Principal's Blog

Finding and 'Using' Inspiration

10/14/2019

October 15, 2019

To help encourage conversations and dialogue about our individual and collective sources of inspiration and ‘drivers’ for learning, our topic/question for the dinner table is: What inspires you to learn and improve? Why? Finding and 'Using' Inspiration (Week of 10/13/19) (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.

We have enjoyed a lovely few days, mixing in both time with friends/family along with some time to just relax around the house. The weekend started with a celebration for Katie’s father’s 80th birthday at his house in Boston, amongst friends spanning a long period of time. It was a real treat for me as one of Jim’s friends is Nancy Sizer, one of my true sources of inspiration as an educator (she and her husband co-authored The Students Are Watching Us), and it was wonderful to talk with her! Another highlight of the weekend was seeing The Head and the Heart in concert on Saturday night - such a great time. The extra day of the long weekend was certainly a welcome reality for us!

After ‘allowing’ myself to sleep in and going for a bike ride Saturday morning, I acted on the inspiration I was feeling from my chat with Nancy Sizer - reading up on Ted and Nancy’s work, reflecting upon my own practice as an educator, and truly ‘diving in’ to the elements of our work at Blake. Despite the feeling of being tired from a late night out, I was so energized and motivated to learn and act upon the learning. I’m not sure if there is any other way to describe the feeling besides one of real excitement and inspiration. Webster’s defines inspire as ‘to breathe life into, to infuse, to influence’ and that was certainly real (and still is, for that matter!). No one told me to read, an assignment was not given to me, and deadlines were not in place. A spark had been lit and I was motivated to understand, learn, and grow.

This ‘phenomena’ is at the heart of our work as educators. Although it may sound trite or too ‘pie in the sky’ for some, but our goal is simple - to help students learn and grow. As Sizer notes in the quote above, the ‘conditions’ are critical for this to take place - and this is why we must stay in a constant space of reflection and self-examination for ourselves, our students, our community, and ‘our conditions’. Continually encouraging the cycle of beliefs, practices, and action to intermingle and weave will push us towards our shared 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 real key is the willingness to act (the ‘willingness to adapt’, if you will) upon our inspiration - otherwise, we will remain ‘in the sky’ and in ‘the land of theory’.

From this very reflective place, I hope that the sampling of responses from last week’s question along with three posts that inspired me will do the same for you as well - maybe not necessarily impacting you in the same way, but at the very least prompting some reflection and questions to percolate. I believe that is at the heart of our work - I welcome your reactions and thoughts...

Topic/Question (Week of 10/6/19): Share something you have learned about yourself as a learner this year.

I have learned that I can make time for pleasure reading each day with some minor adjustments to my schedule and planning.
Small epiphanies deserve attention; they are highly valuable.
I have learned that working in groups a lot harder for me and working independently is a lot easier.
I can learn things, and solve things really fast (mostly math), and I didn’t know that about myself.
I have learned that learning can happen in the most unusual places.
I’m a good listener.
I do best when the teacher is teaching right in front of the class and telling use in advance when a test is.
I learn better in a quiet environment

Why Is Middle School So Hard for So Many People?
by Alia Wong in (@aliaemily) in The Atlantic
Wong’s post is an excellent read for educators, parents, and policy makers - provides a brief history of the structure and introduction of the middle school model, highlights the needs of ‘the age’, and outlines a sense of optimism. The essence of this article inspires me to be a better educator for our students and is affirming on many levels.
Middle school. The very memory of it prompts disgust. Here’s a thing no one’s thinking: Geez, I wish I still looked the way I did when I was 12. Middle school is the worst. Tweenhood, which starts around age 9, is horrifying for a few reasons. For one, the body morphs in weird and scary ways. Certain parts expand faster than others, sometimes so fast that they cause literal growing pains; hair grows in awkward locations, often accompanied by awkward smells. And many kids face new schools and a new set of rules for how to act, both socially and academically. But middle school doesn’t have to be like this. It could be okay. It could be good, even. After all, middle schoolers are “kind of the best people on Earth,” says Mayra Cruz, the principal of Oyster-Adams Bilingual School, a public middle school in Washington, D.C.

it doesn’t help that adults often dismiss middle school as the nightmare they remember it to be. “They tend to fear this precarious age range,” Cruz, the D.C. principal, says. “[Adults] misunderstand those years” as a chapter that these days is defined by sexting and narcissism, poor critical thinking, and civic apathy. “Adults want to control,” Cruz says. And that may be why grown-ups struggle to adequately serve middle schoolers, whom she describes as “consistently inconsistent.” Yet Cruz is optimistic that middle school could be great.

The middle-school movement has experienced somewhat of a resurgence in recent years. For these efforts to be successful, adults will have to embrace the messiness that is middle school. Tweenhood is torturous, and tending to those in the midst of it can be excruciating and embarrassing: Tweens will make lots of mistakes, and they’ll learn from them, and still make more mistakes after that. Yet those mistakes—and the growth that follows—are precisely what give middle school its meaning.

Students in high-achieving schools are now named an ‘at-risk’ group, study says
by Jennifer Breheny Wallace in The Washington Post
Wallace’s host is an important and pertinent read. Within this article, Wallace references current research, the work of Challenge Success, and much of what we talk about at Blake, in Medfield, and in the MetroWest area. The 'at-risk' categorization is very real and it is something we can not ignore. This information must serve as an action-driven source of inspiration - pushing us to ask questions, adapt our practices, and establish structures that support our students. I do not believe we have a choice.
A consensus study report on advancing health equity among American children published this summer by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine added youths in “high achieving schools” to their list of “at-risk” groups, along with kids living in poverty and foster care, recent immigrants and those with incarcerated parents...It may sound counterintuitive, even perverse, to put relatively affluent kids in the same category as our country’s most vulnerable youths. While the stressors are markedly different, researchers are finding that both are “at risk” for elevated levels of chronic stress that can affect health and well-being.

When a child’s sense of self-worth is dependent on what they achieve, it can lead to anxiety and depression. Anxiety can come from worrying about keeping up with or outshining peers, while depression can be caused by a failure to achieve.

Adolescents who believed that both of their parents valued character traits as much as or more than achievement exhibited better outcomes at school, greater mental health and less rule-breaking behavior than peers who believed their parents were primarily achievement-minded, the researchers found. Those who fared the worst reported their mothers placed a higher value on achievement than character, and were also critical.

Playtime, down time and family time all buffer against stress and pressure, and parents must protect that time, even when it goes against popular norms.

The Feels of Learning Something New
by Mandy Froehlich (@froehlichm)
I have always been a fan of Mandy Froehlich’s posts and this one about the feelings of learning something new really resonated with me. As a big proponent of self-reflection, making change, and challenging the ‘status quo,’ I am continually reminded of the importance of ‘practicing what I preach’. Orla highlighted this post for me, specifically the graphic within (copied below). The awareness and experience of learning something new (or many new things) is one of the true sources of inspiration and satisfaction in our vocation.
I have always believed that the only differences between people who learn technology easily and the ones who don’t are A) they are willing to push buttons knowing it won’t break and B) they rely on what they already know to get started.

If I claim to be a lifelong learner, I better be one. If I want to model growing in an area that I’m unfamiliar with, I better be willing to take risks. That feeling – the one of shock and nervousness and doubtfulness that I would be able to learn something – will not be forgotten anytime soon. I believe these kinds of experiences, when we notice them and do our due diligence to reflect, is what keeps us grounded and connected with others in our field. It generates empathy. It guides us and helps remind us how we want to treat others and provide a supportive environment so we don’t need to go to school feeling bad about ourselves because we just don’t know.

