Principal's Blog

Making Time for Joy

4/7/2021

April 6, 2021

To help encourage dialogue and reflection about the ways that we find joy and carve out time for joy in our lives, our question of the week is: What brings you joy and how do/can you make room in your day/schedule for joy? Making Time for Joy (Week of 4/4/21) (This is an anonymous Google Form)

Blake's Guiding Lights
Our Students
Blake's Core Values: Respect, Responsibility, Resourcefulness, Reflection
Our Essential Question: How can we cultivate and curate the progression of student learning and growth?
Our Mission: Blake Middle School believes in a living mission statement, based on the concept that our community seeks and respects knowledge, integrity, character, wisdom, and the willingness to adapt to a continually evolving world.
The most important attitude that can be formed is that of desire to go on learning. - John Dewey
You cannot teach today the same way you did yesterday to prepare students for tomorrow. - John Dewey

As shared via e-mail last Thursday, I hope that this long weekend provided some time for whatever was needed for everyone. And, for those who celebrated Easter or Passover this past week, I hope that they were enjoyed. We had a pretty quiet weekend and felt fortunate to be able to see my parents and Katie’s mom Sunday afternoon for a low-key get together. With all three of the grandparents now fully vaccinated, we were excited to safely gather all together!

In a continued effort to reflect, archive, and carry forward the ‘learning’ (broadly defined) from this past year, I have been taking time to look back at e-mails, blog posts, webinars, podcasts, and resources that I/we have experienced. About a year ago, the question of the week asked about the ways that we find joy and have fun (Finding Joy and Having Fun). Carrying this important message/topic forward, and embracing our ‘No Homework Weekend’, I am keeping it brief by re-sharing the post from last week along with a sampling of responses from last week’s question below. I hope that we continue to find ways to ‘design our own learning’, make room for joy, and show up for our students, ourselves, and one another...

Claiming Our Grief and Joy
by Terry Kawi in PBS Teachers Lounge
As we near the end of this school year, I know that planning and doing extra work is the last thing that educators have on their minds. But what if we start planning now to celebrate our students, families, and each other for all the ways we have shown up? Now, students may not remember each lesson they learned this school year but they will remember how their teachers and school community wrapped around them and loved them during a pandemic.

Here are some ideas to consider as you think about ending the year with joy.

What are all the ways you and teammates can do to celebrate students and each other?
What is an activity or project that students can engage in in your respective class that is self-directed and self-explorative?
Is this an activity or project that can be implemented schoolwide?
What might a virtual gathering look like at your school?
What might a Week of Joy look like at your school?

Sampling of Responses from Last Week’s ‘Question of the Week’: If you could design your own day of learning, what would it look like?

I would have more mask breaks in between classes, I also think I learn the best when we have shorter class periods because it’s easier to lay attention and not lose interest.
A lot of reading and memorizing.
It would be a Olympics games day and throughout the day advisories would compete against each other in a bunch of games.
Wake up, start at 10, do some work, eat lunch, do more work and finish it.
Less breaks so that way we can end earlier
If I were to design my own learning day, it would consist of completely remote assignments. In the beginning of the year, when we would get completely remote assignments, I thrived. Some things I struggled with. Which leads me to my next learning day design. Optional zooms. If you are struggling with a certain topic in a subject. Zooms would be available for help.
I would make it a week long. I would like to shadow a craftsman or carpenter to better learn how to use tools and complete 'handyman' projects. I've picked up a lot over the past years but would like to see it from the pros. I think most people would benefit from this type of know-how and the gratification it gives you when you complete a project.
In person, some group projects but not all projects but in groups with friends or that we choose, having time to work on our own, time during the day to work on homework.
Different games, student led discussions.
I would blend a good mix of individual time to read, work, and reflect along with lectures on topics of interest with time to discuss with others as well.
It would be like it was before we had to do remote work and wear masks.
Research contemporary art museums this past year to see where artists are going with visual art works
Very interactive things where you are allowed to sit anywhere you want, without just writing things down and taking notes.

