To help encourage dialogue and reflection about the paths in our lives and how we are a part of them, our question of the week is: What path/route/direction/decision would you choose - the one that is simple (less challenging and requires no change) and incorrect, or the one that is complex (more challenging and requires changes) and correct? Why did you choose this path? Does it depend on the situation? Can you share an example? Paths that Honor Our Students and Ourselves (Week of 5/2/21) (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 first week after a vacation definitely feels like a whirlwind (at least for me!), and this past week certainly had that feel about it for us as a family. With our two older children returning to full in-person learning and the typical adjustments to a busier schedule, the weekend was definitely welcomed in our house! I hope the same was true for everyone, as we adapt to our Spring schedules.
On Saturday morning Katie and I participated in an outdoor yoga class - with the wind blowing by Lake Winthrop in Holliston, it was a chilly start to the day/weekend, for sure! At the start of each class, a theme is suggested and this class’s suggestion was ‘Community’. It really resonated as I began to think about community on many levels - community as a family, community as a source of strength, community of like minds, community of divergent thought, community for celebration, community for support - clearly, the list could go on and on. What really resonated and stayed with me throughout class and after class is the importance of a community, and the need to be intentional and explicit in our actions to foster and establish one. We must be diligent and purposeful in this work - and our systems must reflect the values of the community. And, maybe most importantly, we must think about these questions…
How can we honor and foster each person’s individuality in our learning community? What systems and practices help us to achieve that honor?
These questions are reflected here as well...
Honor/Power, and Value
Last Friday I, along with a team from both Blake and Wheelock, participated in a daylong workshop of professional development and collaboration. (This was part of the district’s partnership/endeavor with the state to improve the IEP process for students and families.) It was excellent, reflective, and centering - and, as is often the case I found myself leaving with more questions (some answers, for sure, but definitely more questions). In addition to the notes from the January workshop we attended (originally shared back in early February - Learning to Love Learning) that I am re-sharing as they really help drive the work, I am sharing my notes from the keynote given by Andratesha Fritzgerald. Her presentation focused on the roles that honor and power play in our schools.
Power and Empowerment - Andratesha Fritzgerald (@FritzTesha)
Andratesha Fritzgerald, EdS, serves as Director of Teaching, Learning, and Innovation for the East Cleveland (OH) City School Districts and has been a teacher and leader in urban schools for nearly 20 years.
- Our Goals
- Define power and honor
- Evaluate power filled choices and examine the implications of power in instructional design
- Co-create a community of educators who are conscious of how to use power to honor learners
- Bill Wilmot Syndrome
- Thought provoking reflection
- Hear the same words differently
- Intellectual sparring that leads to deeper understanding
- Universal Design for Learning - Multiple Means of...
- Engagement
- Recruiting Interest
- Sustaining Effort
- Self Regulation
- Representation
- Perception
- Language and Symbols
- Comprehension
- Action and Expression
- Physical Action
- Expression and Communication
- Executive Functions
- Engagement
- ‘When awareness meets decision, there is power’
- Awareness + Decision = Power
- Being less able to see others’ point of view leads to reliance on stereotypes
- Structures
- Power + Limited Vision = Stereotype Threat
- Power + Prejudice = Racism/Ableism
- Power + Honor = Community
- Key Questions
- What decisions are you making about learners?
- How will you challenge the assumptions?
- What decisions are you making for learners?
- How will you entrust more decision making power to learners in your design?
- What decisions are you keeping from learners?
- How will you evaluate your design to increase honoring learners by inviting their power to the learning environment?
- What barriers are you designing to eliminate in secret?
- How will you purposefully increase awareness of systemic barriers for learners?
- In what areas are learners least aware of your decisions?
- How will you increase learners’ awareness and involvement in your decision making process?
- Have you examined your own awareness of power and privilege in your design?
- How will you continue the self work to lead the work of co-creating communities of honor?
- What decisions are you making about learners?