We have such a privilege to work every day in a community of learners - and, I believe that privilege comes with an immense responsibility to support our students in their growth. I hope that we can inspire (‘breathe life into, influence, and influence’) our students in a positive manner with the goal of allowing the necessary space for their own sources of inspiration to develop. The practices of reflection, mirroring, and listening are critical. In keeping with the ‘Sizer theme’, Ted’s words below help me to both acknowledge the day-to-day essence of our work while also keeping the global sense of growth in mind. They are sources of inspiration, for sure...

I look forward to the work that lies ahead for all of us.
Please click here for Blake Updates.
Please click here for District Community Notices.
Enjoy the week and take care.
Nat

Gaining Understandings

10/8/2019

October 8, 2019

To help encourage conversations and dialogue about the practice of self-reflection to gain a better understanding of ourselves as learners, our topic/question for the dinner table is: Share something you have learned about yourself as a learner this year. Gaining Understandings (Week of 10/6/19) (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.

With the pages of the calendar turning to October this past week, it was hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that we have only been in school for a month! I love this time of year with the cool, crisp air and I am looking forward to this stretch. This weekend has been full and fun - seeing the Avett Brothers and Lake Street Dive with Katie at the DCU center on Friday and celebrating my mother’s 78th birthday with family on Saturday, all amidst sports games for the kids. I feel as though I could use a weekend from the weekend!

This past week was one that I felt a dynamic of the ‘push and pull’ of school and our roles as educators. (There are many ‘push and pull’ dynamics in our day-to-day work, but this one felt strong for some reason.) It seemed like at every turn, I was vacillating between a particular ‘situation’ in the moment and the ‘40,000 foot implication’ of how we address that particular ‘situation’. I know that this is true all the time - each decision has a ripple and is indicative of a ‘larger picture’, but for whatever reason, that awareness was very present in my mind a great deal…

At our faculty meeting discussing the principles of MTSS (Multi-Tiered Systems of Support), with the intent of examining our practices to better support all learners
Meeting with the Challenge Success team as a status check, mapping out some plans for the year
Participating on the Future Ready Coalition team for Holliston High School, as the community works on their ‘portrait/vision’ of a graduate
Reviewing the results from the 2019 MCAS and thinking about interventions and systems of support
Checking in with our Advisory committee on the progress of the year
Meeting with a student who will be interning us for the next few months
Drafting grant requests for Blake PTO, SEPAC, and MCPE

As with everyone the list of activities, lessons, and meetings that we are all a part of could go on and on - and, no list is more important than any other, necessarily. But what struck me was this heightened awareness during the interactions noted above was not only my own vacillation from the moment to the implications, but also the necessity to vacillate between the two. And, with this awareness came a realization (one I have had before, but is certainly cycling back now), that that is simply the nature of our work…

Addressing individual needs in the moment, but never losing sight of the big picture
Putting systems in place at every level (individual student interactions, meetings, classroom lessons, master schedule, systems of support, administrative structure) to align with our mission and vision
Continually asking questions and listening
Acknowledging and listening to challenges and frustrations, but taking and embracing a ‘solutionary’ approach
Highlighting successes and looking into the roots and paths that led to these successes

All of these things are not new, I know - yet, the practice of noticing has certainly helped me to move forward. In this practice of reflection I continue to learn more about myself as a learner - and, that is what I hope we can do for our students and one another. I hope we increase our own collective ‘understandings’ - of ourselves, our students, our community, and the implications that inevitably will result. The responses from last week’s question and two posts also touch on these ideas - asking questions that prompt reflection and putting some thoughts to paper, gaining strategies, examining implications for our work and sharing out - I hope they help to foster inner and collaborative dialogue...

Topic/Question (Week of 9/29/19): How does collaboration help you learn?

I highly recommend the book Range by David Epstein. In it he cites numerous examples of how collaboration, especially among groups with diverse backgrounds and interests often produce deeper and more meaningful conclusions than a single minded approach. When you are accepting of others ideas and see how those ideas can deepen your own understanding, good things are bound to happen.
Collaboration challenges me to see how my practice differs from others.
Seeing other’s ideas and how I contrast with their ideas, and the same ideas we have.
Collaboration helps people share ideas and builds communication skills
Collaboration helps me learn because its more than one perspective on the same piece of work
As a teacher, I need to be mindful of different students' learning styles. When collaborating with other teachers, I often learn of different ways to present material, approaches that had not occurred to me.
I learn more when I lean on others a little. I'm very stubborn but I really try and ask for help or look at things through another person and their way of looking at solutions to problems and life in general
You can flourish your ideas with all the people that you’re working with, and have a great project, presentation, paper, etc...
Other people can help you learn
You can bounce ideas off other people that will help you come to a conclusion on a certain topic.

Mindfulness at Work: A Little Bit Goes a Long Way
Interview with Lindsay Cameron in Knowledge@Wharton
This interview highlights the work of Wharton management professor Lindsey Cameron on mindfulness. Her research has shown that incorporating a little bit of mindfulness each day makes employees more productive and helpful.
First, from the higher-level picture, we did find that mindfulness made people more helpful at work...in terms of mechanisms, we found that perspective-taking — being able to look at someone else’s perspective — was one of the reasons that mindfulness helped people become more effective. Empathy — the ability to feel what other people are feeling — also made people more helpful at work.

The key takeaways are that mindfulness works, and that you don’t have to invest in an intensive eight-week intervention to be able to get the benefits from that because we all know that workplace life is deeply relational. You’re with co-workers. You’re with supervisors. We spend more time at work than we actually do with our family, and sometimes there can be frictions. People are working in teams, so mindfulness can act like a buffer to improve relational coordination and functioning. And we’re showing this with really short doses of mindfulness — seven to eight minutes. Even with a one-time intervention, you’re getting smoother, pleasant, more helpful workers. That’s one of the key benefits.

...what we found in this study is that there are no differences between the two different types of mindfulness, that they both led to people being more helpful at work. That lets workers have more choice to try a practice that resonates with them more clearly or more strongly. And you’re still going to have the benefits from the practice.

The Real World Is Not an Exam
by Abigail Zuger in The New York Times
This post from 2014 offers an interesting perspective about the value of standardized tests in preparation for the work force, specifically in the medical field. Zuger challenges some ‘status quo’ notions, offering a perspective that applies to our work with students.
...test-taking savvy may have little to do with job performance. Medical educators have been contemplating this possibility for years. But the problem particular to medicine may be the sheer volume of these tests, and the standard hysterical preparation they engender, which constitute a form of training in itself. Educators may not actually teach to the test, but students think to the test, in linear multiple choice.

Some medical educators have tried to bend the linear algorithms of the multiple-choice experience to the nuances of the actual clinical world. One set, from the Mayo Clinic, specifically set out to teach against the test. Instead of the usual call-and-response questions, the educators took their students through complicated, contradictory cases for which there were no clear “best” strategies, but many reasonably acceptable ones.

The ‘push and pull’ realities of our work are not unique to our vocation, but I do believe that the practice of naming and recognizing them are important. The discussions, self-reflection, and sharing out of our own learnings can serve as mechanisms to enhance the learning for our students. And, in so doing, the metacognition of our own practice may then serve as a lever to further the metacognition of our students.

I look forward to the work that lies ahead for all of us.
Please click here for Blake Updates.
Please click here for District Community Notices.
Enjoy the week and take care.
Nat

Leaning On Others

9/30/2019

October 1, 2019

To help encourage conversations and dialogue about collaboration and the importance of leaning on others, our topic/question for the dinner table is: How does collaboration help you learn? Leaning On Others (Week of 9/29/19) (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.