April is National Poetry Month and each week I will share a poem or two to foster connections and dialogue about poetry in our our lives. In keeping with the importance of down time, joy, and showing up, Mary Oliver’s poem, The Summer Day, is one that touches on all of these ‘themes’ for me…
The Summer Day
Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean--
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down--
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?

Designing Your Learning

3/31/2021

March 30, 2021

To help encourage dialogue and reflection about what learning could look like for each individual, our question of the week is: If you could design your own day of learning, what would it look like? Designing Your Learning (Week of 3/28/21) (This is an anonymous Google Form)

Blake's Guiding Lights
Our Students
Blake's Core Values: Respect, Responsibility, Resourcefulness, Reflection
Our Essential Question: How can we cultivate and curate the progression of student learning and growth?
Our Mission: Blake Middle School believes in a living mission statement, based on the concept that our community seeks and respects knowledge, integrity, character, wisdom, and the willingness to adapt to a continually evolving world.
The most important attitude that can be formed is that of desire to go on learning. - John Dewey
You cannot teach today the same way you did yesterday to prepare students for tomorrow. - John Dewey

Waking up on Saturday morning to the warm temperatures, sunlight, and clear blue sky felt like a wonderful gift. I continue to be reminded of the impact that environmental factors have on my temperament and perspective - it may sound obvious, but this is certainly one of ‘affirmed’ or ‘relearned’ lessons of this last year. Our daffodils bloomed at the end of the week and I hope this trend continues!

After a full day of learning and engagement #DLDMedfield, I found myself trying to synthesize, archive, and process the abundance of thoughts and ideas bouncing around in my head last Friday afternoon. Before hopping on the exercise bike (in retrospect, I wish I had gone on an outdoor ride!), I took some time to consolidate my ‘chicken scratch’ notes from sessions, explore links/ideas from various sessions, and put some more ‘pen to paper’. That process, in and of itself, was helpful as it allowed me a structured way to reflect, pause, and map out some ideas - for my own learning, coupled with ideas for our students and community. And, as is often the case, this recognition of my own learning led me to wondering how we can build more time in the actual and proverbial day for our students to do just this - reflect, process, and archive their own learning. As we were able to design our own learning on Friday as a staff, I am intrigued and inspired by the idea of building systems and structures for our students to do the same. The words from Ted Sizer above sum up this aspirational notion nicely - create the conditions and let it happen (easier said than done, of course).

I look forward to the sharing and collaboration of our collective learning from #DLDMedfield, and hope the sharing serves as initial (or continued) steps along the path towards our mission/vision for our students. Whether we are articulating and exercising Tom Daccord’s ‘Someday/Monday’ practice after a day of learning (Someday I will…, Monday I will…), taking time at a faculty meeting, reading and doing research on one’s own, journaling, having a conversation with a student/colleague, or whatever might work for each one of us, one of the keys for learning lies in the balance of the individual with the collective group. By keeping this question in mind - How can we help each learner (students, teachers, families, community) learn? - we will keep these thoughts, hopes, and potential/articulated actions on the forefront of our work.

In my own continued practice of learning (holding myself accountable and hopefully providing a way for others to hold me accountable as well), I am sharing an assortment of ideas, thoughts, and principles that have stayed with me from #DLDMedfield…

Two quotes/notes from Malika Ali (@Malika_Ali)

‘My identity walks with me into every room I enter’
‘When you care enough to try to understand, that goes a long way’

Some notes from Justin Reich (@bjfr)

3 things we should all be doing...
- Reflecting upon what we have learned
- Celebrating what has been gained
- Grieving what has been lost
To help change the narrative: ‘Talk and listen’
We want to foster more self-directed, independent learners
‘Equalizing doesn’t respect individuality’
This past year we had to put a mantra into practice - ‘We literally had to meet them where they are at’ (in their homes, in hybrid, in person)
What are environments where people really learn? What do they look like?
We need to listen to young people
- Talk to students and listen; Promise to take students seriously
Students/teachers/families - surveys
Connect and extend challenges
We convey what we value by what we teach and how we teach
We need to embrace a spirit of tinkering and continuous improvement
Human development is critical

Quotes from Katie Martin and Monica Martinez...

