Character with Gulf Elementary

Gulf Elementary named their houses based on the eight pillars of character. To get creative, the team at Gulf Elementary studied the word origins for each pillar and then translated the pillar as closely as possible into the origin language.

Auctoritas

Pillar: Responsibility

Language: Latin

Qualities:

• Act responsibly
• Keep trying
• Create a safe learning  space
• Always do your best
• Think before you act

Integritat

Pillar: Integrity

Language: German

Qualities:

• Doing the right thing, even when no one is looking
• Admitting when you make a mistake & apologizing

Justice

Pillar: Fairness

Language: French

Qualities:

• Let others learn
• Play by the rules
• Take turns and share

Meas

Pillar: Respect

Language: Irish

Qualities:

• Give respect to others
• Listen to what others have to say
• Make others feel accepted
• Be polite; don’t make fun of people or call them names

Omgee

Pillar: Caring

Language: Afrikaans

Qualities:

• Encourage safety
• Be kind
• Forgive others
• Be thankful
• Help people in need

Saoranacht

Pillar: Citizenship

Language: Irish

Qualities:

• Be a good friend/neighbor
• Respect family values & follow the rules
• Do your part in helping make our school, community & world a better place

Valor

Pillar: Courage

Language: Spanish

Qualities:

• Know what is good, true & right
• Doing the right thing even if it is difficult
• Always tell the truth
• Facing your fears with confidence
• Taking responsibility for your actions

Virtuoso

Pillar: Trustworthy

Language: Portuguese

Qualities:

• Engage in learning
• Be honest - don’t lie, steal or cheat
• Always keep your  promises
• Have the courage to do  the right thing

How Houses Build Their Community

The House System provides an opportunity for students and faculty to interact across grade levels. In doing so, the school community benefits from positive peer involvement, increased school spirit, and healthy competition.

Each house is represented by a color, animal, and character trait. They even come up with a house chant and "secret" hello to connect to the housemates.

For example, in the house, Justice, they have an owl as its mascot, and they put up a pinky and pointer and say "whoooo" to fellow owls at school.

Students who have been at Gulf Elementary remain a member of their forever house.  New students have been sorted into their forever houses and receive a house color bandana as a welcome gift on their first day at Gulf Elementary. They encourage showing pride in their house by wearing house colors on Fridays. House shirts are available for purchase through the school store.

Houses meet throughout the year to participate in team bonding activities, work on character trait development, and complete special projects together.

Earning House Points

Students receive positive points in LiveSchool for hard work and good behavior. It can also be used to document poor choices to monitor and correct those behaviors. Students spend those points on various classroom and school-wide rewards. Positive points also apply to their house; points are never deducted from house point totals.

There is even be a friendly house competition between all the houses to see who will be the eventual “House Champion” for each quarter and the school year.