I felt lucky last Friday to start the weekend with a nice bike ride along the rail trail in Holliston - it felt great to be outside, clear my head, and take time to reflect upon the past week. I have done my best to embrace the district’s guidelines for homework for myself (not always an easy task), and the bike ride was a nice way to frame some thoughts with the hopes of putting them aside for a few days. I’m hoping I can try and carry this practice forward!

At our faculty meeting this week, we will be taking some time with Christine and Mary Bruhl to focus on the principles of MTSS (Multi-Tiered Systems of Support), with the intent of examining our practices to better support all learners. I look forward to our times together as a staff when we can ‘put our heads together’, introduce ideas, and discuss potential implications for our work with some ‘next steps’ - in essence, the heart and actualization of collaboration. We have discussed as a staff the role that our theme of courage for this year plays in the learning process, and one way is to truly allow oneself to be vulnerable to allow for help and the ideas of ‘leaning on others’. Collective thought and sharing can assist (not the only way, by any means) the learning and I hope that the collegial nature, culture, and structure of our learning community will help the learning to evolve. The ‘sharing out’ of some responses from last week’s Topic/Question, coupled with the posts below, will hopefully help to spark some intentional dialogue about how we can ‘lean on others’ (students, staff, and families) to grow and reflect in a measured system...

Topic/Question (Week of 9/22/19): What problem(s) do you want to solve? What do you need to learn to help solve this problem? Be specific.

I want to solve the problem of climate change and the human impact on our environment. I need to learn the most effective ways to advocate and become involved in this cause.
I want to solve the struggle between pleasure reading and academic reading. Striking a balance is an ongoing area rich in development!
I want to learn why so many teens and adults feel the need to self-medicate (with both legal and illegal substances). What is missing in their lives that makes them constantly crave altering their consciousness?
I want climate change to be solved. I don’t know what I can do to help this.
I want to become a better artist
World peace. Communication skills.

How Collaboration Unlocks Learning and Lessens Student Isolation
by Jo Boaler in MindShift
In this post Jo Boaler espouses the important role that collaboration plays in learning - providing opportunities to connect ideas, foster equity, and simply open up more pathways.
...when we connect with other people’s ideas there are multiple benefits for our brains and for our lives.

The fact that it took work to teach students how to collaborate with each other after they had spent thirteen years in school speaks to the problems in our school system, where the common pattern is that teachers lecture and students work through problems alone. The team leading the work‐ shops was right to point out that success in college requires working with others and making good connections. Many people know this, but they still see no role for collaboration in learning.

Part of the reason students give up on learning is because they find it difficult and think they are alone in their struggle. An important change takes place when students work together and discover that everybody finds some or all of the work difficult. This is a critical moment for students, and one that helps them know that for everyone learning is a process and that obstacles are common.

Collaboration is vital for learning, for college success, for brain development, and for creating equitable outcomes. Beyond all of this, it is beneficial to establish interpersonal connections, especially in times of conflict and need.

Jay has studied resilience over many years and points out that people who survive hardship often do better, but not through “bouncing back,” as some think, because the recovery process takes time and is more of a battle than a bounce. She also points out those who ultimately benefit from hardship, becoming stronger and resilient, do so when they maintain self‐belief, when they “own the fighter within,” and when they connect with other people. The thing that people who overcome hardship and do not become defeated by it have in common is that in times of need they all reached out to someone—a friend, a family member, or a colleague—and those connections helped them survive and develop strength.

Inviting Mr. Rogers into Your SEL Classroom
by Cheryl Mizerny in MiddleWeb
This post draws on Mizerny’s ‘channeling’ of the principles of Fred Rogers, offering suggestions for how to operationalize them in the classroom: Modeling, Setting the Tone, Learning Their Names Quickly (and pronounce them correctly), Being Polite, Getting to Know Them, Helping Them Bond, Minimizing Competition, Celebrating Everyone, Communicating with Them, and Being Seen and Valued.
In the 1943 paper “A Theory of Human Motivation,” Abraham Maslow outlined his Hierarchy of Needs and many educators continue to be familiar with the concept. Maslow believed humans could not be motivated to function at the highest levels until their needs at the previous levels were met. In the classroom, teachers are tasked with helping students reach the highest level by making sure their physiological, safety, and “belonging-ness” requirements are satisfied. Fred Rogers tackled these topics in every show.

Another Fred Rogers quote from the Education World interview makes me feel like I’m on the right track… “When children learn more about one another, and when they know their teachers recognize and celebrate their differences, they are more likely to feel a sense of community in the classroom. Teachers foster mutual respect when they provide activities that encourage conversation, sharing, and interaction.”

It is, and will continue to be, important that we intentionally foster experiences and structures for learning that allow students to practice collaborating with one another. It is truly one of the key learning skills and our systems of feedback will hopefully continue to be refined so that this skill is developed. The same is true for us, as educators and caring adults, in this community. It is important that we allow ourselves to be vulnerable, so that we may find the courage to recognize the benefits of help from and for others as we grow and learn.

I look forward to the work that lies ahead for all of us.
Please click here for Blake Updates.
Please click here for District Community Notices.
Enjoy the week and take care.
Nat

Sharing and Realizing Our Ideas

9/24/2019

September 24, 2019

To help encourage conversations and dialogue about solving problems and learning, our topic/question(s) for the dinner table is/are: What problem(s) do you want to solve? What do you need to learn to help solve this problem? Be specific. Sharing and Realizing Ideas (Week of 9/22/19) (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.

Hopefully the warm, summer-like weather was enjoyed by all this weekend - such a sharp transition after Friday morning’s brisk, cool start to the day (I felt like I needed to be wearing winter gloves and a hat outside of Blake)! Celebrate Holliston (the annual community day) was this past Saturday and we took in the festivities - amidst activities for the kids. It was nice on Sunday night to settle in with some down time before the week began!

Last week I referenced Peter Senge (Learning How to Learn), specifically his work around on learning organizations and the generative process of learning and creation. I had seen him speak EdTech Teacher's Innovation Summit in Boston in 2016, and it struck me this week how aligned that professional development endeavor was for me with our mission statement and focus at Blake. Yes, I felt that way then but sometimes things cycle back intentionally or ‘coincidentally’ The other keynote speaker at that same conference was Jaime Casap (@jcasap), Chief Education Evangelist for Google, and I found myself this week reflecting upon his words and goals to foster a culture of solving problems (notes from his keynote are within this blog post, Happy Learning Environments).

I shared at the outset of the year that one of my ‘fears/worries’ is that the role of educators/teachers is always expanding - it truly is overwhelming. I also acknowledge that I contribute to this ‘workload’ and ‘thought-load’ (not sure if that is a real phrase), and it is something that I want to make sure I/we keep in mind. As one who espouses and pushes change, yet struggles with it on a personal level, I recognize the ‘mixed message’ nature of our roles and the work we are doing both professionally and for our students. Both Senge and Casap’s work have helped to abate and center some of my worries/thoughts in this regard. By focusing on the productive and progressive (taking steps at a time) nature of learning with a lens towards ‘solutionary thinking’, I do believe that the narrative of growth will be realized.

Our Topic/Question this past week focused on the ways we learn best and it is important to keep this as a focus for our students and ourselves. The strategies to help us learn will serve as the vehicles for realizing our ideas and solving problems that we encounter (both micro and macro) on a day-to-day basis, now and in the future. I have shared a sampling of responses from last week, along with a few posts that I hope will keep these conversations alive...

Topic/Question (Week of 9/15/19): How do you learn best? What strategies help you learn? Be specific.