What motivates us? (Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose)
Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us
(10:47)
3 Factors Lead to Better Performance and Personal Satisfaction
Autonomy - desire to be self-directed; if you want engagement, self-directed is better; Genius Hour; Passion Projects

Mastery - Urge to get better at stuff; musical instruments at weekend; fun, you get better at it, satisfying; YouTube; WikiPedia; doing sophisticated, technically challenging work; challenge and mastery - wanting to make a contribution

Purpose - want to have a transcendent purpose; purpose motive; a reason for the work (a mission, a reason, a mantra); we are purpose maximizers

What fosters and what inhibits sustainable change?
Towards the end of this past week, I listened to these two episodes from The Tom Schimmer Podcast - the ‘Leading Change in Assessment’ sections drew me in and led me to the article below from John Kotter, written in 1995. The episodes and posts are relevant to #DLDMedfield and our work today as educators - we are in a period of change (and we always will/should be in education), and the lessons within these resources are ones that I found to be both affirming and prescriptive.

Happy for Others | Peter DeWitt | Leading Change in Assessment‬
(1 hr 36 min)
In Don't @ Me (2:45), Tom examines the question of why it's so hard for us to be happy for others. Then, Tom is joined by Dr. Peter DeWitt (17:38) to discuss what it means to be an instructional leader. Finally, in Assessment Corner (1:19:07), Tom uses Dr. John Kotter's research to explore the important phases necessary to transform the assessment & grading culture of a school.

Relentless Outrage | Matt Townsley | Leading Change in Assessment (2‪)‬
(1 hr, 32 min)
In Don't @ Me (1:24), Tom takes aim at the relentlessly outraged and details why we are all at risk of losing all perspective, resiliency, individuality, & common-sense. Then, Tom is joined by Dr. Matt Townsley (15:30) to discuss the implementation of standards-based grading at the Secondary level. Finally, in Assessment Corner (1:11:40), Tom (continuing from last week's episode) uses Dr. John Kotter's research to explore the important phases necessary to transform the assessment & grading culture of a school.

Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail
by John P. Kotter in Harvard Business Review
The most general lesson to be learned from the more successful cases is that the change process goes through a series of phases that, in total, usually require a considerable length of time. Skipping steps creates only the illusion of speed and never produces a satisfying result. A second very general lesson is that critical mistakes in any of the phases can have a devastating impact, slowing momentum and negating hard-won gains.

Error #1: Not Establishing a Great Enough Sense of Urgency
Error #2: Not Creating a Powerful Enough Guiding Coalition
Error #3: Lacking a Vision
Error #4: Under-communicating the Vision by a Factor of Ten
Error #5: Not Removing Obstacles to the New Vision
Error #6: Not Systematically Planning For and Creating Short-Term Wins
Error #7: Declaring Victory Too Soon
Error #8: Not Anchoring Changes in the Corporation’s Culture

Reading to Frame Thinking
The posts below are ones that have been helpful for me over the past few months, as we think about the ways our learning structures, expectations, and environments have adapted over the last year - and, in turn, the possibilities and potential for our students and schools.

Rethinking US education: What if everything we believe about education is a lie?
by Robert Pondiscio in The Hechinger Report
If there was ever a time to ask big, heretical questions about American K-12 education, it’s when schooling has been thrown into chaos by a pandemic, and Americans’ faith in institutions, including schools, is at ebb tide. Let’s consider for a moment if our egalitarian impulses, however well-intended, have prevented us from pursuing a vision of public education that could be more fruitful and satisfying for vastly more students, and healthier for civil society.

