Hello Families, 

In the Tabernacle School District we thrive as a staff that works well together, with parents, and community to serve as role models for our students.  We embrace our district wide goal of being EMPATHETIC, INNOVATIVE, GAMECHANGERS.
 
We focus on character traits which students should develop and implement as life-long learners and good citizens. These are also emphasized in our Developmental Design program which promotes Responsible Independence. Responsibility means that students take learning seriously and interact with others in ways that support learning. 

We want to create a learning environment where restrictive practices are at a minimum.  Students and staff need to explore all avenues to maximize all individuals’ ability to learn. 

The guiding principles we follow as we address the basic needs of young adolescents are as follows based on The Developmental Designs Approach (Developmental Designs for Middle Schools 2):

1.  Social learning is as important to success as academic learning.

2.  We learn best by constructing our own understanding through exploration, discovery and application.

3.  The greatest cognitive growth occurs through social interactions within a supportive community.

4.  There is a set of personal/social skills that students need to learn and practice in order to be successful    socially and academically.

5.  Knowing the physical, emotional, social, and intellectual needs of the students we teach is as important  as knowing the content we teach.  

6.  Trust among adults is a fundamental necessity for academic and social success in a learning community.

Fundamentally, we all want the same thing: a state of responsible independence in which every student learns how to engineer his or her own success.  Young adolescents develop a sense of efficacy when they believe in their own capacity for having good ideas and carrying them through…….we have them hooked on learning.  (Developmental Designs 2).

                                                                                                    
Sincerely,

Susan Grosser 
Principal