Peer group where some discuss what we are trying to learn, or do, and we all start with group input and the branch out to individual labs and work on solutions that we bring back to the group to assess
This is an interesting question. Taking detailed notes and reviewing those notes works best, but I also got to thinking that if the topic is of high interest, the learning seems to naturally happen.
I learn when I have conversations, ask questions, practice it myself, and then ponder over a long period of time.
Quiet environment
I learn best independently
Sleeping
Fun games and activities
Games and activities
If I have someone read something to me or if I have a video to watch, or a project.
I learn best by watching someone demonstrate something and then physically doing it myself. For example, I have learned how to fix things around the house and car by watching youtube videos.
With people. With people who are focused, relaxed, engaged, open-minded, flexible, receptive; humble and unself-centered
In a quiet environment, or with a group. I like learning in all different kinds of ways.
I like to use quizlet it really helps
I learn best with visual and individual work
In a quiet learning space.
I learn best when everyone is quiet

When You Find Yourself on the Edge of Something Great
by AJ Juliani (@ajjuliani)
Juliani’s reflective post highlights the importance of seeing learning, growth, and achievement as a process - one that does not happen overnight. The ‘greatness’ is the result of a multitude of factors and a willingness to keep trying, revise, revisit, and build upon ‘the new’.
Waiting on the edge of something great isn’t just a feeling, it’s a life-changer. You realize there is no going back, and that’s what is so scary. There will be something great, but it will also be new. It’s funny how we love “new” things that don’t impact our lives that much. I’m the first one to say “check out this new app” or you’ve got to read this “new book”. I’m also the first one to say that we need to change and start doing new things in new ways. But this type of new is different, because this is something of impact. It’s big and wonderful and scary and life-changing.

Sure, I guess there are times when people “fall” into something great. But often it is a culmination of many ideas, of years of work, of taking the right chances and learning from the right failures, that leads to a great book, a great teaching moment, or a great innovation.

Don’t Look Now but the 21st Century is Behind You!
by Jaime Casap (@jcasap)
Casap drives home the importance of acting ‘in the now’ with a focus on the ‘vital skills’ (I like his terminology of vital vs ‘soft skills’): problem-solving, critical thinking, collaboration, ability to learn, and creativity.
If you do an exact term search for “21st Century Skills,” you get about 4,170,000 results. What those four million results are really talking about are the skills students need for the future. The problem as I see it is that we are 20 years into the 21st century and yet, we are still talking about these skills as something students need for the future. I believe the future is here and they should be developing these skills as soon as they walk into our schools.

If we can focus on helping our students develop these important skills, in the context of the content we want to teach them, we’ll actually prepare them for the future they face. You can’t be a problem solver without understanding math and reading. You can’t be a critical thinker without understanding how science works. You can't define solutions without understanding how history has a tendency to repeat itself over and over again. If we fail to provide students with these skills – in particular, if we fail those in our most struggling schools – we run the risk of limiting the futures of our most at-risk students. We can't afford to put any students at a marked disadvantage.

In the continued vein of ‘found connections of learning’, I received an informational e-mail towards the end of the week outlining some upcoming workshops through RBT (Research for Better Teaching) and the words below from Jon Saphier were embedded within. A concerted focus on both effort and explicit strategies will help our students, and ourselves, to better align and execute an understanding of their (and our) own learning so that they (and we) can take measured and clear steps towards the realization of ideas to solve problems.

"How can we teach students to exert their effort effectively? Attribution retraining means getting students to change their attributions of success and failure away from factors over which they have little immediate control (luck, task difficulty, and innate ability) to the factor over which they have the greatest control: effort. Teaching effective effort means making students aware that effective effort (effort that results in achievement of a goal) is a combination of working hard and applying effective strategies."
Source: Jon Saphier, Mary Ann Haley-Speca, and Robert Gower. 2018. The Skillful Teacher: The Comprehensive Resource for Improving Teaching and Learning, 7th ed. Acton, MA: Research for Better Teaching, p. 379

I look forward to the work that lies ahead for all of us.
Please click here for Blake Updates.
Please click here for District Community Notices.
Enjoy the week and take care.
Nat

Learning How to Learn

9/17/2019

September 17, 2019

To help encourage conversations and dialogue about ourselves as learners and to foster some reflection, our topic/question for the dinner table is: How do you learn best? What strategies help you learn? Be specific. Learning How to Learn (Week of 9/15/19) (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.

With our first 5-day week and a ‘true’ cycle of school complete, I hope that the beginning of year nerves/jitters/kinks have been ironed out and that everyone (students, staff, families) is feeling settled in. Katie and I enjoyed a nice dinner out on Friday evening - we always feel like ‘passing ships’ during the week, so it was nice to have some time to check in, unplug, and just be. Our weekend was a relatively quiet one - I hope those who participated in Medfield Day had fun with all of the activities and energy that day brings!

Back in November, 2016 I heard Peter Senge, Senior Lecturer in Leadership and Sustainability at MIT, speak at EdTech Teacher's Innovation Summit in Boston. At that time I highlighted some of his words and message (Happy Learning Environments) and have since been very interested in his work. In particular, I appreciate and value the perspective and information he shares about creating and fostering cultures and systems of learning and growth. He highlights the importance of courageous reflection, vulnerability, and courage in rethinking our own systems of thought in an effort to grow as learners. Having just completed our cycle of information nights last Thursday with the seventh grade families, these efforts are at the forefront of my thinking. These nights invigorate me as we are given the gift of time to share our vision, practices, and beliefs with our community. I am always inspired by the collective efforts of our staff and appreciate the investment of our families as we strive to help our students grow.

Learning organizations are ‘works in progress’ and a finite end point does not exist. We need to intentionally ask questions, reflect, engage in dialogue, and assess our practices. The sampling of responses to last week’s Topic/Question below help to highlight the learning of our community, and the two posts I am sharing help to shed some light on mindsets and frameworks of thought for our day-to-day work...

Topic/Question (Week of 9/8/19): What do you do to ‘recharge your batteries’ when you feel tired, overwhelmed, or need a break?

Lifting weights. Exercise in general works well too but lifting weights generates a unique sense of satisfaction and accomplishment.
I like to go for a run or workout.
Take a nap
I can take a nap. This will rest my mind and body.
Sleep
I read, or just lay down.
I draw a picture to express myself, or go for a run.
Read
Rest
I take a walk to the bathroom or down the hall.
Deal with it
I drink ice cold water.
Quiet time
I do things that relax me, like listening to music or read a book.
Probably just lay down ( on bed/couch), listen to music and just clear my head
I either just lie down and relax by listening to music or I read.
Listen to music
Take a cat nap...20 minutes or so

Teachers Still Believe in 'Learning Styles' and Other Myths About Cognition
by Madeline Will in Education Week Teacher
Will’s post is one I appreciate on many levels - as a learner and educator, it is important that we come back to science and research to inform our beliefs and guide our practices. It is important that we explore our practices so that we are not led by ‘myths’.
Boser said schools should provide accurate information on the science of learning through those channels, in an effort to combat these myths. But it should start in teacher preparation, he said.

"Many schools of education don't embrace the cognitive sciences," Boser said.
Yet they have a responsibility to prepare teachers to stay abreast of the current research in the cognitive sciences: "It would be weird if large swathes of American doctors believed in bloodletting," he said.

