Curriculum

At Desert Shadows, our vision is for students to obtain higher-level, innovative, and career ready skills through an integrated curricular approach. This is accomplished within a positive and safe school community.

Desert Shadows is a Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM) focused school. In addition, Desert Shadows is the only school in Arizona that offers a signature program such as Suzuki Violin. In our commitment to serve the whole child we are a 2021 PBISAZ AmAZing Award winner for our Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) framework, JAWS (Just Be Nice, Act Responsibly, Wise Choices, Safety First), and provide students support with our social-emotional learning program, Second Step. The opportunities for students' success are endless!

More Information on PBIS:

What Is PBIS?

PBIS is an evidence-based approach that focuses on preventing challenging behavior through the implementation of positive, proactive strategies throughout the entire school. It teaches pro-social behaviors, recognizes students who exhibit expected behavior, and changes the environment so it supports positive behavior and creates safe, learning communities."(Janney, 2008)

One of the foremost advances in school-wide discipline is the emphasis on school-wide systems of support that include proactive strategies for defining, teaching, and supporting appropriate student behaviors to create positive school environments. Instead of using a piecemeal approach of individual behavioral management plans, a continuum of positive behavior support for all students within a school is implemented in areas including the classroom and non-classroom settings (such as hallways, buses, and restrooms). Positive behavior support is an application of a behaviorally based systems approach to enhance the capacity of schools, families, and communities to design effective environments that improve the link between research-validated practices and the environments in which teaching and learning occurs.

What Makes PBIS Different?

In the past, school-wide discipline has focused mainly on reacting to specific student misbehavior by implementing punishment-based strategies including reprimands, loss of privileges, office referrals, suspensions, and expulsions. Research has shown that the implementation of punishment, especially when it is used inconsistently and in the absence of other positive strategies, is ineffective. Introducing, modeling, and reinforcing positive social behavior is an important step of a student's educational experience. Teaching behavioral expectations and rewarding students for following them is a much more positive approach than responding after misbehavior has occurred. The purpose of school-wide PBIS is to establish a climate in which appropriate behavior is the norm.

The staff of Desert Shadows has developed a PBIS-based Chart of Behavioral Expectations, with a focus on expectations in the classroom, walkways, playground and cafeteria.

Chart of Behavioral Expectations

What Are Jawsome Cards?

Students are rewarded with a Jawsome Card when caught following these expectations and a portion of the card is placed into a collection container in the child's classroom. Once a week, all those stubs are turned into the front office, and collected by grade level. Names are pulled from each grade level on a weekly basis and those children are awarded a prize. At the end of each quarter, all students that were awarded a Jawsome Card during that same quarter are entered into a drawing for a larger prize.

Homework Expectations

The Governing Board believes strongly that homework is a valuable learning activity. Among its many applications include skill reinforcement, self-discipline, responsibility, wise use of time, and an opportunity for parents to observe what the student is learning in school. Assignment of appropriate homework is encouraged. The purposes of homework are:

Preparation - Provides background for future lessons and units of study
Practice - Reinforces learning to help students master specific skills
Extension - Asks students to apply skills they have already met in a new situation
Integration - Requires students to apply many different skills to a large task, such as reports, projects, and creative writing

The Governing Board supports teachers in holding students accountable for completing all homework. This policy is guided by the philosophy that the consequence for not doing homework is doing the homework. Site administrators and teachers will collaborate to develop programs and consistent practices to encourage and motivate students to complete all homework, and to provide opportunities for students to meet the requirement of completing missing homework for credit.

Homework should be seen as an opportunity to make mistakes and learn from those mistakes. As such, every assignment need not be used for grading purposes, but every assignment turned in to the teacher should be acknowledged with feedback, including, but not limited to, teacher comments, peer feedback, and/or self-evaluation.

Communication between teachers and parents regarding homework is considered essential. Parents need to be advised of what is expected of their children and how they can reinforce the learning potential of the work assigned. Each school handbook should contain resources for parents regarding homework.

School administrators and teachers are to strive toward encouraging the development of appropriate study skills necessary for homework.

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