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Social / Emotional learning is a vital part of a student's success.  

At CPS we believe the mission and purpose of Great Expectations can help us instill values and life principles in our students to help build students' social and emotional skills. We want to partner with families and our community to help reinforce the mission of CPS and Great Expectations.   
 A healthy self-esteem is a positive factor in drop-out prevention and is at the crux of student’s sound choices about their safety and health. “Have faith in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers, you cannot be successful or happy.”  – Norman Vincent Peale, minister, author
Factors affecting mental health

Good mental health is more than just the absence of mental illness. It can be seen as a state of mental health that allows one to flourish and fully enjoy life.

Everyone experiences down times in life. The ability to cope with negative experiences varies greatly from one person to another and, in large part, determines whether people enjoy their lives.

Some of the factors that affect the mental health of youth are as follows:

Self-esteem

Feeling loved

Confidence

Family breakup or loss

Difficult behavior

Physical ill-health

Abuse

These are but a few of the factors that can affect children’s mental health and contribute to mental illness. If you would like more information, a list of some reliable websites and resources is included on this website under Useful Links and Resources.

Educators help students achieve excellence by guiding them in adhering to the following expectations:

  • We will value one another as unique and special individuals.
  • We will not laugh at or make fun of a person’s mistakes nor use sarcasm or putdowns.
  • We will use good manners, saying “please,” “thank you,” and “excuse me” and allow others to go first.
  • We will cheer each other to success.
  • We will help one another whenever possible.
  • We will recognize every effort and applaud it.
  • We will encourage each other to do our best.
  • We will practice virtuous living, using the Life Principles.

LIFE PRINCIPLES TAUGHT AT CPS

Although we embedded all these principles in our culture CPS highlights one of these principles each month. 

⭐ Citizenship - behaving in a responsible manner as a citizen of a community

⭐ Commitment - keeping a promise or a pledge

⭐ Common Sense - thinking before acting; using good judgment

Compassion - ability to share another’s feelings or ideas (DECEMBER 2021)

Cooperation - working together

⭐ Courage - strength to act even when afraid or uncertain

Courtesy - consideration, cooperation and generosity

Curiosity - the desire to learn, to explore, to investigate

⭐ Dedication - setting aside for a particular purpose (MAY 2022)

Effort - doing one’s best in an endeavor (MARCH 2022)

⭐ Empathy - capacity for participating in another’s feelings or ideas

Esprit De Corps - devotion among members of a group for each other and the group’s purpose

⭐ Flexibility - ability to make adjustments or alter plans

⭐ Forgiveness - the act of forgiving for an offense; pardoning

⭐ Fortitude - the strength of mind that enables a person to encounter danger or bear pain or adversity with courage

Friendship - caring for and trusting others

⭐ Honesty - truthfulness (SEPTEMBER 2021)

⭐ Humanitarianism - promotion of human welfare and social reform

⭐ Humility - being humble, not proud or haughty, not arrogant or assertive

⭐ Initiative - taking action; originating new ideas (AUGUST 2021)

Integrity - acting according to a sense of right and wrong (OCTOBER 2021)

⭐ Justice - being fair, right, and upholding what is right

⭐ Loyalty - faithfulness to another

⭐ Optimism - an inclination to put the most favorable construction upon actions and happenings or to anticipate the best possible outcome

⭐ Patience - ability to wait calmly

⭐Patriotism - love for or devotion to one’s country (NOVEMBER 2021)

Perseverance - ability to persist or continue striving to the end (APRIL 2022)

Problem-Solving - creating solutions; finding answers

⭐ Propriety - the standard of what is socially acceptable in conduct or speech

⭐ Resiliency - recovering from or adjusting easily to misfortune or change

Respect - feeling honor

Responsibility - making the choice to be reliable and dependable (FEBRUARY 2022)

Self-Discipline - the ability to choose and control one’s own actions (JANUARY 2022)

Service - giving of one’s time and energies to help others

⭐ Sincerity - honesty of mind; freedom from hypocrisy

⭐ Temperance - moderation in action, thought or feeling