PS9 Core Values

Social Emotional Learning (SEL) is the process in which social-emotional skills and mindsets are taught both explicitly and implicitly in all subject areas.  SEL helps students to develop healthy self-concepts, manage emotions, achieve personal and collective goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain supportive relationships, and make responsible and caring decisions. Research indicates that SEL helps to improve students’ interpersonal skills and increases their overall academic performance. Not only does SEL benefit our students on an individual basis, it also serves as a foundation for our school community.

The Core Values that are emphasized throughout the school year at PS9 are Kindness, Gratitude, Friendship, Perseverance, and Courage.Teachers of all grade levels integrate activities around these traits into their core curriculum. Teachers may use books, poems, quotes, songs as well as students’ own actions and experiences as springboards to discuss these core values. The goals of the classroom activities are not only to explicitly teach the meaning of each of the values, but also to demonstrate them and to provide opportunities to practice each of them.

Core values-themed bulletin boards and posters are displayed throughout the school.  School-wide community events, such as inter-grade Buddy Reading or assemblies, are created around these themes to emphasize their relevance and encourage student embodiment of the core values.  The PS9 Core Values committee provides families with a newsletter, which provides updates and information about how each value is being taught and practiced within the school day.  

Growth Mindset is the understanding that abilities and intelligence can be developed. Growth Mindset is a key aspect to children’s development, as it teaches that effort, hard work, and learning from mistakes leads to progress, driving overall motivation and achievement. Growth Mindset also teaches students about self-reflection and personal accountability. PS9 puts this into practice by encouraging students to try their best, using mistakes as teachable moments, teaching students how to give peer-to-peer feedback, and by conducting student-led conferences.

At home, families can talk about and model social emotional themes, growth mindset, and positive behavior choices. Students can feel the need to be ‘perfect’ and it can be extremely helpful to share with them your own personal experiences about making mistakes and how you grew from that experience. Additionally, even through simple activities such as reading a book or watching a movie/show together, you can discuss with your child the choices made by characters, how you think the characters are feeling, and how we may empathize with them to further support your child’s social emotional development.

RULER is an evidence-based approach to social and emotional learning (SEL) developed at the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence. For more information about how we use RULER at PS9, check out the Teaching and Learning page.