From the Principal

A Word From Our Principal

We’re Going for the GOAL!

Our faculty was drawn to our 2016 – 2017 school theme – “Going for the GOAL” – after witnessing the culmination of various athletes’ commitment to their craft in the 2016 Summer Olympics. This theme charges our little scholars to have high expectations for themselves and to not only set goals but prepare themselves to achieve them through FAITH, CHARACTER, HARDWORK, and PERSEVERANCE. Moreover, we not only want our students to achieve the goals they set for themselves, but those God has and expects from them as well.

For St. Philip’s, GOAL represents, G - God Centered, O - Optimistic, A - Allegiant to His Word and L - Loyal to our Mission. As a faculty, the theme reminds us that we play an integral part in helping students achieve the goals they’ve set for themselves. Our role as educators is to provide students with critical thinking skills and help each student identify the inner fortitude necessary to achieve their personal goals.

The 2016 – 2017 school year is also one with a resurgence of creativity at St. Philip’s! We are re-awaking each child and educator’s ability to be INNOVATIVE. We’ve begun PROJECT BASED LEARNING (PBL) in each of our grade levels. PBL is “a teaching method in which students gain knowledge and skills by working for a period of time to investigate and respond to an authentic, engaging and complex question, problem, or challenge.” This method is instrumental in encouraging our students to be thinkers and creators.

This semester in their PBL cohorts, our students are responding to driving questions such as “How Can Different Organisms Survive, Produce, Reproduce Within the Same Ecosystem?”, “How Can People in Our Nation Solve the Problems That Racism Has Created for People of Color?”, “Was Shakespeare the Social Guru of His Time? …TMZ?” and “How Can We Increase Recreation in South Dallas?”.

George Courous, of the Innovator’s Mindset, said “often the biggest barrier to innovation is our own way of thinking.” The essential focus at St. Philip’s School and Community Center this school year, is to revive the dormant innovator that lies within each student

and educator. The sky is the limit!

Striving for Our Goal,

Kellee Murrell