Discussing Our Mission Statement- part I

As a grade-level, we now have a mission statement. It is the common purpose Mrs. Proetsch, Mr. Smith and I developed, share, and hope to extend to our whole fifth grade community. It goes,

“We are the Carolina Beach Elementary School Fifth Grade: A learning community set in the love of learning, built on strong character and academics, seeking to understand our roles in the world outside ourselves.”

Mr. Smith sees this statement as the sum of four elements; the love of learning, strong character, strong academics, and a yearning to connect with the world that is getting both larger and smaller at the same time. Mrs. Proetsch and I see the mission statement as only three elements. We combine in our minds character and academics as either a curricular convention or an inherent blend. Regardless, we all share a solid mission that offers us good reason to meet the week-day morning with meaning and a smile.

During our flex period today the classes saw the mission statement written out for the first time. Each of the three classes worked to identify the concepts of the love of learning, strong character and academics in community, and what it is to look outside ourselves. It was a tall order for a short period. For instance, my class discussed the subtle difference between the student who rushes to the turtle terrarium to be the first to tell what will happened next between the fern and the tank glass, and the student who watched and learned a new box turtle behavior over time. One student missed the love of learning, and the other student nailed it solidly. To a casual eye the two student behaviors look very much the same, but at CBES Fifth Grade, we encourage students to consider the value of what they experience, and that is an example of how we are striving to be, “A learning community set in the love of learning.”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *