To help encourage conversations and dialogue about the importance of actively pursuing learning, our topic/question for the week is: What are you currently excited about learning? Why? Pursuing Learning (Week of 2/10-2/14) (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
We welcomed in the weekend together as family, celebrating Katie’s birthday with a dinner out at our favorite spot - Sweet Basil in Needham. It is an overused saying, but it feels like we never have time with schedules to just be together as a family - it was lovely! Between shuffling here and there for the kids’ activities, we managed to get in a few walks (sunshine was lovely on Saturday!) and enjoyed hanging out with family on Saturday night. We are all ‘gearing up’ for the last push before vacation - Grayden was hoping for a 3-day weekend this past Monday! :)
The screenshot below is one of the ‘core set’ of slides for our faculty meeting slide decks, serving as a consistent reminder of the importance of ‘collective teacher efficacy’ and culture of learning for the adults here at Blake...
- Study group on race
- Planning for summer reading
- Black History Month planning and implementation
- Delving into Power/Priority Standards during our professional afternoon
- Perusing the responses from the recent Blake staff check-in
- Attending a screening of the documentary, documentary I'm Not Racist...Am I?
- Learning a different way to teach the Quadratic Formula (This Professor’s ‘Amazing’ Trick Makes Quadratic Equations Easier) - thanks, Brian G.!
- Mapping out future work with Colby Swettberg and Jason Wheeler to support and foster a safe learning environment for all students and families
Andragogy - The art or science of teaching adults (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/andragogy)
Having never heard this term it immediately resonated as we need to see our own learning as more than just a practice - it truly is an art/science, and it is one that we should express and articulate via these questions...How are we currently learning as adults? How are we teaching one another as adults? Are these questions and answers connected?
At our faculty meeting this week we will be taking some time to talk about our own learning as educators, and the posts below are ones that help to underscore the role that relevant and active pursuance of education plays for our students and community. Mindfulness and the ways we foster our own resilience plays into this as well, and shared strategies/steps offered in response to last week’s topic/question are encouraging and reflect growth…
Responses from Our Last Topic/Question (Week of 2/2/20): Share a strategy or ‘step you are taking’ to be more mindful, present in the moment, pay attention, and ‘less stressed’? Be specific.
- I focus on what I'm doing at that moment. If there is an overriding communication gap with others, I lighten the situation with a sense of humor or empathy towards the situation that might cause stress for me.
- If I have a phone, pencil, pen, etc in my hand, I put it down and say "I'm putting this down so I am able to be present."
- Try to know what you are looking for, appreciate what you see anyway
- I am trying to meditate 3-4 times a week to help!
- The 3-7-8 method
- I am trying to get more sleep.
- Deep breathing
- I am trying to listen patiently to people with whom I disagree.
- I like to take naps. It’s relaxing.
- I sit down for a moment and take deep breaths, and afterwards I read.
- Hanging with my cats
- Remembering to breathe, full deep breaths--even for a minute!
- I have been taking a lot of walks with my dog recently. Being able to get outside, even for 10 minutes has been very relaxing.
- I try to take a walk or get some fresh air every day.
- Allow myself to be “not finished” with a task in order to engage unique task-filled moments (unscheduled) Be quick to drop what I am doing without frustration or annoyance
Why Focusing On Adult Learning Builds A School Culture Where Students Thrive
by Katrina Schwartz (@KSchwart) in MindShift
This post focuses on the work of Deb Helsing, Robert Kegan, and Lisa Lahey around learning cultures, specifically cultures and organizations that embody deliberately developmental learning. (An Everyone Culture: Becoming a Deliberately Developmental Organization). I have always been a fan of Kegan’s work (‘If we are successful, we are all going to get a little uncomfortable’), and it is a hope that we can continue to be a learning organization in a deliberate manner for our students.
Helsing and her colleagues, Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey, found that when adults continue to learn at their jobs they are better at creating that experience for other people. She says if schools are going to be places where students consistently push against the edge of what they don’t know, testing new theories, and trying things out while learning from mistakes, those same qualities must be present for their teachers. It’s difficult for a teacher to facilitate that type of learning environment if they haven’t experienced it themselves.
“If you are experiencing learning that in some way connects to or challenges fundamental assumptions you are making about yourself and the world, that’s when it’s going to be the most powerful,” Helsing said. To get to that place, adults need to be part of a community of colleagues who support their growth. They need to feel safe to be vulnerable, to admit failings or mistakes and to trust that their colleagues are giving feedback in order to help them improve. But it also requires that adults are consistently pushing against the edge of what they don’t know.
“Learning is really the engine here and it’s hard,” said Deb Hesling, the Harvard professor whose work, along with colleagues, inspired this approach to professional development. “You’re getting out to the edge of what you know, and you’re testing new ideas out, and making mistakes and learning from those mistakes.”
Do You Have the Backbone for a PLN?
by Tom Whitby (@tomwhitby)
Whitby’s post speaks to the importance of adult learning and the impact that Twitter has had on his own learning. Within the post Whitby references posts he has shared in the past (one noted below) about andragogy and Malcolm Knowles. I share Whitby’s sentiments about Twitter as a true and valuable source for professional learning.