- Co-creating communities of honor
- Words, Thoughts, Intentions, Actions
- Themes
- You are important
- You are more important than the systems we serve
- You are more important than my personal preferences
- More important than the way the context is packaged
- I want to learn
- I am willing to learn about you to help you reach your life goals
- Honor
- I will honor you with instruction that includes you and respects the power you bring to your learning community
- You are important
IEP Improvement Project daylong workshop (Notes from January session)
- Culture is software to hardware (Zaretta Hammond)
- Concept of ‘Organized Flexibility’
- We believe in the future of our children
- Consistency is what we would hope for - equity comes from consistency
- Concept of Nexus vs Pipelines for students
- Paradox of ‘Special Education’: Ever since the passage of the original IDEA, educators, researchers, and policymakers have acknowledged concern over the “paradox of special education.” The paradox being: special education provides students with critical services, supports, accommodations, and legal rights that help them succeed in school; yet, at the same time, special education identification can result in lowered expectations from teachers, limited access to the general education curricula, and stigma.” — The Century Foundation, Students from Low-Income Families and Special Education
Paths/Choices
What path/route/direction/decision would you choose - the one that is simple (less challenging and requires no change) and incorrect, or the one that is complex (more challenging and requires changes) and correct? Why did you choose this path? Does it depend on the situation? Can you share an example?
As noted above, more questions start to come to mind…
As a learning community, what paths do we want to take? How do we as a school community answer these questions? What roles do honor and power play in our decisions and the paths we choose to take? How are we fostering these conversations with our students?
These three ‘categories’ (for lack of a better word) - Community, Honor and Power, and Paths/Choices - are ones I hope we can continue to think about and incorporate into our daily conversations and concrete steps that we take. And, truly, as I have said before...
I hope that our Guiding Lights, mission, and core values will serve as our collective compass points - as Colby Swettberg says, ‘We will make the path by walking it’.
With these thoughts bouncing around and the month of May now in swing, some responses from last week’s question and the three posts below are worthy of reflection as we keep taking intentional steps along the path we are making towards an equitable system/community for all of our learners…
Equity in Education: We Don't Need To Level the Playing Field, We Need to Change the Game
by Erin Lynn Raab in Getting Smart
There’s a lot of talk about “equity” in conversations about education these days. And we need it. An over-focus on test scores, attainment, and limited outcomes has frightfully de-humanized schooling.
Even if schools succeed with every student — let’s say everyone can do differential calculus, has “grit”, and gets a Ph.D. — it doesn’t matter at a macro system level. If we maintain an economically unequal society, then many people won’t earn enough to support themselves and their families, regardless of how much skill or grit they have. Framing equity in terms of competition, attainment, and social mobility pits our students against one another for supposedly scarce resources — if there are some who race to the “top” it’s to the detriment of those who stay at the bottom.
When we frame the purpose of schooling as social mobility and educational equity in terms of competition, schooling does become a highly refined sorting mechanism but it does not solve issues of inequality.
...in schooling, we should be focused on true educational equity, rather than pursuing pseudo equity through competition. But if we don’t reframe how we think about educational equity, we’ll never achieve it. True educational equity is not about future test scores or graduation rates or wealth. True educational equity is not about the future at all — it’s about now — the environment and experiences students have that allow them to flourish today.
True educational equity is achieved when every child develops the knowledge, skills, character, and beliefs they need to reflect accurately on their world, make choices aligned with their values and preferences, and work with others through democratic processes to make the whole system more equal and equitable for all. We don’t need to level the playing field so everyone can equally compete, we need to change the game — make sure our democracy works for all, and our schools work for our democracy.
From Pandemic to Possibility: Now is the Time to Consider Competency-Based Education
by Ben Owens and Jerry Lee in Getting Smart
“The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.” From the time I first read this famous Stephen Covey quote in the late 1980s, I’ve always used it as my litmus test for deciding if an initiative I was considering would be beneficial or a distraction. Its power lies not only in an objective evaluation for strategic planning, but it also forces you or your organization to really come to terms with your why. This also explains why I believe so many educators are suggesting that now is the time to move away from the old norms of traditional grading and assessment and embrace a Competency-Based Education (CBE) approach: it better aligns with the “main thing” of true teaching and learning.
You may be thinking that this is indeed the kind of environment I want in my school. But you also may be thinking that while still in the midst of a pandemic, I might not want to advocate for more change. I respectfully disagree. Borrowing from Churchill’s famous quote, “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste,” this is indeed the right time for the kind of profound disruption many education stakeholders have been calling for far too long. It provides the ideal opportunity for the kind of transformation our students deserve.
The pace of change in every aspect of our world is accelerating and it’s well past the time we move from a model that was designed for a different age to one that acknowledges and celebrates students as creative individuals instead of conforming factory workers. This, above all the other reasons listed above, is why you should be taking a bold stance to demand transformative education now, including a serious look at making the leap to Competency Based Education. Will you take such a stance? Don’t be the educator who looks back at this time 5 years from now and thinks, “If I only had done more to lead the call for change when our entire education system was ripe for change.”
