Meade Heights Elementary School Mission and Vision Statements

Mission:

We foster genuine relationships, embrace differences, and lead with our hearts. 

Vision:

At Meade Heights WE:                       

Hold ourselves accountable

Achieve goals together

Work to reach our full potential

Keep inspiring others

Soar with kindness    

Values:  Inspire, Achieve, Accountability, Kindness

OUR STORY

Meade Heights Elementary is welcomes more than 375 students each day. The students at Meade Heights come from diverse cultural and familial backgrounds. Students enter our building each day with smiles on their faces, ready to learn.  Teachers excitedly await students by their classroom doors as the children quickly scurry down the hallway.  Children are greeted at their classroom doors with a high-five, a hug, or a fist bump, to help motivate them for the day.  Words of encouragement and positive quotes align the hallways within our building to instill a growth mindset and a positive attitude.

Creativity and out-of-the-box thinking is fostered in the learning environment.  Teachers strive to provide hands-on learning opportunities for children to help foster teamwork, perseverance, and problem solving.  Meade Heights is a Triple E school.  Enhancing Elementary Excellence promotes creativity, learning opportunities through trial and error, and peer collaboration and cooperative groups.  Students are given STEM instruction once a week to engage in a variety of tasks.  At any given moment during the STEM class period, you may find students creating a rover simulation or learning to code using bee bots.

Our teaching staff plans and prepares STEM day activities at least three times a year, where students engage in hands-on learning opportunities (activities, tasks, projects, techniques) for the entire school day. Classroom and resource teachers facilitate instruction while students learn through discovery experiences.  The children look forward to collaborating with peers and engaging in hands-on projects.

Meade Heights is proud to serve a military population of students.  The Department of Defense Activity (DODEA) supports our school population by helping to expand our educational program to provide children with after-school STEM enrichment clubs and activities, and materials for classroom instruction, such as flexible seating options and chromebooks.  

Children are also provided with extended learning opportunities through our reading, math, and STEM programs and clubs.  These after-school sessions help to support students who may need additional instruction in these areas.  Our teaching staff receives professional development by attending virtual and face-to-face conferences. We also engage in focused book studies and professional readings to enhance instruction in the classroom. Students in grades 2-5 also participate in the Chessie Book Club or Black Eyed Susan Book Club with our library media specialist.

Family events are planned to support curricular outcomes and increase parents’ understanding of the content that students are instructed in reading, math, writing, and/or STEM.  During family events, parents have an opportunity to connect with their children through hands-on activities and leave with a better understanding of how to address student academic needs at home.  

Our school mission is to foster genuine relationships, embrace differences, and lead with our hearts.  Meade Heights teachers and staff members work to inspire students to be the best version of themselves.  Teachers work very closely with students to determine the needs of the whole child.  As a Kids At Hope school, our goal is to create a sense of hope and optimism for all children and empower them to feel successful.

To include community building and cross-grade level connections schoolwide, we’ve  implemented the house systems. Students and teachers are divided into four houses (Altruismo, Reveur, Isibindi, and Unidad). Within each house, students engage in team-building activities and learn social and behavioral characteristics. The Mighty 7 are our schoolwide norms that teach communication skills and social expectations.  They are as follows: 

• Stand to speak 
• Acknowledge others by greeting them 
• Respectfully respond to adults
• Celebrate others' successes 
• Make eye contact 
• Honesty is the best policy 
• Keep our school community clean 

The Amazing Shake is an initiative that was born four years ago.  The goal of this initiative is to prepare children to be better communicators, engage in respectful conversations with others, and become more familiar with societal and international topics.  Each year our school will host an Amazing Shake competition, where children will be actively engaged in a variety of stations, that challenge their interpersonal, social skills, and judgement.  Each year our school hosts an Amazing Shake competition where children are actively engaged in a variety of stations that challenge their interpersonal skills, social skills, and judgement. 

Community partnerships with Lockheed Martin have been formed to provide students with realistic life experiences.  Throughout the year, our 5th grade students will learn proper etiquette, societal norms, professional conduct, respect, and self discipline, to prepare them for the national competition at the Ron Clark Academy in Atlanta, Georgia.

Providing a strong foundation for social and emotional well-being is of the utmost importance for our young learners.  Restorative community building circles have been a useful practice that replaces punitive forms of discipline and supports the development of a strong connected classroom community through positive means of communication.  Each morning, children will take part in community building circles where teachers will proactively engage them in group discussions to build positive relationships and develop a strong sense of community.  Restorative practices will also be used to help students process their actions towards others, acknowledge when harm has occurred, and discuss how to repair the relationship.  

To continue to support the social and emotional development of our students, our school community has implemented non-traditional practices to minimize negative outbursts within the classroom environment. For example, the de-escalation station is an area within our building where movement activities are carried out, to increase blood and oxygen flow, and physical activity.  All classrooms utilize calming corners, which are  filled with materials and fidgets to allow students an opportunity to de-escalate and re-engage within the learning environment.  Beginning in the 2020-21 school year, the Zones of Regulation program will be implemented, to help students to consciously regulate their actions, and implement self-regulating and problem solving skills independently.

It’s important to instill in young children a genuine love for reading a variety of books.  Introducing diverse literature to students helps promote respect and empathy, allows students to identify with characters within the books they read, and develop positive insights about others.  It is our goal to ensure that all students see themselves in the texts that they read, feel important, and valued as contributors in society.  

We as a school community will continue to collaborate as a team and make conscious decisions to provide a high quality education for all students.