My driving force, in all that I now do in education, hinges on one belief: If we are to better educate our kids, we need first to better educate their educators. Collaboration through technology seems to have been designed for educators to inform, if not educate themselves about their own profession. This includes how to use technology to learn more technology. How to develop a personal learning network through technology should be a course offered in every teacher preparation program.
Twitter is the backbone of my PLN. I developed it by considering my “Followings” as professional sources. I follow educators who inform, engage, inspire, or challenge me. I find them on Twitter as they contact me. I find them in education Chats. I find them from hashtags that I follow. I follow Bloggers, Podcasters, Thought Leaders, and Authors. I also check out Twitter Profiles to see whom those people follow. Easy Pickens!
The design of this model of personalized learning does require that an educator must believe that learning does not stop after a degree is earned, a license is issued, and a job is secured. The profession requires relevance, but with changes happening faster than any time in history, maintaining relevance requires continuous ongoing action. This is not comfortable for everyone, but it has become a requirement of the profession. As adult learners we may be more comfortable with digital, collaborative if we are familiar with how adults learn. Educators are experts in how kids learn through pedagogy. How people learn as adults, andragogy, is a mystery to most educators.
Pedagogy vs. Andragogy
by Tom Whitby (@tomwhitby)
In this post Whitby outlines the work of Malcolm Knowles (famous for the adoption of the theory of andragogy), noting the six principles of adult learning, and asking questions about the implications for student learning. The connection is important and relevant - wouldn’t we want to foster experiences we want as adults for students as well?
Malcolm Knowles identified the six principles of adult learning as:
- Adults are internally motivated and self-directed
- Adults bring life experiences and knowledge to learning experiences
- Adults are goal oriented
- Adults are relevancy oriented
- Adults are practical
- Adult learners like to be respected
After considering these principles and observing many of them first hand at these professional conferences, I started to wonder if the reason why these same principles do not apply to kids, at least on the secondary level, is because we prohibit them from happening in our education system. Do we limit our students learning by blocking access to the very things that motivate us as adults to learn? Can Students be self-motivated and self-directed? As adults some might say we are “pursuing our bliss” therefore, we are self-motivated and self-directed. Are our students bereft of bliss, or are we blocking out their bliss?
Maybe as adult learners we need to take a look in the mirror before we resume our role as teachers for kids. In the final analysis, I do not think that there are differences in the way we learn as adults, or kids, but rather the differences lie in the opportunities afforded to learn. If we respected kids more as learners, they might be more self-directed and motivated in their learning. If they are allowed to participate in their learning, they might take more ownership. What learner wants to own something that is not in his, or her interest to own? If we can understand better how we learn best, maybe we can alter how we teach to be the best.
Learning in the Age of Algorithms
by Emily Boudreau in HGSE’s Usable Knowledge
This post introduces work that is being done to help educators adapt to the reality of the current landscape of learning, one that is significantly impacted by ‘algorithmic data collection’. In order for us to be relevant we must adapt with our own learning and Boudreau’s post provides some concrete strategies worthy of consideration.
...many students are in the middle of an “epistemological crisis,” says Head, a visiting scholar at Harvard Graduate School of Education. These students — members of what the report calls “a pivotal generation born before the constant connectivity of social media” — are deeply skeptical consumers of information. They’ve grown up with the internet, and algorithms have always influenced the news and information they receive. But most educators aren’t well positioned to help students navigate this new world, where information is shaped and filtered differently for different users.
“Democracy calls for an informed public, and yet, students have questions about what to believe," says Head. "The whole issue of credibility and not knowing what to trust is so critically important, as is having the necessary evaluation skills and abilities at a time of dramatic change to what we experience and know. That’s where education comes in.”
Panicking About Your Kids’ Phones? New Research Says Don’t
by Nathaniel Popper in The New York Times
Popper’s post highlights recent research challenging beliefs and previous research about the impact of screen time and device use for adolescents and children. Some of the research within challenges the causation/correlation relationship that research has shown. By sharing this post, I do not intend to ‘take a side’ on this debate; rather, the intent is to support the need for all of us, as caregivers and educators, to actively learn, stay relevant, and challenge assumptions.
It has become common wisdom that too much time spent on smartphones and social media is responsible for a recent spike in anxiety, depression and other mental health problems, especially among teenagers. But a growing number of academic researchers have produced studies that suggest the common wisdom is wrong. The latest research, published on Friday by two psychology professors, combs through about 40 studies that have examined the link between social media use and both depression and anxiety among adolescents. That link, according to the professors, is small and inconsistent.
They are, however, challenging the widespread belief that screens are responsible for broad societal problems like the rising rates of anxiety and sleep deprivation among teenagers. In most cases, they say, the phone is just a mirror that reveals the problems a child would have even without the phone.
Throughout this month I want to continue highlighting some words in honor of Black History Month - the quote below from Booker T. Washington is one that is inspiring, poignant, and centering...
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Enjoy the week and take care.
Nat