Three questions every parent should be asking their school right now
by Devin Vodicka (@dvodicka)
** Note that this was written in September, 2020 - the questions still resonate and are relevant, but it is important to note when it was originally posted for context.
...you also need to ask superintendents, principals, and teachers some tough and important questions. You can and should support educators, but you should not let us off the hook. By now, schools should have clear answers to these questions, answers that show that they too are exhibiting creativity, flexibility and resilience in these challenging times.
Question #1: What outcomes are you prioritizing for my student?
There is a much more important set of outcomes for children’s success in the modern world. Many organizations are thinking this way, and there are many frameworks that are emerging. I boil it down to three outcomes that will most empower learners and set them up for success in the modern world: 1) developing high levels of agency, 2) building skills related to collaboration, and 3) gaining the ability to effectively solve real-world problems. These are the outcomes that will increasingly make the difference for students over the course of their lives.
Question #2: How are you designing school to achieve these outcomes?
A good answer to this question from a school leader would demonstrate a thoughtful synthesis of design features that would likely include 1) a combination of virtual and in-person learning, 2) humans and technology both playing purposeful roles aligned to their respective strengths, and 3) nuanced thinking about the relationship between health and safety risk and other developmental needs.
Question #3: How will you know if your plan is working, and make course corrections if not?
A good answer to this question from a school leader would demonstrate a plan for measuring progress towards these new outcomes, even if it is an imperfect one. It would also show a real commitment to sharing results, and making adjustments along the way in a collaborative manner that models the very skills and dispositions we are trying to develop in our learners.
The most basic ask you should have of your educators and school leaders is that they are modeling these outcomes themselves, demonstrating their commitment to lifelong learning, creating space for others to have agency in their education, collaborating effectively with others, and showing the capacity to solve real world problems in a way that moves us forward to a better system for everyone.
Sampling of Responses from Last Week’s ‘Question of the Week’: How can rest (a week of vacation) and time for reflection help you to learn, grow, and improve? Can you share a specific example?
- By giving me a rest.
- Rest over this particular vacation has provided time to reflect on guiding principles and values. The rest has given a renewed purpose to define those values and stand by them when they are challenged.
- It allows me to clear my head and see things from a new perspective! Reflecting on this year, I realized that small groupings at a time allow me to provide better feedback and instruction!
- It makes me less stressed.
- I think I need to calm down in lunch sometimes; I think if we can go outside then we would be much better
- I think you can learn more when you are relaxed.
- Because reflecting helps you know what to do
- Doing yoga
- It can give you time off to relax your brain, if you learn to much to quickly you forget it as quickly
- Maybe it can help me reflect on my last year.
- It can give your brain another look at things and a rest
- Give you a break from school and maybe some stress idk
- It is a good time to get stuff done out of school, which is very important.
- It gives students a time to relax and breathe and not have to stress about school
- So that way I can have a break from all of the school work and a stress free break
- Rest can improve our learning because we have a chance to step back and take a break from being stressed. If you are less stressed then you will have a better chance at succeeding. For example if i'm trying to finish a math assignment that is difficult, it is easier for me to do it at a time when I know I can sit down and work through it as slowly as I need.
- It can help me grow, learn, and improve because it gives me time to practice things that I love doing.
- It helps because you just can take your mind off school for a week and come back with a new mindset to school.
In honor of Teacher Appreciation Week, I am sharing words from Voltaire that I have shared in past years along with some of my own sentiments. They may sound and read as repetitive, but I assure you that the feelings are genuine, real, and current. This practice of appreciation is one that is critical and beneficial for all...
Words do not truly express the appreciation I have and feel for the teachers (again, broadly defined) with whom I work, along with the teachers who have left their imprint on my mind, heart, and being. I have been fortunate to have wonderful teachers/mentors throughout my life at all levels (Dr. Sheila Fisher, Professor Jerry Watts, John D’Auria, and Mrs. Goldsmith are teachers that often come to mind), both personally and professionally, and I hope I honor them with my efforts each day. I hope we can all find time to appreciate each other this week.
As I say quite often, Blake Middle School is a special place (it may sound trite, but the sentiment is sincere) and I am so proud to be a part of the collective mission to enhance the learning experience for our students. It is a privilege and a joy to work every day with such a fine team of educators and this recognition is a reflection of our students, staff, and learning community.
As always, let me know of any questions/concerns.
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Take care.
Nat