The Culture Guide

Adaptability: an attribute to adjust and act on what matters (to see, to act, to invent)Agency: ability to act reflective of interests, values, and inner motivations

Artificial Intelligence: ability of a machine to perform cognitive functions associated with human minds, such as perceiving, reasoning, learning, and problem solving

Attributes: the dispositions and the behaviors that contribute to or impede the exercise of certain skill sets or abilities; how we act particularly in unknown situations and show up through challenging, stressful, or uncertain moments

Authentic: real and relevant applications of knowledge; applied to setting, action or outcome

Behavioral Health & Well-Being: a set of behavioral health and well-being learning competencies in PS-12 focused on recognition, knowledge, attitudes, and actionBe Brave to Try (and Try Again): a mantra focused on confronting fear, taking a risk, overcoming a setback, failing up, and persevering through

College Ready: an integral missional term focused on setting the conditions for learners to be prepared for the academic standards and executives functions required for entry into colleges and universitiesCompetency-Based Education (CBE): the foundation of all faculty and student learning focused on mastery and grounded in equity; with a common set of rigorous standards, meaningful assessment practices, and evidence-based grading, learners employ personalized pathways, receive differentiated support, and are empowered daily to make decisions about their learning

Communicating: an active skill focused on storytelling and public speaking, asking meaningful questions, synthesizing messages, effective listening, dialoguing across difference, and adjusting to audience

Connecting: a people-centered skill cultivated to maintain healthy relationships along with the ability to create spaces where people from different backgrounds come together, collaborate, and connect the dots to create something meaningful to self and consequential to others

Creativity: an attribute that imagines, improvises, and adapts as new challenges and opportunities arise, creating new and original ideas, methods, or expressions

Critical Thinking: a circular skill that uses reflection and logical reasoning of knowledge and perspectives to reach a conclusion by challenging assumptions, suspending judgment, considering alternative viewpoints, while being able to see how multiple ideas are interconnected in a bigger picture

Curiosity: an attribute that seeks to gain more knowledge through active inquiry, staying open to the flow of information, a the willingness to expand and adjust existing paradigms to accommodate new information

Customized: teaching and learning approach; starts with the pre-identified needs of the individual learners where materials, resources, and strategies are adapted to support the learner’s needs; teachers customize learning tasks based on individual needs

Differentiated: teaching and learning approach; starts with groups of learners where content, product, process or learning environment is adapted to meet the needs of learners; teachers often choose the topics and determines how students should demonstrate their learningDigital Fluency: a set of digital learning competencies in PS-12 focused on a) digital literacy, learning, and ethics; programming, b) data analysis and statistics, and computational thinking; and c) data literacy and smart systems

Diversity: representation and appreciation of a range of differences that together assist in pursuing missional goals and objectives

Empathy: an attribute that fuels connection through recognizing the emotion another person is experiencing while staying out of judgmentEngaged Citizen Leader: an integral missional term focused on setting the conditions for learners to empathize and impact others through service, advocacy, and leadership

Equity: a commitment to meeting the needs of individuals – responsive to voice, choice, and differentiation through learning, assessment, and building community

ESG: environmental, social, and governance standards that organizations adapt and evaluate themselves against real world demands

Global & Cultural Proficiency: a set of global and cultural proficiency learning competencies in PS-12 that begins with fostering trust and autonomy at infancy and builds toward empowering adolescents to refine their personal values and positive individual identity; ability to investigate the world, recognize diverse perspectives, to communicate effectively with diverse audiences, and to make an impactGlobally Competitive: an integral missional term focused on setting the conditions for learners to be equipped with the means of accessing and analyzing a broad range of cultural practices and meanings as well as to engage in experiences that facilitate global and intercultural relationships and concepts

Grace: an attribute giving yourself and others the space to grow; disposition to show kindness and compassion

Grounded in Christian Values: an integral missional term focused on the values of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control; rather than creating a theological perspective, the lived out Christian values anchor us, cultivate common ground to design a better world

Grow & Give: a mantra expressing the willingness to learn to achieve and the willingness to serve to make others better