Perhaps it is better merely to value and valorize diversity as an end in itself, because a virtuous society wants its children to have a warm and trusting relationship with authority figures from the broadest range of backgrounds. It is a very different thing to ask, “What do we want every child to achieve?” and “What do we want every child to experience?”

To be clear and emphatic: Education is our most optimistic and aspirational business, so we should never abandon our fondest hopes for it. Neither should we countenance a grim, deterministic view of human ability and allow schools to be mere sorting mechanisms. But with so much in flux right now, perhaps we should take advantage of our national inflection point to question our assumptions and ask what schooling would look like if the goal of education were not to “improve outcomes” but to enhance individual flourishing.

What Covid-19 Revealed About Schools and Education - Make Schools More Human
by Jal Mehta in The New York Times
There is little doubt that going to school is, on average, better for students. They are frequently tuning out of virtual learning. In higher poverty communities, older students are working to help make ends meet or have simply disappeared from the school rolls. What parents have seen streamed into their living rooms often reflects uninspired curriculums and pedagogy. Students think much of what they are learning is irrelevant and disconnected from their identities and the world around them.

These are not new problems — they are just newly visible because of the pandemic, and in some cases exacerbated by it.

There has been considerable attention to the health crisis, and some to the economic crisis. But there hasn’t been a serious commitment to the corresponding educational crisis. We need to rebuild and reimagine schools. We now have a chance to do both.

We’re Trying To Do “The Wrong Thing Right” in Schools
by Will Richardson (@willrich45)
Richardson is on my list of 'must follows' and this post sparked the focus of my thinking - within, he references the work of Russell Ackoff, an organizational theorist and professor at Wharton. There are several important messages here with implications for our work, and the questions within are important to reference on a regular basis. Although he wrote this post in 2016, the meaning is as pertinent as ever.
Words from Russell Ackoff: “Peter Drucker said ‘There’s a difference between doing things right and doing the right thing.’ Doing the right thing is wisdom, and effectiveness. Doing things right is efficiency. The curious thing is the righter you do the wrong thing the wronger you become. If you’re doing the wrong thing and you make a mistake and correct it you become wronger. So it’s better to do the right thing wrong than the wrong thing right. Almost every major social problem that confronts us today is a consequence of trying to do the wrong things righter.”

Sadly, “doing the right thing” for our kids in schools is difficult. In education, our structures, our histories, our nostalgia for trying to do the “wrong thing right” runs deep. Regardless of how we got here (and the story is complex,) we are profoundly wedded to what now constitutes this “education system” that dominates our learning world. The roles and expectations of students and teachers and administrators and parents are so clearly reinforced by our own experience, our cultural representations, and by those who have millions of dollars invested in the status quo that any serious suggestion that we might be doing the “wrong thing” is simply layered over by a new initiative, a new technology, a new curriculum, or a new success story to avoid having to grapple with the more fundamental question.

Doing the right thing in schools starts with one fairly straightforward question: What do you believe about how kids learn most powerfully and deeply in their lives? Once you’ve answered that as an individual and as a school community, the question that follows is does your practice in classrooms with kids honor those beliefs? In other words, if you believe that kids learn best when they have authentic reasons for learning, when their work lives in the world in some real way, when they are pursuing answers to questions that they themselves find interesting, when they’re not constrained by a schedule or a curriculum, when they are having fun, and when they can learn with other students and teachers, then are you giving priority to those conditions in the classroom? Are you acting on your beliefs?

Teresa Thayer Snyder: What Shall We Do About the Children After the Pandemic
Posted by Diane Ravitch
I sincerely plead with my colleagues, to surrender the artificial constructs that measure achievement and greet the children where they are, not where we think they “should be.” Greet them with art supplies and writing materials, and music and dance and so many other avenues to help them express what has happened to them in their lives during this horrific year. Greet them with stories and books that will help them make sense of an upside-down world. They missed you. They did not miss the test prep. They did not miss the worksheets. They did not miss the reading groups. They did not miss the homework. They missed you.

