To encourage dialogue and reflection about community and what it takes to foster a community, our question for the week is: What can you do to help build a community? Building Community (Week of 12/4/22) (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
As we are now in the month of December and the holiday season is starting up, I hope that the weekend has been nice for all. Our weekend was pretty relaxed, watching the World Cup and Grayden’s basketball games. Katie, Grayden, and I had a nice time at the Angel Run on Sunday - it is always a festive and fun community event!
How is or how can Blake be a ‘soft place to land’?
How can we be ‘protective factors’ for Blakers and one another?
Throughout the week I have been reflecting and processing the presentation, discussions at Site Council, and conversations with others. Friday marked the end of Term 1 and the responses that these questions elicit together have made space for me to step back and think about our community of learners. Different themes emerge and I often find myself ending up with more questions than answers. As one who likes to find answers and defined next steps, I am working on ‘practicing what I preach’ by #slowingitdown and giving myself permission to simply sit with the questions. This is not to say that the action steps will not be articulated and enacted, but for now I think this space for reflection is important. On Saturday morningI listened to an episode from Brene Brown’s Dare to Lead podcast, Inclusivity at Work: The Heart of Hard Conversations (I highly recommend it and will definitely be coming back to it), and at one point Brene and her guest Aiko Bethea referenced the ‘action bias’, along with this quote from Albert Einstein…
Posts/Podcasts of Interest
Making Time to Reflect
by Rachelle Dené Poth in Getting Smart
Although the start of any school year can come with its challenges for getting back into a routine, there are so many wonderful things about teaching. The new year is a time for deciding to try different methods and tools that will benefit our students and transform learning. And the most important area that teachers need to focus on at the start and throughout the year is on building relationships. To do so, we have to be intentional about evaluating our teaching practice. How have we grown this year? What are some areas that we need to work on? How can we be better tomorrow?
The practice of reflection is essential for us as educators and it is important that we help our students develop their own reflective practices. John Dewey stated, “We do not learn from experience… we learn from reflecting on experience.” Reflection needs to be a common practice in our classrooms.
Some of the questions I ask myself are:
What am I doing differently this year?
How did I start this school year with students?
Did I dive right into teaching the content or did I spend time getting to know students and providing opportunities for them to build relationships?
Am I teaching in the exact same way that I did last year? Using the same materials, and providing the same resources, or have I changed things and now I can see a difference and an impact on student learning?
As you reflect, you may feel as though you haven’t done enough, that you forgot about a certain activity that you had done in the past, or didn’t try a tool that had been on your list, but that’s okay. It’s good to always take time to refocus and consider the “why” behind the choices that we make.
It’s hard to find time during the school day, and the work continues into the evenings and the weekends, but we have to be intentional about taking a break when we need to. Be open to the opportunities that come up, especially if that means that they will positively impact what we are providing for our students. To bring our best selves into our classrooms each day, we must regularly evaluate our teaching practice and use this reflective process to grow professionally and personally.
Why Aren’t There More Innovative Schools?
(25 minutes) from Class Disrupted Podcast
Diane Tavenner shares with Michael Horn her excitement about a school visit she did recently in South Carolina to the Anderson Institute of Technology—which raises the question of why aren’t there more schools like what Diane saw?
Imposter Syndrome, Work, and Mental Health
(30 minutes) from The Anxious Achiever Podcast
So many of us experience imposter syndrome - the idea that you feel like a fraud in your job; that you’re faking it until you make it and that any minute now, people will be able to see through it. The problem can be especially hard for high achievers. In this episode, psychologist Lisa Orbe-Austin explains what her research has shown about what we can do to eradicate these kinds of feelings.
Equality or Equity?
(28 minutes) from The Harvard EdCast Podcast
Jeffrey Duncan-Andrade discusses why schools need to be equity-focused and how equality hasn't produced the results needed.
Joanna Bridger, Riverside Trauma Center - 'Suicide Prevention: A Gatekeeper Training for School Personnel' (Notes - December, 2017)
- Concept of 'gatekeepers' - we can all serve as pieces of the gate
- Resilience as a theme - 'Some day it could be better...'
