To help encourage conversations and dialogue about working with purpose and finding one's voice, this week's topic/question for the dinner table is: Can the discovery of your personal voice (your passions, what you are good at) help to make everybody better? Please see link to Google Form to share your responses: Working with Purpose (4/3/16) (This is an anonymous Google Form)
Despite the crazy weather we are experiencing (hoping that it will turn back to the mild weather quickly!), I hope that the weekend provided some time to relax and simply be. Ours was a very full one - Vance Joy concert Friday evening with friends, seeing Holliston middle school's production of The Little Mermaid on Saturday, and the 'regular' sports games and weekend 'to do list' items. As I said before, we are all hoping that April weather will bring lots of sunshine!
With the busyness of the weekend and an in an effort to try and find (well, 'work on' is more accurate) some balance, this week I want to highlight three events from this week (Monday, Tuesday, and Friday) along with a few posts that held meaning for me this week.
On Monday Richard DeSorgher held a mini Town Hall session with our 8th graders on his last day of his term as selectman. It was a great 'assembly' for students and staff, as he shared some of the pertinent and relevant town 'issues' that are facing the Medfield community now. As I listened to Richard's presentation and to some of the questions that came from students, it served as an excellent reminder of the importance of finding time to pause from the 'stated curriculum' and allow for and embed opportunities for the 'unwritten curriculum' to take place. We do have a civic responsibility as educators and a community to do this for our students and one another as well.
MCPE's screening of Most Likely to Succeed, an education documentary examining the current structures and systems we have in place for our students, was held on Tuesday evening and it was great to have a strong community presence to engage in the 'conversation'. This was the third time I saw the film and, as is often the case, I was able to pick up, focus on, and take away some different viewpoints and perspectives. As I shared last fall, some broad questions were posed and challenged: 'What is it that we want for our students? What is success and how do we measure it? What does the environment need to look like for this to take place?’ These questions do not have clear-cut answers and our approaches/philosophies may vary, but they are important for us to discuss. I enjoyed the break-out discussion that followed the screening, reminding me of the importance of an open dialogue between the 'school' and 'community' - breaking down the proverbial walls and fostering transparent communication. Here are some of the quick notes that have been in my head since my third viewing of the film...
- The idea of establishing opportunities for students to learn how to make and create the 'leaps' that computers are not able to make
- Establishing a cycle for students and adults of Observation/reflection/documentation/exhibition
- Arbitrary and open-ended tasks - we can find value in these
- What do you want to be accountable to? (Test scores or production of high quality work) - a question posed by Tony Wagner
- The 3 Ps as a mindset/approach for evidence of understanding - Planning, Process, and Presentation
- How do we develop one's voice?
- Premise of preparing students for jobs that have yet to be invented
- A common thread - students working with a purpose
- Education - real education - is messy
- Education is about people - more like gardening than engineering (Ken Robinson)
The three posts I am sharing this week may not directly relate to the events shared above, but I hope you can see the threads of student-centered, responsive, reflective, and thoughtful philosophy that can be (and have been) woven into our practices (as made evident this past week) in a meaningful manner...
What Do We Lose By Measuring ‘Average’ In Education?
Excerpted from The End of Average: How We Succeed in a World That Values Sameness by Todd Rose
Earlier in the week Ellen Toubman shared with me a link to an interview (posted below) with Todd Rose about his book. As we are examining our content standards, learning skills, and systems of feedback I am intrigued, inspired, and encouraged by Rose's work - the notion of 'fostering an equal fit' and looking for 'solutions' in the realm of education. This book is now on my list of 'must reads'.
If the environment is a bad match with our individuality—if we cannot reach the controls in the cockpit—our performance will always be artificially impaired. If we do get a good fit with our environment—whether that environment is a cockpit, a classroom, or a corner office—we will have the opportunity to show what we are truly capable of. This means that if we want equal opportunity for everyone, if we want a society where each one of us has the same chance to live up to our full potential, then we must create professional, educational, and social institutions that are responsive to individuality.
...we know there is no such thing as an average person, and we can see the flaw in the equal access approach to opportunity: if there is no such thing as an average person, then there can never be equal opportunity on average. Only equal fit creates equal opportunity. Equal fit may seem like a novel idea, but it is ultimately the same view of opportunity expressed by Abraham Lincoln, when he declared that government’s “leading object is to elevate the condition of men—to lift artificial weights from all shoulders, to clear the paths of laudable pursuit for all, to afford all an unfettered start and a fair chance, in the race of life.”
If we are looking for the institution where implementing equal fit would have the biggest immediate impact on opportunity, the place to start is clear: public education. Despite the fact that “personalized learning” is the biggest buzzword in education today, and despite efforts of many organizations seeking change in the system, almost everything in traditional educational systems remains designed to ensure students receive the same exact standardized experience.
Imagine the talent that we can unleash by redesigning our schools and jobs to fit the individual, instead of fitting the averagarian system—even if that averagarian system is motivated by the best of intentions. We would unleash a society of Kim Campbells—a society of individual excellence.
‘Average’ Gets His Ire Up
by Sarah Sweeney in the Harvard Gazette
This is an interview with Todd Rose about his book
12 Words That Should Be in Our Educational Vocabulary
by Peter DeWitt (@PeterMDeWitt)
This post is a 'response' to an earlier blog post DeWitt wrote about words that should be 'banned' (linked within this post) from our educational vocabulary. Both posts underline the importance, meaning, and impact of language. The words that DeWitt share are worth reflecting upon their meaning for us as individuals and a school: Resilience, Feedback, Learning, Voice, Responsibility, Inclusivity, Collaboration, Relationships, Engagement, Growth, Leadership, Whole Child. It's also an interesting question that he poses for each of us - which words would be on our lists?
The interesting thing about words that should be banned from...or added to...our vocabulary, is that their success is dependent on how we use them in school. If they are words that are seen as pushing more compliance, then educators will want them banished. If they are words that bring people together in a positive way or foster teachers maintaining their identity, they will be used more positively.
Reflecting upon this thread of events and posts elicits a question worth considering: Can we establish a consistent culture where our community is consistently working with purpose? I firmly believe that we can and are on that path. It does not always mean that we have to have one goal per se - perhaps the purpose in and of itself is the actual 'process of working with a purpose'. That process will open up dialogue, meet students where they are at, and provide meaningful opportunities for learning - for our entire community.
I look forward to the work that lies ahead for all of us.
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Take care.
Nat