"Super skills” for a lifetime of success.

At the High School of Commerce, our Habits of Mind are the “super skills” or “competencies” that we believe all Pathways graduates must have to be successful in any college or career opportunity: Relationships, Agency, Communication, Knowledge & Thinking, and Work Ethic.

Here, all of your learning will be grounded in these Habits of Mind, and you will receive projects through which you will demonstrate your growth in and understanding of them. They will be the foundation of your education, and you will need to show evidence of these Habits of Mind in order to graduate from Pathways.

Pathways Habits of Mind

RELATIONSHIPS

Skill: Service

  • Students take an active role in their community and are active participants in democratic processes.

Skill: Human Diversity, Citizenship, and Sense of Community

  • Students demonstrate understanding of the cultural expressions that are characteristic of particular groups. They also demonstrate understanding of the concept of prejudice, and of its effects on various groups, while being active, constructive members of the larger community.

Skill: Growth and Change

  • Students understand continuity and change, and can demonstrate understanding of the relationship between their local environment and community heritage and how each shapes their lives.

Skill: Working Independently & Collaboratively

  • Students work and learn independently (effectively allocating time, energy, and resources) and collaboratively as part of a team (contributing to group efforts and understandings).

Skill: Healthy Choices 

  • Students make informed, healthy choices that positively affect the health, safety, and well-being of themselves and others.

AGENCY

Skill: Decision Making, Responsibility, and Integrity

  • Students make informed decisions, and demonstrate an understanding of personal economic decisions and account for their decisions. Students also make decisions that demonstrate understanding of natural and human communities, the ecological, economic, political, or social systems within them, and awareness of how their personal and collective actions affect the sustainability of these interrelated systems.
  • Students interact respectfully with others, including those with whom they have differences. They use systematic and collaborative problem-solving processes, including mediation, to negotiate and resolve conflicts.
  • Students analyze their roles and responsibilities in their family, their school, and their community.

COMMUNICATION

Skill: Reading, Writing, Speaking, and Listening

  • Students develop the proficiency, confidence, and fluency in the modes of communication needed to meet the literacy demands of the 21st century.

KNOWLEDGE & THINKING

Skill: Creative & Critical Thinking

  • Students explore information and arguments from various points of view to think critically and creatively and to solve problems.

Skill: Learning Resources and Information Technology

  • Students will be independent, competent, and confident users of information and technology, and will be able to apply related strategies for acquiring basic skills and content knowledge, communicating ideas, solving problems, and pursuing personal interests.

Skill: Workplace

  • Students demonstrate dependability, productivity, and initiative. Students know about various careers. Students develop a plan for current and continued education and training to meet personal and career goals.

WORK ETHIC

Skill: Effort, Persistence, & Reflection

  • Students demonstrate the effort and persistence needed to be successful in school, work, and life. They also reflect on past experiences as a way to inform their decision making.

Skill: Self-Worth

  • Students assess their own learning by developing rigorous criteria for themselves, and use these to set goals and produce consistently high-quality work. In addition, they assess how they learn best, and use additional learning strategies to supplement those already used. Students also demonstrate respect for themselves and others.