To encourage dialogue and reflection about continuous learning and improvement, our question for the week is: What is something you have learned recently that you would like to learn more about? Better Versions (Week of 1/14/24) (This is an anonymous Google Form)
Blake's Guiding Lights
Our Students
Blake's Core Values: Respect, Responsibility, Resourcefulness, Reflection
Our Essential Question: How can we cultivate and curate the progression of student learning and growth?
Our Mission: Blake Middle School believes in a living mission statement, based on the concept that our community seeks and respects knowledge, integrity, character, wisdom, and the willingness to adapt to a continually evolving world.
The most important attitude that can be formed is that of desire to go on learning. - John Dewey
You cannot teach today the same way you did yesterday to prepare students for tomorrow. - John Dewey
The rainy and gray weather on Saturday definitely helped me to embrace our no homework weekend and take some time to just be - definitely a growing edge for me. Amidst carving some time for rest, it was a basketball-filled weekend for us - games for both boys and the real treat for all of us was a trip to the Celtics game on Saturday night. With Maggie returning to school on Monday, it was wonderful to have that family time together. It was so great to start Monday’s #dayofservice with the blood drive at Blake - please join me in thanking Cynthia for her leadership, commitment, and care in leading the 10th year of this drive with the students and staff volunteers!
During our leadership training on Thursday with Dr. Stephanie Pinder-Amaker and Dr. Lauren Wadsworth, authors of Did That Just Happen?! Beyond "Diversity" - Creating Sustainable and Inclusive Organizations and co-founders of Twin Star Intersectional Diversity Trainers, one of their messages was of continuous reflection, learning, and growth. We will make mistakes and can anticipate/expect these to happen, yet it is in this process that we will get better.
Of the many hopes I have for our students, and truly our community, one is that they will internalize that drive and message from Dr. King…
Be a bush if you can’t be a tree. If you can’t be a highway, just be a trail. If you can’t be a sun, be a star. For it isn’t by size that you win or fail. Be the best of whatever you are.
Carrying this into ‘action’, below are a variety of ‘shares’ that highlight areas of learning/growth and touch on the path towards potential ‘better versions of ourselves’ - a few notes from the recent workshop (more to come!), recent posts/podcasts, messages from Dr. King, some responses reflecting hopes for 2024, and a few more annual messages/shares from Dr. King…
Some Notes from Leading Through Empowered Listening Workshop
- Discomfort - accept and expect discomfort
- Bound to make mistakes
- Why listen?
- James Baldwin Quote - ‘Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced.’
- But nothing can be changed until it is faced.’
- Important to be receivers of information
- Why are empowering listening skills important?
- When leaders make themselves available and make a space, a shift in culture can occur
- Everyone in the organization has a role in promoting inclusivity and belonging
- We have been historically been encouraged not to talk about ‘this work’
- Closing
- No one training will suffice
- Continued learning and listening are necessary
- There will always be students, faculty & staff reluctant to share the truth of their experiences
- Building trust through our actions is part of the ongoing work
Posts/Podcasts of Interest
Invest in Connection
Being present pays dividends
by Marc Schulz in The Character Lab
Research finds that teens who grow in independence while maintaining their connection to their parents do better—with higher self-esteem and a more mature understanding of the world—than the ones who become autonomous at the expense of those ties.
Don’t believe your adolescent wants to be left alone all the time.
Do let your teen know you want to stay connected. When they push you away, you might respond, “I know you want some time alone right now, but let’s find another time to hang out a bit or do something together.” Beneath all the bravado, your teen really does need you.
Judgment
Getting as close as possible to the best answer
by Olivier Sibony and Daniel Kahneman in The Character Lab
…even the wisest experts are susceptible to both bias (consistently going in the wrong direction) and noise (randomly missing the mark). The first step to more accurate and precise judgment is to understand the ways in which the human mind jumps to conclusions. Your judgment will never be perfect—but you can strive to be aware of your limitations and to correct for them.
Where Do Feelings Come From?
(50 min) from Hidden Brain
Most of us feel that our emotions are reactions to those outside of us. Someone cuts us off in traffic, and we say that the other driver made us upset. A friend brings over food when we're sick, and we say the friend offered us comfort. But psychologist and neuroscientist Lisa Feldman Barrett argues that our feelings are not, in fact, responses to the world — they're really predictions about the world. And she says we can exercise more control over those predictions than we realize.
The Dark Side of the Obsession With Focus
(48 min) from Plain English with Derek Thompson
The 'New York Times' bestselling author and contrarian self-help writer Oliver Burkeman joins the show to talk about his new audio essay series on work, focus, and interruptions—and how, too often, our emphasis on eliminating distractions ironically takes us away from the most important things in life.
Making the Most of Your Mistakes
(51 min) from Hidden Brain
When we're learning, or trying new things, mistakes are inevitable. Some of these mistakes provide us with valuable information, while others are just harmful. This week, we kick off the new year with researcher Amy Edmondson, who explains the difference between constructive failures and those we should try to avoid.
Dr. King’s Words Encouraging Growth, Struggle, and Action
- Get good grades
- Have fun
- Do good
- Achieve my academic goals
- Get a job
- Believe in myself and work hard
- Take the time to appreciate the small moments and the tiny wins.
- Get better at spelling and math
- Get better grades than I did last year
- Learn
- Get good grades in school, and grow in my learning
- Have a set friend group
- This year I hope to go to another National Park and go to Montana again.
- I hope to learn how to crochet.
- Have fun and enjoy time with family.
- Complete my new year's resolutions : start journaling (gratitude), get a four in Spanish next report cards, spend less time on screens, etc.
- Be kinder to others.
- I hope to get way more sleep than I do right now and practice my sports more
Words from Dr. King
** These words are ones I come back to and share every year…
“So even though we face difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream.”
“Find a voice in a whisper.”
“There is no such thing as separate but equal. Separation, segregation, inevitably makes for inequality.”
"I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear."
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Take care.
Nat