The Experiential School of Tampa Bay addresses one of Shorecrest’s five Core Values and how it relates to young students.

Knowledge

While respect, responsibility and compassion typically appear on lists of Core Values, knowledge appears far less frequently. For Shorecrest, however, it could not be a more fitting inclusion, as it is our mission not only for our students to acquire knowledge in school but to develop a passion for learning. Knowledge includes facts, information and skills acquired and understood through experience and education. To pursue it, minds must be curious and questioning.

Proudly sporting their “I am a digital citizen” stickers, Shorecrest students gathered during this Digital Citizenship week to share ways to protect themselves and demonstrate Shorecrest values online. Daily, we send our students into the virtual world to conduct research, collaborate with peers across oceans, and take action to improve their communities. Students reinforce their math skills using engaging math games online. They build online Portfolios to demonstrate their learning. They create movies, websites, and other virtual products to share their knowledge. They challenge teachers to constantly evolve their practice to reflect the changing world.

In short, technology is transformative.

The Experiential School of Tampa Bay addresses one of Shorecrest’s five Core Values and how it relates to young students.

Responsibility

Responsibility is taking care of people and things, and doing what is right and needed. Being truly responsible is more than just completing a task correctly, it’s about the attitude when taking action and the feeling of satisfaction when doing it well.

The first step in teaching children to be responsible is in modeling it ourselves. They need to see us fulfilling our responsibilities and doing so in a positive manner. To teach them this desirable trait, we need to find balance in the appropriate amount of reminders and assistance to help them learn and feel the satisfaction of being responsible and the confidence of capability. Taking care of their own things and helping within their family and/or school community and environment should be expectations for which children should be held accountable and and recognized. Recognition for fulfilling responsibilities, however means acknowledgment and praise for efforts made, rather than rewards, lest rewards become the sole reason for efforts.

I want you to look round the room. Look at the people sitting to the right of you. Look at the people to the left. Take a second to see the people in the row in front of you. Locate a few teachers and take a look at them, too. Take notice of your surroundings.

The Experiential School of Tampa Bay addresses the first of Shorecrest’s five Core Values and how it relates to young students.

Respect

The Experiential School motto is,

"At Shorecrest Preparatory School, we respect ourselves, each other and the environment."

This motto provides a basis for the interactions and actions of all members of our community that hopefully will extend far beyond school. To help our preschool students live the motto, they must first understand what respect means and looks like. After delving through many definitions of the word respect, I believe the following compilation of several is concrete enough for young children to come to understand, and is the most relevant to our expectations. As a noun, respect is the recognition that all people and elements of our environment, natural and otherwise, are important and should be treated in an appropriate way. Respect, as an action or verb, is thinking and acting in a positive way about them.