Learning How to Learn Could Be a Student's Most Valuable Skill
by Stephen Sawchuk in Education Week
At the heart of our work is the intentional act of learning, and Sawchuk’s post highlights this belief - touching on metacognition, and the process of learning as an integral skill for all students. It supports our efforts with learning skills and meaningful feedback.
Futurists increasingly predict a rapidly changing workplace in which employees will be required to update their learning frequently, and on short notice. Employers, they say, will want flexible, adaptable workers who can pick up new content and technologies quickly and efficiently.

...cognitive scientists are now beginning to stress that producing students for whom such abilities are second nature is not only a challenge of content and pedagogy, but also one of helping students be more aware of how they learn. When faced with new knowledge or an unfamiliar task to master, how should students structure their time in order to practice it? When they get stuck in the middle of a complex problem, what strategies can they deploy to get unstuck? Meadows' and her colleagues' experiences suggest that those strategies are not innate in young learners; instead, they need to be explicitly taught and reinforced.

"We talk about how degrees relate to jobs these days, and how a degree is not a guarantee of a job anymore," she said of her students. "I ask them, 'What's going to put you at the top of the stack?' And then they begin to talk about things they've never connected with education: work ethic, working well with others. In essence, you are learning to be a particular way in the world—a question-asker, how to manage yourself, and how to be a solid decisionmaker."

To be sure, no one knows precisely the recipe for producing the most prepared, adaptable workforce. But at the very least, to learn how to learn is a gift. And it may just be one of the puzzle pieces to navigating an uncertain future.

As a community of learners, it is one of my ongoing goals that we both support and challenge one another to improve our own processes for learning - enhancing our individual and collective metacognition, staying abreast on science and research, and focusing on the skills and practice of active learning. This is a goal for students, staff, and families and I will continue to ask for your help in pushing me along as well.

I look forward to the work that lies ahead for all of us.
Please click here for Blake Updates.
Please click here for District Community Notices.
Take care.
Nat

Recharging for Learning

9/10/2019

September 10, 2019

To help encourage conversations and dialogue about ways that we can step back and recharge to access learning, our topic/question for the dinner table is: What do you do to ‘recharge your batteries’ when you feel tired, overwhelmed, or need a break? Recharging for Learning (Week of 9/8/19) (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 pace and routines of the school day/week ‘kick in’ quickly and I was struck this past week how it felt as though we had been in school for a month! With very few formal things on our calendar this past weekend, we were thrilled to just slow down, breathe, and do our best to catch up. One of my goals is to intentionally build in this time, both during the week and weekends, to do just that - it’s an uphill climb for me, but it sure is important!

One of the ways that I recharge is by dedicating some time for reading and reflection, and I feel so fortunate that my personal interests/passions are intertwined with my professional ones. (That said, this can make it an inherent challenge to shut my mind off from school - something that I am working on, for sure.) This weekend I came across a series by Tom Vander Ark, CEO of Getting Smart, that identifies and outlines different trends and influences in education. As we are starting out this 19-20 school year together, I hope that we can continue to keep a ‘longview’ in mind as we work on our ‘shortview’ tasks in the day to day - these posts, along with a sampling of responses to last week’s Topic/Question for the week, may help us on that path…

Four Mega Trends Reshaping Global Learning
by Tom Vander Ark (@tvanderark) in Forbes
Imagine school as a series of community-connected projects and skill sprints that develop leadership, collaboration and problem solving skills. Imagine a web of supports that help you make the kind of contribution you’re capable of making...The combination of new goals, active learning strategies, competency-based progressions and integrated services is boosting learner success.
Four Mega Trends:
New Goals
Active Learning
Competency
Integrated Supports

Four Emerging Trends in Education
by Tom Vander Ark (@tvanderark) in Forbes
Imagine going to school in a museum and studying real artifacts. Imagine a sustained relationship with an advisor who helps you figure out what you’re good at and care about, and where you can make a difference. Imagine high school students designing practical solutions to community problems.
Four Emerging Trends:
Contribution (why)
Immersive Learning
Success Skills
Thoughtful Guidance

Four Trends Influencing Education
by Tom Vander Ark (@tvanderark) in Forbes
These four trends—inclusion, lifelong learning, quantified self and mindfulness—are becoming ubiquitous in the media and becoming part of the culture. Many schools are trying to understand what they mean for practices and reporting.
Four Trends:
Inclusion and Equity
Lifelong Learning
Quantified Life
Mindfulness

What's Next In Learning? Four Future Trends
by Tom Vander Ark (@tvanderark) in Forbes
Imagine a platform that enabled you to access local and national opportunities from your smartphone or computer, a place where you can pursue your interests with mentors and peers, building new skills and habits wherever you are, whenever you want...The future of learning will include leaner, more responsive systems supporting the formation of growth communities with the expanded ability to reward contributors in a social economy.
Four Future Trends:
Responsive
Lean
Social Economy
Growth Communities

Topic/Question (Week of 9/1/19): What are you hoping to learn this year?

I'm hoping to learn more effective methods of accommodating different learning styles.
I am looking forward to learning unique and interesting things about each of my students. Learning doesn't go far without connections. The effort to connect is what I want to focus on this year.
Learn to replace the word ‘but’ as often as possible with the word ‘and’
Learn that when someone seems to need support, for example someone being bullied, that I let them know I know how it feels, because empathy is far more equitable than is sympathy
I am hoping to learn how to effectively roll out SBR for the entire year.
More in-depth ancient history.
Hoping to learn more about the Medfield School System. Impressed with what I have learned so far
I am hoping to learn a practical and effective way to report out interim reports and report cards using SBR.
I want to learn how to speak French.
I am hoping to learn square root and memorize pi
I'm hoping to learn how to embrace organization
History
more about what the other academic classes are doing
I am hoping to to learn more about Ancient Greece and Rome in our ancient civilizations unit. I also am hoping to get better at mandarin and hopefully be able to speak more fluently.
Continue to learn negative numbers
New interest cool stuff
How to manage realistic classroom behaviors. Seek help and ideas from Blake staff and art faculty.
Geography
Whatever I can
How to become the best person I can be. (And memorizing my multiplication tables)
I am hoping to learn to like social studies and English.

I look forward to the work that lies ahead for all of us.
Please click here for Blake Updates.
Take care.
Nat

Planting Seeds for Learning

9/2/2019

September 3, 2019

To help encourage conversations and dialogue about learning together as a community, our topic/question for the dinner table is: What are you hoping to learn this year? Planting Seeds for Learning (Week of 9/2/19) (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.

After a fulfilling and energizing first week of school, the Labor Day weekend was thoroughly enjoyed by our family. Amidst sleepovers, sports, and some errands we were able to garden, take some bike rides and walks, practice yoga, read, and relax. I hope that everyone was able to find ways to recharge and take advantage of the last bit of summer that is so often associated with Labor Day!

Adapted from Dare to Lead
Teachers are some of our most important leaders. We know that we can’t always ask our students to take off the armor at home, or even on their way to school, because their emotional and physical safety may require self-protection. But what we can do, and what we are ethically called to do as teachers, is to create a space in our schools and classrooms where all students can walk in and, for that day or hour, take off the crushing weight of their armor, hang it on a rack, and open their hearts to truly being seen.

Teachers are the guardians of spaces that allow students to breathe and be curious and explore the world and be who they are without suffocation. Students deserve one place where they can rumble with vulnerability and their hearts can exhale. And what I know from the research is that we should never underestimate the benefit to a child of having a place to belong—even one—where they can take off their armor. It can and often does change the trajectory of their life. -- Brene Brown

These words from Brene Brown and Ted Sizer represent, in my mind, what learning and education ‘should be’ - challenging, humbling, inspirational, centering, and supportive. I believe that we can never run short of inspiration and different ideas, words, actions, quotations, etc. resonate at different times and in different ways with and for all of us. In many ways this is true of all of our work every day with students - we do our very best to reach each student and we must keep on trying. Brown’s emphasis on vulnerability and establishing a safe space for learning, coupled with Sizer’s vision for progressive education, will hopefully work to help us plant seeds and build a learning culture for 19-20 here at Blake.

