To help encourage conversations and dialogue about the importance of making time to find, articulate, notice, acknowledge, and celebrate ‘the good’, our topic/question of the week is: Share something good that took place or is taking place in school right now. Making Time for the Good (Week of 3/31/19) (This is an anonymous Google Form)
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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.
Friday night’s performance of How to Eat Like a Child was fantastic and a wonderful way to welcome the weekend! Special commendations and thanks to all of the students (on stage, crew, and behind the scenes, Tracy, Maureen D., Joe, Nancy M., Samantha Kerivan, Caroline Harrington, and Melissa Landis. Please try and take some time (whether you saw the show or not) to share thanks to everyone involved! The rest of our weekend was spent trying to slow down and catch up (these two things often feel ‘at odds’ with one another!) - some errands, school work, gardening, a couple runs, yoga, and ‘just being’.
Each one of us has different ways of ‘making time for the good’ - for me, it comes in different ways, but most often through reflection. Below are three ‘artifacts’ (a letter I received this week, a post from George Couros, and responses from our Topic/Question) that helped me to find the good - the key I need to remember is making the time...
Excerpt from a letter I received in the mail this week - a wonderful and meaningful example of the impact that ‘sharing good’ can make…
Dear Mr. Vaughn,
I would like to share my experience at the Middle School last week. I arrived for an after school meeting with some of the teachers. When I arrived I noticed a plaque on the wall that said something about the high school. So I asked a couple of male students who were near the door whether this was the high school. They immediately energetically began giving me directions to the high school. I quickly explained that it was the middle school I wanted and they said the door was open. Of course, I tried the door that was locked. Seeing my lack of success, they said to use the other door. No laughing, no rude remarks, just helpful suggestions given in a friendly manner. What a pleasure to see such cheerful, enthusiastic young people. I just wanted you to know that, completely unprompted, some of your students presented your school in the best possible light.
Finding the Best Fit for the Culture of a School
by George Couros (@gcouros)
I receive all of George’s posts in my e-mail inbox, but I do not always get the chance to read them. Peg Mongiello, a dear friend and mentor (and former principal at Blake) sent it to me after visiting Blake on Friday. Peg had a significant imprint on me and took a chance on me as a teacher when I was hired - her goal was to help foster the ‘right fit’ and that belief/practice had a significant imprint on me.
I might have been the best person for the “job” but not necessarily the best person for the “environment” or the culture, at the time. Sometimes a positive addition can harm a culture, and sometimes a positive subtraction can have a positive impact on the culture as well.
In education, the focus is to accelerate the school as a whole, not only the individual. The success of both should be interconnected.
Topic/Question of the Week (Week of 3/25/19): What have you learned recently that you would like to know more about and share with others?
- I recently watched a conversation between the authors David Epstein and Malcolm Gladwell about athletic development. Epstein has a book called The Sports Gene that I would like to read as well as another coming out soon. His main argument is that at young ages, specialization is not beneficial for a variety of reasons.
- History
- Google Classroom, and how many functions it can perform.
- I learned about how much poverty is in other places and that 2 billion people in the world live off 1 dollar a day.
- I recently learned of a termecoined in the 1960's The Overton window. I have also recently learned about early colors artist had to use to make other colors because many of our bright colors didn't exist until the early 1900's.
- kindness and friendliness.
- Dance and the magic of performing
- I have recently learned that bees are in terrible danger of going extinct, due to pesticides 100 times deadlier than DDT. Also that if bees die we will lose many plants pollinated by them including a lot of fruit and vegetables. Some ways to help bees are by planting bee friendly flowers (usually native flowers) or putting up bee houses for solitary bees, like the mason bee who live in holes in trees or the ground instead of hives. I want to know more about bees and I hope that others will help save them.
- the book To Kill a Mockingbird is very good and I think people should read it
- Be kind to everyone or people won’t like you or assume things about you. Also,one thing you say can turn into one big problem.
As with anything in our lives, culture needs to be intentionally fostered and nurtured to be healthy and grow. I hope we can continue to find ways to foster, nurture, and support one another (students, staff, and families alike) on this imperfect path. Please hold me accountable as well with these efforts - slowing it down, making time for the good, listening, assuming positive intent, and simply showing up.
I look forward to the work that lies ahead for all of us.
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Take care.
Nat