Have Fun: a mantra reminding all learners in community to enjoy the moment, celebrate each otherHelp Me See What You See: an empathy-building mantra that acknowledges one’s own perspective may be incomplete and seeks to understand the viewpoint of someone else

Humanities: a set of humanities-based learning competencies in PS-12 focused on the knowledge and study of human society and culture through philosophy, history, literature, and the arts

IDEA: a commitment to advance inclusion, diversity, equity, and action through relationships, programs, and strategyImpact Ready: the agency and autonomy to explore, discover, and act on what is meaningful to self and consequential to others

Inclusion: a commitment focused on belonging to the point of ownership where each member actively makes positive contributions to the experiences of others and knows that others are doing the same in return

Innovating: a responsive skill focused on exploring, reframing, and designing in a climate of change by regenerating unique ideas with value and meaning that optimizes, transforms, or disrupts a program, product, methodology, system, or industry

Inquiry-Based Learning (IBL): a teaching and learning approach focused on the tenets of design thinking, project-based learning, and visible thinking routines where learners ask questions, conduct research, explore new ideas, and make an impact

Integrity: an attribute that exhibits honesty and respect demonstrated through personal accountability and social and civic responsibility

Lead from Where You Are: a mantra expressing one’s capacity to lead and influence regardless of position; the ability to meet the moment of one’s circumstancesLiteracies: the theoretical or foundational framework acquired through formal programs of study or informal interest-driven projects and circumstances

Maker, Art, & Design: a set of maker, art, and design literacies in PS-12 centered around the School’s design thinking model to create, make, design, and engineer people-centered solutions

Mantra: a virtue reflective of the conditioning and fuel required for sustained growth, performance, and accountability over time; thriving behavior in this culture

Metaverse: an immersive, three-dimensional environments in which users interact with their surrounding and other users in a shared space, including both the physical and digital/virtual worlds

Personalized: teaching and learning approach; starts with the learner connecting with personal interests and passions where the learner plays an active role in the learning process, working closely with the teacher to develop learning goals; teacher acts a coach or facilitator by supporting students to uncover how they learn best, and how they choose to demonstrate evidence of learning

Professional Learning Competencies: a set of professional competencies in the practices of faculty and teacher leaders to serve as the foundation of professional practice at MV

Reading & Writing: set of reading and writing learning competencies in PS-12 focused on foundational phonemic awareness and word analysis to build reading skills and comprehension, interpretation and evaluation of a variety of texts, and using spoken, written and visual language to express ideas, write clearly, and communicate effectively

Regenerative: relating to the improvement of a system, especially by making it more active or successful, or to build on by generating patterns of growth

Relationships: the meaningful connections foundational to learning needed to effectively navigate the community, the economy, and the world; diverse, social, professional, and innovation network across multiple dimensions

Scientific Inquiry: set of science learning competencies in PS-12 focused on observing, questioning, predicting, testing, theorizing, challenging, and refining understanding through the study of biology, chemistry, physics, earth and environmental science

Self-Leadership: an attribute focused on self awareness and self management (understanding one’s own emotions, self-control and regulation, understanding own strengths and areas of growth, self-motivation and wellness, self confidence), entrepreneurship (courage and risk taking, energy, passion and optimism, driving innovation) and goals achievement (ownership, grit and persistence, achievement orientation, coping and uncertainty, and self-development)

Skills: the capacities or abilities to apply knowledge in known, predictable, and contextual situations; adding value beyond what can be done by intelligent machines

Smart Campus: an ecosystem leveraging innovative next-generation technologies to create a digitally connected campus through fostering engagement, guiding insight-driven learning pathways, leveraging interactive learning models, and improving operational efficiency and effectiveness

Social Capital: access to, and ability to mobilize, relationships that help further their potential and their goal; relationships that offer resources that drive access to opportunity; diverse, social, professional, and innovation network across multiple dimensions

Solution Seeking: a linear skill that discovers solutions to complex problems through the formulation of meaningful questions, observation, interpretation of data, experimentation, iteration, and evaluation

Start with Questions: a mantra that calls one to begin with a careful construction of active inquiry which requires self-reflection and self-restraint, free of preconceived notions