At the outset of each school year I share these sentiments/thoughts...
As we work to establish a foundation for our work, a continued goal that I have (and one that I hope is shared by our entire community - students, staff, and families) for both myself and Blake is that we purposefully, intentionally, and actively strive to maintain a culture of learning, sharing, and transparency with one another and the community. It is critical that we take the time to highlight our work and progress, both the good and bad, in a reflective manner so that we are all held accountable to both our mission and our essential question...
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.
Essential Question: How can we cultivate and curate the progression of student learning and growth?

Our opening days together as a staff provided a forum for reflection, visioning, and community. I want to thank our entire staff for their help in making it happen and willingness to ‘dive in’ - professionalism, care, and commitment to our students and one another was certainly present and felt. John Hattie’s research and findings emphasizes the importance of professional learning and intentional learning of teachers -- ‘...the greatest effects on student learning occur when the teachers become learners of their own teaching and...when students become their own teachers.’ This is our true goal - to be a community of active learners. My intent for our learning community is to take the 40,000 foot view during the opening days to ask questions, plant seeds, frame the year, and foster dialogue in an effort to grow and learn. It is through the questions and ideas that we discuss and explore that our beliefs will be formed - these beliefs will then guide our actions.

As we embark on this year of learning, I am highlighting some of the ideas that were posed (questions, video clips, posts, and quotes) so that they stay current. I hope that our work each day with students will align and help us towards our mission - please help me to articulate and examine these together. Much awaits us - hopes for our students and community, ups/downs, successes/challenges, theme of courage - and I am hoping we can continue to be learners together and reflect as a community, pushing and supporting our individual and collective growth...

Questions to Frame the Year...

What hopes do you have for this year?
What fears do you have for this year?
Courage in our students looks like...

Videos/Clips...
Brené Brown | Daring Classrooms | SXSWedu 2017
(33:33)
Sir Ken Robinson on Role of a Teacher
(2:23)
The End of Average: Harvard's Todd Rose on Why Individuality Is the Key to the Future
(4:24)
Jaime Casap Discussing How Learning is Changing
(2:08)
The Responsive Organization
(5:25)
Bonus: Malcolm Gladwell debates Adam Grant
(5:25)

Quotes...
And now we welcome the new year. Full of things that have never been. -- Rainer Maria Rilke

Our task is to educate their (our students) whole being so they can face the future. We may not see the future, but they will and our job is to help them make something of it. -- Ken Robinson

When I see people stand fully in their truth, or when I see someone fall down, get back up, and say, ‘Damn. That really hurt, but this is important to me and I’m going in again’—my gut reaction is, ‘What a badass.’ -- Brene Brown

In all affairs it’s a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted. -- Bertrand Russell

Sometimes the bravest and most important thing you can do is just show up. -- Brene Brown

My whole life I have been complaining that my work was constantly interrupted, until I discovered the interruptions were my work. -- Henri Nouwen

I would rather have questions that can't be answered than answers that can't be questioned. -- Richard Feynman

Vulnerability is not winning or losing; it’s having the courage to show up and be seen when we have no control over the outcome. -- Brene Brown

We've become so used to the concept as a measuring and sorting tool, that it and its correlates - below-average, above-average - are everyday speech. We don't even question the language, although the challenges we face require a different mindset. -- Todd Rose

...a generation of kids that are growing up learning on the web...how they learn how to do things is different than the way we learn how to do things and we need to keep that in mind. -- Jaime Casap

The severity of one’s disability does not determine their level of potential. The greatest barriers that persons with disabilities have to overcome are not steps or curbs, it’s expectations. - Karen Clay

Best thing we can do for kids...instead of teaching them to be successful...teach them how to respond when they are not successful! - Principal El

If the world is changing, the research and evidence become irrelevant if you don't consider a new context. - Katie Martin

Change almost never fails because it's too early. It almost always fails because it's too late. The time to get ready for that change is now. - Seth Godin

Hope will never be silent. - Harvey Milk

Each and every school day will bring tens of thousands of reasons to celebrate in schools across the country. - Bill Ivey

Two Posts of Interest...
Moving from Feedback to Feedforward
by Jennifer Gonzalez (@cultofpedagogy)
Gonzalez’s post references the work of Marshall Goldsmith and Joe Hirsch (author of The Feedback Fix), highlighting the concept of ‘feedforward’, rather than ‘feedback’. It supports the very essence of our efforts to provide a method and structure to provide meaningful feedback to students that is future and progress-oriented. The visual really helps to outline the distinctions between the two.
It turns out there’s a different way to give feedback that works a lot better, a way of flipping its focus from the past to the future. It’s a concept called “feedforward,” which was originally developed by a management expert named Marshall Goldsmith. As far as I can tell, not a lot of educators are familiar with the practice of feedforward, and I really think if we learned how to do it and started using it more consistently, it could make a huge difference in how our students grow and how we grow as professionals.

“People can’t control what they can’t change, and we can’t change the past,” says Hirsch. “And that happens to be the focus of most of the feedback that we give or receive.” More specifically, backward-looking feedback doesn’t often get good results for three reasons:

It shuts down our mental dashboards.
It focuses primarily on ratings, not on development.
It reinforces negative behaviors.

Measure Education Inputs, Too
by Orly Friedman in Education Next
Friedman’s post is one that helps provide a framework for analysis and assessment - focusing on the process vs the results. This is important on both micro and macro levels in education and the implications are important for our work with students and one another. Within the post Friedman references a London-based Education Endowment Foundation website - a tool that assesses and ranks the effectiveness and costliness of interventions.
What’s required to remedy this situation is re-elevating the process of achieving academic results, and using outcomes not for external judgment, but for internal calibration. This can happen by asking districts, schools, and teachers to clarify the inputs that are most important to getting their desired results and evaluating them on the quality of these inputs.

There are at least three distinct reasons for measuring inputs in addition to outputs. The first is to prevent misguided strategies for raising the outputs...A second reason to measure inputs along with outputs is to facilitate learning about which inputs work...A third reason to measure inputs in addition to outputs is that some outputs are difficult to measure.

What would a shift toward measuring inputs look like in practice? For a school, this would mean judging success not on test scores, but on the conditions that go into creating academic results...Measuring school success based on the quality of inputs encourages diverse approaches that are responsive to the community each school serves, but also does not limit the collection of standardized assessment data.

The power of measuring educators on the quality of what goes into their programs is in the culture that this process supports. Evaluating inputs requires schools and districts to have, and be able to explain, a theory of change. It helps individuals and schools own their own results and trusts them to use the results as feedback in an iterative process of improvement. Ultimately, evaluating inputs over outputs encourages a culture of learning, which should be at the heart of every education organization.

I look forward to the success, challenges, and opportunities for growth that await us. It is my steadfast hope that we can keep our Guiding Lights (students, core values, mission and essential question) at the forefront of actions and thoughts so that we may come closer to ‘realizing’ Hattie’s work and our ‘whys’ for all of our precious children...

At the end of the 18-19 school year we watched James Ryan’s HGSE commencement speech about the ‘sin of omission’ (failure to perform an action when one ought to have completed it) and his words serve as an inspiration for us as educators and adults who deeply care for all of our students...
Dean Ryan HGSE Commencement Speech 2015
(24:28)
You understand that our collective aim, as educators, is not simply to atone for that sin, but to prevent it from happening in the future. That’s what it means to change the world, and my final charge to you is to get busy on that task, and to never settle. So pay attention to the tug at your sleeve, lend a hand, right wrongs, speak up, and as you leave Appian Way today, see what needs doing and do it without being told.