- 85% of any type of therapy's efficacy is dependent on the relationship - lots of implications here for all of our work
- Concept of 'environmental impact of care' (a nice mantra for a school environment)
- Definition of suicide: an attempt to solve the problem of intense psychological pain
- For every risk factor there are Protective Factors - We can all be protective factors
- We need to think about 'turning' the stories/narratives
- 'If you think something's wrong, it doesn't hurt to ask'
- Encourage direct vs indirect questions
- Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs - always keep these in mind
- 'Treat every student like they are vulnerable'
- Concept of Upstream Prevention
- Resilience: Increase Prosociality, Psychological Flexibililty; Decrease Toxic Influences
- Learning to teach/educate in a trauma-informed way
- Good postvention is prevention
- Compassionate Presence - another great mantra to embrace
- We can build a 'competent community'
Listen – The Do’s
- Let them express their feelings
- Listen without judgment
- Listen with your heart not your words
- Be compassionate
- Put away distractions and show you’re present through verbal and physical affirmations (open body language)
- Paraphrase what you hear and validate their feelings
Listen – The Don’ts
- Talk about yourself or your own experiences
- Tell them what they are feeling is unimportant, wrong, or will pass
- Tell them it’s just a phase
- Interrupt or change the topic
- Minimize feelings or experiences
The three posts below were shared in the context of the faculty meeting and all speak to the importance of 'protective factors', providing a foundation of agency for all adults in our community. It is critical that we keep these in mind and to know that we can be protective factors to help build resilience (Creating resilience in children isn’t just chucking them into the deep end of a pool to see if they can swim, it’s about the bedrock of support you give them every day...the crucial part is that children feel safe and supported. In order to weather a storm, you need a solid shelter)...
Ann Masten: Children’s Natural Resilience is Nurtured Through ‘Ordinary Magic’
by Andy Steiner in MinnPost
...resilience emerges from multiple processes. It’s not one trait; it’s not one thing. There are many different systems that contribute. And those are what I call “ordinary magic.” Many, many studies point to the same list of qualities that are associated with resilience, but one of those, for example, is having close relationships with competent, caring adults. It’s not in the child. That is in a relationship, and, unfortunately, not every child has that opportunity.
The basic characteristics for resilience are: Caregivers and family that are looking out for you. A human brain in good working order. A human brain that has learned through interactions and training with a lot of people who care. Parents and teachers encouraging children to pay attention, solve problems and control behavior. Those systems are important for adapting when things are difficult.
The Secret to Raising a Resilient Kid
by Erik Vance in The New York Times
Creating resilience in children isn’t just chucking them into the deep end of a pool to see if they can swim, it’s about the bedrock of support you give them every day.
Children need to feel they have a stable home base before they can take risks and learn to bounce back. If a child skins her elbow falling off a bike, the best way to help her get back on is to make sure she knows she’s loved no matter what. Dr. Masten said resilience is less a specific trait and more a network of overlapping ones, like flexibility, confidence and even societal supports, like health care and schooling. But the crucial part is that children feel safe and supported. In order to weather a storm, you need a solid shelter.
A Soft Place to Land
by Jane R. Shore
“My community gives me permission to dream big because they permit me to fall, which leads me to rising.” @Luvvie Ajayi
Being surrounded by people who show us that community is a verb is my soft place to land. I am endlessly inspired and heartened by people who commit to one another like this.
“In a legitimate democracy, (a soft place to land) means that your well-being is considered and your ability to help design and give meaning to its structures and institutions is realized.” John Powell, design architect at the Stanford d.school
As we think about and actively serve as ‘protective factors’, actively asking questions and listening are practices that will help us stay attuned as we aim to foster, build, and nurture a community of learning and support for all…
Sampling of Responses from Last Week’s ‘Question of the Week’: What is something you would like to improve over the next few weeks?
- Math
- I would like to improve on staying on tasks and completing work in a timely manner.
- I'd like to improve upon my physical & mental health by exercising at least ONCE this week!
- I would like to improve on my efficiency and using my time wisely
- Turning my homework in on time.
- I don't think I want to improve anything, because all the teacher have been great and are trying to help me to understand .
- I want to improve my grades in English.
- I would like to improve my writing author's craft CEA's.
- I don't know.
- Winter photography
- My math
- Practicing my instrument more
- Hydrating
- Helping around the house
- I want to work on CEA's in math.
- Improve my dribbling and jump shot
- Science
- My answering
- Stress: I want to improve on that.
- Playing my instrument
- I would like to improve in my sports and in school. Soccer, basketball, tennis.
- math skills
- I would like to improve on staying focused
- I would like to improve my organization over the next few weeks.
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Take care.
Nat