To help encourage conversations and dialogue about exploring interests, our topic/question for the dinner table is: If you had unlimited time, what would you choose to learn more about? Exploring Your Interests (Week of 1/15/17) (This is an anonymous Google Form)
Blake's No Homework Weekend has been hopefully embraced and experienced by all (if not completely homework-free for the adults, at least more so than usual) over the the three day weekend! We have enjoyed a relatively quiet weekend with the kids' sports and watching the playoff games. I am looking forward to the 'Day On' with some of our students at Blake's annual Day of Service and Blood Drive today - always such a centering and meaningful experience.
As much as I start each week with a 'steady and measured pace' in mind, it sure seems like the pace and list of things to do accelerates on its own. I certainly acknowledge that my internal wiring, drive, and make-up are active contributors to this pace, but at times it feels as though I just can't catch up. As I am moving from one task to the next it sure feels easy to lose sight of my overall vision or mission and just keep plodding forward without taking a breath. I shared last week that one of my intentions/resolutions for this year is to find time each day to take a 'mindful walk' and also 'mindfully read' each day, and I am proud of myself that I have been able to accomplish both this past week (although the walks have not been as long as I intended - some room to grow here!).
I have shared before that each week I try and take some time on Fridays to look back at the week and note progress and areas of growth - both growth that has taken place and growth to foster. This past Friday I tried to incorporate this reflection into my mindful walk - helping to bring a centered focus to my head to avoid the ever-growing to do list and action plan that seems to consistently run. As I looked back upon the week it was certainly a very full schedule - Blake faculty meeting, Site Council, School Committee meeting, Administrative Leadership meetings - and, at this point, I was only at Tuesday lunch-time! (I fully recognize that we each have our own version of this 'fullness' and I am not unique by any means.) At this point I realized that my head was beginning to race and I immediately began thinking of our students...What would their weekly reflection sound like? How does the pace feel to them? Do they have time to reflect? Where does a full schedule for them feel like? Are we allowing time for interests to be discovered, developed, and followed?
It was that last question - Are we allowing time for interests to be discovered, developed, and followed? - that stayed with me and I found myself stuck. Not only are we allowing time, but are we fostering and creating the time as well? If I am being honest, I am not so sure we are. I trust that our collective intent is there, but it sure feels as though the proverbial obstacles are there as well. I do not know the true answer to this challenge, but I think it is important to simply ask the question and let that question sink in a bit.
At the end of the day I am an educational optimist and believe we can find authentic and meaningful answers to these important questions - and, sometimes, it may just be a shift in one's thinking or mindset. So, what shift in thinking helped me get 'unstuck'? It was simply the idealistic vision of fostering a 'joy of learning'. That is one of the goals of all educators along with helping students to find their passions.
Our ideal may be to provide allotted time for students to explore their own interests and I do believe we can do that. But, if we are not yet there, we need to help students find the interests within and help make the learning relevant, personal, and meaningful. When I took a little more time to delve deeper into my week I was able to find the threads of interest that feed my own learning that make up the 'busy activities' of the week. And that is what I hope we can try and do for our students and one another. In other words, I think it is important to discover and then name those aspects of our days that feed our own interests and learning, for it is there that we can find the sustenance and energy to grow.
In addition to the 'mindful walks and reading', another resolution/intention is to continue to share my own learning, publicly reflect, and grow from the learning of others. I have shared below some 'artifacts' (articles, notes, and quotations - in no particular order), if you will, that reflect the intersection of activity and learning that helped to sustain and drive me over the past week...
- Presenting Blake's School Improvement Plan for 2016-2018 (Blake SIP School Committee Presentation Slides 1-9-17)
- Meeting with Blake staff to continue discussions and conversations about supporting our LGBTQ students/families/staff and establish a safe environment for our entire community
- Meeting with a team of Blake teachers to discuss how we can diversify and enhance our summer reading program for all students and staff
- #MedfieldPS Twitter Chat on Resolutions, Reflection, and Growth - https://storify.com/nat_vaughn/medfieldps-chat
- Taking time to read a few articles (listing two that I intend to come back to and reflect upon in the future)...
Alicia Hunker and ‘Scary Close’: A Vulnerable Path To Confident Teaching
by Holly Korbey in MindShift
To Encourage Creativity in Kids, Ask Them: ‘What if’?
by Matt Richtel in The New York Times
- A few Martin Luther King, Jr. quotations that spoke to me...
The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character – that is the goal of true education.
Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.
Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality.
At last week's faculty meeting, we spoke a bit about the importance of telling one's story and making sure that we give students the time and space to tell their own stories. One common thread of these stories is our shared 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. I hope we all continue to come back to this mission and find meaning in our learning so that our interests develop - and, by the same token, develop our interests so that we can find meaning in our learning.
I look forward to the work that lies ahead for all of us.
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Take care.
Nat