I look forward to the work that lies ahead for all of us.
Please click here for Blake Updates.
Take care.
Nat

Update from Blake - Welcome Back!

8/27/2019

August 27, 2019

Dear Blake Families,

I hope that everyone has enjoyed a wonderful end to the summer and is excited about the start to the school year! I am writing with an update for all Blake families and to wish everyone well.

During our opening faculty meetings we took some time as a staff to outline the school year and our hopes for our students. The few years we have taken time to reflect on the following questions: 'What are the attributes, characteristics, and core values we hope to foster in our students? What are the attributes, characteristics, and core values of a Blake Middle School educator? What helps you learn? How can we empower our students?' This year I asked the staff to share their responses to this prompt: 'Courage in our students looks like...'? I have copied for your reference visuals representing our collective answers, reflecting the thought and care that we hope to foster and bring each day for your students. We also took the time as a staff to outline our goals and vision and began our formal work with our theme of Courage for the 2019-2020 school year.

I encourage all families to take some time to watch the two links below as a fun way to welcome the beginning of school at Blake...
Message to Blake Students 2019-2020
(A compilation of messages from Blake teachers to all of our students)
An Open Letter to Students Returning to School
(a message from John Green that I share each year)

Please do not worry or stay up all night configuring the iPads for the first day of school - we fully anticipate that some students will not have everything set up, and we will work with them to iron out the wrinkles. The first few days/weeks are a little bit messy and we need to 'welcome' the mess! If you have any questions/concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me.

We are all looking forward to an exciting year and the work that lies ahead!
Take care.
Nat

Opening Letter to Blake Families, August 2019

8/17/2019

August 17, 2019
As we look ahead to our last 'full week of summer', I am sharing the link to the letter sent to all Blake families on August 16, 2019...
Opening Letter to Blake Families, August 2019
Enjoy and hold on to the last stretch of summer!
Take care.
Nat

MidSummer Reflections and Update - July 28, 2019

7/28/2019

July 28, 2019

To help encourage conversations and dialogue about PDF (Playtime, Downtime, Family Time), our topic/question for the dinner table is: What are you looking forward to most about summer? Enjoying Summer (Summer 2019) (This is an anonymous Google Form)

Summer is a wonderful time for many reasons, one of my favorites being the time that is ‘allowed, permitted, and/or encouraged’ for reflection and growth. As I think about our roles as educators and caring adults for our students and community, that is a mantra and goal for us throughout the year as well. We want our students, families, and selves to continually find the time to reflect and grow - and, in turn, learning will take place. Re-reading Thoreau’s words are centering and inspiring in this vein - I hope we can find ways to embed the ‘reflective mode of summer’ into the ‘middle of winter days’ as well.

Over the past week our family reflected with occasions of both remembrance and celebration - my uncle’s memorial service in the Berkshires (visiting with family and friends with deep-rooted connections/relations with both nuclear and extended family), celebrating Katie’s mom’s 75th birthday in Falmouth (taking a sunset sail with relatives and friends on Katie’s side and having delicious coconut cake for dessert!), and celebrating our 20th wedding anniversary with Katie and the kids (dinner out at our favorite restaurant - Sweet Basil in Needham- see pics below)!

It was wonderful in so many ways to connect, observe, and simply bear witness to the power of relationships, growth, and change - and, once again, the connections with our work and mission for our students and community rang true for me.

We are a school and community of learners focused on ‘Learning and Teaching’ (it sounds trite and very clear, but we need to keep saying it) - and as such, I firmly believe it is at the core of our mission to be intentional about this practice. Oftentimes the phrase is written/spoken/published as ‘Teaching and Learning’ - I think ‘Learning’ should be front and center. As part of my own learning and growth this summer, I have been reflecting via different means and focusing on a few aspects (these certainly are not siloed areas and are overlapping and interwoven in many, many ways with implications across several domains)…

Practicing true intentionality and deliberation with self-care (walking, biking, yoga, and ‘stepping back’)
Reading and listening (it is hard for me to unplug and step away)
Mindfulness and reflections on our theme of Courage for 19-20 - what are the connections? What does courage mean? What does it look like? How can we embed it into our culture?
Diversifying my own learning - how come I haven’t listened to podcasts before???? These are a few I am thoroughly enjoying…
Sustainable change - what does support look like? What is needed? How can I/we support students and staff?

This year I aim to continue (during on- and off-time from the days of school) to foster connections, questions, thoughts, and discussion is by openly sharing reflections from Blake, posts, readings, and personal 'learnings' that reflect our work and growth. Below I am highlighting a little bit of each that directly and indirectly relate to our mission - innovation, the process of change, the needs of our students, and reflection...

Staff Reflections
One practice that truly helps me to enter this reflective and productive mindset each year is reading the responses from the prompts asked of the Blake staff as we enter summer...

What was meaningful this year? What made teaching worthwhile? What mattered?
Describe a positive interaction or experience you had with a student during this academic year.
Describe or explain an accomplishment you attained or something you are proud of taking place during this academic year.
Describe a particular student or situation during the school year who or that you feel you could have handled in a way that would have resulted in a more positive learning experience.
How have you 'lived' our mission statement in your work and growth this year?
What is an area that you would like to grow professionally?
What have you learned this year from a student?
What messages do you want to leave for our students? What do you want them to remember? (A humbling but important and centering question)

The responses are insightful, honest, professional, personal, and meaningful. They provide a lens into our day-to-day work, compass points for reflection, food for thought, and a directional path for the upcoming school year.

Some Recent Learning/Thoughts/Notes/Mindsets
Last week I was fortunate attended the NASSP (National Association of Secondary School Principals) conference in Boston.
(With highlights from sessions with Jimmy Casas - @casas_jimmy, Baruti Kafele - @principalkafele, Tracey Wilen - @traceywilen, David Guerin - @DavidGuerin, Tommy Welch - @PrincipalWelch)

Opportunity to build community when you bring people together
Always comes back to relationships
‘What is the biggest issue that we are currently facing in public education that is causing us to not get the results we aspire for when it comes to student achievement?’ - Jimmy Casas
Do we have hope and faith that we can do things better? Do we address the status quo?
‘Underperformance is an issue in schools today, but failing to address underperformance is an even bigger issue’
'If you're not on Twitter as an educator, let me respectfully invite you into the 21st century - the learning is there 24/7' - Baruti Kafele
Questions for reflection…
- Does this person understand my life? Does the speaker get this or is this theoretical?
- As you dig deep...is my classroom a better classroom because I teach it?
- Is the school better because I lead it?
Is my leadership driven by a Leadership Philosophy that has culminated into a Leadership Style which is now habitual and can be articulated?
‘Do I ensure that my staff utilizes a variety of instructional strategies that onsider the different learning styles, ability levels and social-emotional needs of my students in student-centered, culturally-responsive, culturally-relevant and EQUITABLE learning environments?’
We can’t afford to be the same person we were yesterday…
- We need to grow each day…
- We need to learn each day…
- Same is true for students…
Multimedia is the new text (multimedia literacy skill)
- 85% people are visual learners
- People prefer learning from YouTube to books
‘If standardized test scores are your school’s top priority, your mission is more about adults than it is about students.’ - David Guerin
Will Richardson - have permanence in the learning
Shift from ‘What if?’ to ‘Why not?’
Can we be an ambidextrous organization?
Innovation, Interruption, Disruption starts at the top
- Structures are important
- Allow mistakes
Allow difficult questions that do not have answers
‘In teaching, you can’t do the Bloom stuff until you take care of the Maslow stuff.’ - Alan E. Beck

Some Posts that Resonate
Here's What Teens Say They Need
by Jody Mayberry in ASCD Express
Mayberry is a math teacher and this past spring asked her students this question: "What do you need from schools to feel supported both academically and socially?" The findings are summarized within her post - they certainly provoke thought, reflection, and discussions. I believe that question is one we should continually be asking of our students and families.
Finding #1: Teens want explicit proof that the adults in their lives know them as individuals.
Finding #2: Teens want easily accessible resources.
Finding #3: Teens demand authentic, meaningful work.
Finding #4: Teenagers crave human interaction.
Finding #5: Teens want the opportunity to fail.

