuring that our students are challenged to learn, grow and excel in a rigorous and challenging environment where they can compete and dominate in the larger global community. We educate to create minds of inquiry and application. Our goal is to teach our students not only to be able to process information, but to discern it so that they are able to make decisions critical to their future and make meaningful contributions to society.

In our ever-changing and unpredictable world, our students need to master the skill of knowing what to do when they do not immediately know what to do. Doing this effectively involves the development of agency and executive function skills.  In order for students to develop these skills, they must be empowered, proactive agents—or co-authors—of their learning journey. We must actively engage students in authentic learning experiences, and teach our students resilience, tenacity, perseverance and to embrace a growth mindset.

The following creed was created in order to accomplish our mission and vision as educators. These guiding principles were established as a reflection of the values of our school district. They will guide us daily as we interact with our learners, peers, staff, and community members.

The Curriculum and Instruction Department will –

• Act with integrity and ensure that the needs of our students are our first priority.
• Ensure that our classrooms and schools are safe and healthy environments that meet the needs of all students socially, emotionally, and cognitively.
• Ensure that our classrooms are challenging learning environments where hard work is expected, students are working on rigorous activities, and perseverance and grit are modeled and acknowledged.
• Provide equitable, rich, and meaningful experiences and opportunities for all students in a culturally relevant environment to help them to reach their full potential.
• Build relationships with all students and parents, and maintain those relationships through honesty, open communication, respect, and professionalism.
• Exemplify high expectations for all learners by providing extra time and support to struggling students, challenging our high-achieving students, and making learning targets and goals clear to help each student reach their full potential.
• Work collaboratively to revise and inform our instruction based on data, and communicate regularly and consistently with each other to share ideas/best practices.
• Utilize job-embedded professional development to increase student achievement, refine existing instructional strategies, and introduce new instructional strategies.

Pursuing Excellence with Equity, Empathy, and Empowerment!

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