To encourage dialogue and reflection about wondering and learning, our question(s) for the week are: What are you wondering about these days? What do you want to learn more about? Space for Wondering (Week of 11/26/23) (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.
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 extended weekend was a welcome respite from the day-to-day and our Thanksgiving was nice and low-key. Knowing that the busyness would return pretty quickly, we did our best to relax with the gift of time and presence. Holliston’s Holiday Stroll on Saturday was a festive way to enter the holiday season!
- Excitement and Overstimulation
- Time with family/friends and challenges that can arise
- Finding time to ‘just be’ amidst many celebrations
- Pressure to ‘get it all done’ while also wanting to be a part of many things
- Time for reflection - brings forth a wide range of emotions
- Endings and beginnings (terms, years, seasons)
There are others, I am sure, and we could each make our own lists as our experiences are always unique. That said, one shared challenge I have found is that of the fleeting sense of time. Downtime is hard for me and I know I do not always help myself. Yet, the space to think, wonder, and reflect is critical - for well-being, growth, and learning. This weekend provided that space for me and maybe it did for others as well. And, as we come back together for the next four weeks, perhaps we can try and find more of that space to wonder and grow?
Below are a couple of ‘shares’ that I came across over the last few days, along with some of the notes from Learning and the Brain. Raab’s post and the podcast episode prompt reflection and have direct implications for our students and the ways we can foster ‘space for wondering’ and reflection. This need to re-examine our practices/systems was echoed throughout the conference to support effective teaching and learning.
The Students Are Not the Problem
by Erin Raab in ASCD
…the youth mental health crisis isn’t caused by the individuals it affects—it originates from the environment they inhabit. Systems theory shows us that if a pattern of illness, behavior, or emotional reaction is consistent across communities, then the context is creating predictable responses. Individual “accountability” won’t go far toward solving environmental problems.
Neuroscience research finds that all learning is social and emotional, yet under-resourcing and test-accountability policies often prevent teachers from designing learning experiences for the humans in the room. You don’t blame the acorn if it doesn’t grow into a tree: you change the environment. If we want young people to thrive, or to be successful academically, we must rehumanize our schools by focusing on students’ social-emotional reality and well-being.
Adolescence is thus a time of incredible opportunity or of incredible vulnerability. Research shows that if young people’s experiences and environments are positive, their neural synapses for positive habits and coping strategies are strengthened. But when adolescents experience toxic stress, trauma, or negative environments, the connections that develop poor coping mechanisms are strengthened, and students are less well-adapted for future challenges.
Research shows that these areas of social-emotional development are particularly crucial for adolescent well-being:
- Belonging
- Self-Efficacy
- Emotional Resilience
- Purpose
Poet Maggie Smith on embracing ambiguity
from WorkLife with Adam Grant
(44 min)
Poet and author Maggie Smith isn’t sure where she falls on the spectrum from optimism to pessimism. But her viral poem “Good Bones” and her bestselling books have inspired countless readers with profound insights on the messiness of being human. In this episode, Maggie and Adam discuss strategies for handling complex emotions, sustaining hope while acknowledging reality, and accepting ambiguity in life and art. They explore the value of asking questions that may not have a satisfying answer — or any answer at all.
Notes from Learning and the Brain
Mary Helen Immordino-Yang - Building Meaning Builds Brains: The Science of Emotions, Brain Development, and Effective Teaching
- Teaching and learning is far more complex than lab science
- Excellent teaching and learning is deeply social work
- “It is Literally neurobiologically impossible to think deeply about things you don’t care about”
- Emotional engagement activates the same brain systems that keep you alive
- Thinking deeply is essentially telling complex, emotional stories to yourself
- What might this mean for emotional wellbeing? Character development?
- Transcendent thinking predicts development in regions involved in regulation, reasoning, and emotion
- You have to go through the work of developing your brain
- Meaningful learning shifts teachers and students from emotions about outcomes/results to emotions about ideas
Barbara A. Oakley - The Science of Learning: Building Memories and Effective Learners
- Connections strengthen with practice
- Can we increase working memory capacity?
- By learning how to read
- You like what you’ve learned and are good at, but some things take longer to get good at (like riding a bike)
- Hard to do those things for students - motivating is hard but that’s our role
- Students are trying to follow mental models that are in our minds as teachers
- Teaching means getting in neural synchrony with students
- When teachers and students are in neural synchrony - when you test students, you see the connections that are made
- A good schema can serve as the equivalent of better working memory
- Prior knowledge is critical
- The size of working capacity doesn’t matter if there are already links in long-term memory
- You can only add to what you have (build prior knowledge)
- Without knowledge of how the brain is working, we often get misinformation and bad advice from those who sincerely want improvements
- ‘What you express on your face reflects into your own feelings and emotions’
- When you can’t frown it makes you happier
- Cameras make you lose 10 charisma points
- You need to present ‘on fire’
- The ‘familiarity principle’
- The more often you appear in front of your students, the more comfortable they will be with you
- A little stress helps students to remember things
- Dopamine is critical for the learning process
- ‘Hooks and stories’ are critical - activating dopamine system
- New learning boosts spirits
- ‘For that I thank you deeply’
- Even when students are grumbling
- Pomodoro Technique
Robert J. Waldinger - What Makes a Good Life: Lessons From the World’s Longest Study on Happiness and Wellbeing
- The good life gets defined for us, not by us
- We are always comparing our insides to other people’s outsides
- Social connectedness and health
- Loneliness as powerful as cigarette smoking (1/2 ppd), high blood pressure, and obesity
- Intimacy keeps us alive
- Broader social networks and more social activity
- The people who are more connected to others live longer
- Those who compare themselves to others are not as happy
- Robert Putnam - Make an Investment in Social Capital
- Social media has accelerated the path to disconnection
- What are we modeling for students?
- ‘Attention is the most basic form of love’ - John Tarrant
- Paying attention to what’s here right now can be a tremendous resource
Daniel T. Willingham - Teaching Students to Teach Themselves: Empowering Children to Get the Most From Schooling
- Think about music - do kids like it? (while it’s in class)
- If they don’t like it…what does it do for their learning?
- Breaks do help
- Repetition alone is not a guarantee it will get into memory
- Reading over your notes is a terrible strategy - too much familiarity
David B. Daniel - The Science of Teaching
- Suspend these premises…
- You’re too busy for anything new
- Teachers are saints - that we are amazing
- Why would we be here if we were perfect?
- How do we know what we are doing is working?
- If the foundation of good teaching is based on research, how do we make it work?
- We have a science of learning - we need a science of teaching
- Time is found when you are truly interested!
Sampling of Responses from Last Week’s ‘Question of the Week’: What are you thankful for?
- I am thankful for such hard working colleagues!
- I am Thankful to be surrounded by people who care about others and who are willing to be vulnerable with me in order to problem solve and make every day better.
- My friends and fam
- Family
- People
- I am thankful for my family, my dog, my friends, the house I live in, the food I eat. I also am thankful for the money I have and how we all get to spend time together as a family during the holidays.
- I am thankful for being here on earth and how lucky I am to be here.
- My parents
- I'm thankful for my friends, my family, good health, and happiness.
- Taylor Swift
- I’m thankful for amazing family and friends that are so kind
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Take care.
Nat