Whether the thoughts of my students or your own inform your practice, remember: if we're really doing what's best for teens, then we need to listen to their voices. Just asking teens, "how can I help?" or "what do you need from me?" is the first step in determining what teens need from schools.

Teachers in June
by Michael George (@GeorgeBloolight)
George’s post highlights the importance of summer for all educators - a chance to recharge and refresh so that we may be present for our students throughout the year.
Teachers, treasure your summer breaks and guard them with your life. Fight every effort to chisel away at this necessary break from the action. Take a vacation if you want, or stay home and binge Netflix if that floats your boat. Cross projects off your to-do list or take the list and toss it into the trash. If you are feeling burned out, take advantage of your district’s employee assistance program (if there is one) and take things out with a professional counselor. Take naps in the middle of the day. Every one of these indulgences is like depositing money into your savings account for a rainy day, and once you have your emotional reserves built up you need to ration them out carefully during the year. After all, the next chance to truly recharge won’t come for another nine months.

The Game of School vs. The Game of Life
by AJ Juliani (@ajjuliani)
Juliani’s post holds up a mirror, asking us to reflect on the modeling we are doing for our children - challenging us to note and recognize the parallels of our actions in ‘playing the game of life’ as students ‘play the game of school’. As Ted Sizer always noted - The Students Are Watching Us.
The Game of School Rules: Make the adults at school happy, and the adults at home will be happy.

If you are anything like me, you often wish that school wasn’t a game. That the grades, the year-by-year system of steps, the achievement measures, and all of the rest of the pieces of school that make up this “game” would go away and the focus would go back to what is best for each learner in that moment. However, I’m often blind to the fact that our students are not only playing this game of school, but they are watching the adults in their life play a game as well. My daughter is always watching me, and looking up to me, not for advice, but to see what I’m doing and how I’m living my day-to-day life. My actions and attitude towards my work, and towards my learning, have a direct impact on her view of the world and learning. I can’t forget that.

GENER(aliz)ATIONS
by Alfie Kohn (@alfiekohn)
We hear comments about ‘kids these days’ very frequently and it has always rubbed me the wrong way. Kohn’s post speaks to this phenomena and the importance of stepping back, avoiding sweeping generalizations, and gaining perspective. It is one I will be sure to reference and come back to for myself and with staff and families in the future.
Baby Boomers were originally lumped together based on the fact that there were a lot of them (the birthrate having spiked after the War) and that they were lucky enough to come of age during a relatively affluent period. The idea that all of them — or, for that matter, all Gen X’ers or all Millennials — are also distinguished by a common political or psychological profile, a set of values or tastes, is an entirely different proposition. It’s an idea that rational people should view with a generous measure of skepticism if only because each of these labels refers to something on the order of 80 million people.

Rarely do older folks pause and say, “Wait a second. If these snide truisms about young people that I’m confidently repeating aren’t all that different from what our elders said about us, might that be reason to question their validity?” With respect to the specific claim that “kids today” are spoiled and their parents permissive, I had fun a few years ago digging up multiple examples of how people were saying exactly the same thing about the previous generation, and the one before that, and the one before that, and the one before that. I conducted this backward journey through the decades in a book called The Myth of the Spoiled Child, which also challenged the reactionary narrative about helicopter parents and kids with inflated self-esteem that has become the conventional wisdom.

The specific accusations leveled at today’s teens and young adults — that they’re entitled, overcelebrated “snowflakes” — are particularly ugly, empirically unsupported, and often animated by a political agenda. But my larger point is that we should be very cautious about offering any generalizations about an entire generation. And by “we,” I mean all of us, including Millennials, lest they eventually start to sound like their elders in slinging calumnies at Generation Z (or whatever we end up calling the next cohort).

Eight Tips To Slow Down Summer
by Kris Felicello (@kfelicello)
This post by Felicello is one I have shared in the past - it offers 8 tips for how we, educators and families alike, can slow down the pace and our heads in an effort to enjoy, relax, regroup, and refresh for the coming school year: Create a Summer Bucket List; Create a New Habit; Read; Reconnect; Day Trip; Play the Notice Game; Learn Something; Do Something New.
If you are not in the education field, you may begrudge teachers for what you see as a two month glimpse into retired life, but, for us in the field, we know when you do it right, you often leave it all on the field so to speak and need time to reinvent yourself for the challenge that the next school year and next group of students will bring. No matter how much you love teaching or being an administrator, no matter how much you love kids, the challenge of changing lives, and/or of inspiring the next generation of leaders, you would be hard pressed to find an educator who doesn’t wish they could slow down the clock to make summer last just a little bit longer.

We have settled into the summer mode, the relaxation and good vibes of summer and its inevitable end is far enough away that the negative nellies are not yet signaling its impending doom. It is not too late, you have the opportunity to slow down your summer, to make the most of it. From one educator to another–I know how hard you work; I know how you lay yourself on the line each and every day. You deserve a long summer that will get you ready to do battle and fight the good fight for our kids come September.

I need to keep reminding myself that there are many summer days and nights that lie ahead and to cherish them - time with family and friends at Blueberry Hill Farm in the Berkshires, the Falmouth Road Race, swims at Farm Pond, gardening, yoga, cooking, dips in the ocean, and 'making time for nothing'. I am sharing some quotes that I share each summer that help me to #slowitdown and #leantowardsyes - I hope they can do the same for others...

Summer is the annual permission slip to be lazy. To do nothing and have it count for something. To lie in the grass and count the stars. To sit on a branch and study the clouds. -- Regina Brett
Good friends, good books, and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life. -- Mark Twain
Summer afternoon-summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language. -- Henry James
Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer's day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time. -- John Lubbock
Aaah, summer - that long anticipated stretch of lazy, lingering days, free of responsibility and rife with possibility. It's a time to hunt for insects, master handstands, practice swimming strokes, conquer trees, explore nooks and crannies, and make new friends. -- Darell Hammond

As I share each year at this 'midpoint of summer', I hope everyone enjoys a relaxed, restful, reflective, and fun second half of summer, full of both 'everything and nothing’ at the same time. Stay tuned for the 'Opening Letter' to all Blake families in mid-August. And, as Kris Felicello shared at the end of the post referenced above...
There is no reason a late August day can’t be just as much summer as a late June one. Don’t start the countdown; just enjoy each day for what it is.

#lovingsummer
I look forward to the work that lies ahead for all of us.
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Take care.
Nat

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Finding and 'Using' Inspiration

Gaining Understandings

Leaning On Others

Sharing and Realizing Our Ideas

Learning How to Learn

Recharging for Learning

Planting Seeds for Learning

Update from Blake - Welcome Back!

Opening Letter to Blake Families, August 2019

MidSummer Reflections and Update - July 28, 2019

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