Listening
The answers to last week’s question serve as a great framework for the ways that we can think about designing our own learning - and, hopefully, helping our students to design their own learning as well...

Sampling of Responses from Last Week’s ‘Question of the Week’: How do you define learning?

I think learning is getting more knowledge or experience.
mastery through experience over time.
Understanding and being able to do / explain something that you could not previously do.
Learning is acquiring skills and the compassionate perspectives that allow us to use them to better our community.
Learning is something you know when you see it (or better yet feel it), but almost impossible to define. The work of educators is to wrangle it with a rope, except learning continuously evolves, it is infinite, and its border are porous, soft, jelly-like, slippery. Finally, when one has thought they have captured learning, it changes, and then the teachers learns they need to begin again. That's why I love it. We are never done.
The gaining of knowledge. But not always wisdom.
Expanding your brain's sight of the world.
I define learning by sitting down and someone teaching their knowledge.
To me learning is when you don't know something and then when you do you learned what you didn't know.
Answering questions.
A way to obtain knowledge and how to be smart
Hard and sometimes fun
I define learning as getting more knowledge than you had before.
I define learning as helpful for you in life.
Learning is as delicate as the summer breeze,
Granting you knowledge if you choose to accept
The miracles that can be achieved if you only choose to believe that you can go beyond the stars, reaching past the moon because you believe that with intelligence, and a kind heart, anything is possible.
I would define learning as a way for children and adults to be knowledgeable of different topics of the world. Learning can happen in many different ways, for some people learning is an easy thing to do but for others, learning a certain topic can be difficult but it can be done with the help of others.
Learning is discovering new and interesting information!
When you learn something new
Learning something new
Getting smarter
A way to better understand you and the world.
I would define learning as our brain and body receiving information. I think that you can learn anywhere at any time. We are always learning, I have never gone a day without learning something. Learning is not something you're taught how to do; you just take in information and store it away for safekeeping.
I define learning as taking in new knowledge to learn more about the world around us.
Learning is a way you gain knowledge but you can only gain knowledge if you push yourself and try new things.

As we look to the transitions for our students (and teachers and families, of course) both for this spring and the coming fall, the words from John Dewey and beloved children’s author, Beverly Cleary, who passed away at the end of this past week, can serve as guideposts and compass points...

Learning Gains

3/23/2021

March 23, 2021

To help encourage conversations, reflection, and dialogue about learning, our question of the week is: How do you define learning? Learning Gains (Week of 3/21/21) (This is an anonymous Google Form)

Blake's Guiding Lights
Our Students
Blake's Core Values: Respect, Responsibility, Resourcefulness, Reflection
Our Essential Question: How can we cultivate and curate the progression of student learning and growth?
Our Mission: Blake Middle School believes in a living mission statement, based on the concept that our community seeks and respects knowledge, integrity, character, wisdom, and the willingness to adapt to a continually evolving world.
The most important attitude that can be formed is that of desire to go on learning. - John Dewey
You cannot teach today the same way you did yesterday to prepare students for tomorrow. - John Dewey

The sunlight and warmer temperatures have been a wonderful way to welcome in the official start of spring. It was great to get outside a bit for some walks and to be back in the garden for spring clean-up over the weekend. Transitions abound at this time of year, and we know that more are on the way, so just being outside was a natural way to slow things down a bit.

I came across these words from Septima Poinsette Clark fortuitously when I found myself in a ‘rabbit hole’ of educational journals one night this week. I remembered learning about Clark in some education and history classes, but her words sparked my interest, curiosity, and I kept reading. And it got me thinking about learning - prompting questions, making connections to our work at Blake, and reflecting on a very topical phrase (learning loss) - sharing some thoughts/reflections...

Some Questions

What is learning?
How do we define learning?
How is it measured? How do we measure learning?
How (as Clark says) does chaos play into learning?
What conditions foster learning?
Is there a difference between ‘in school’ and ‘out of school’ learning?

We (using this ‘we’ in a very broad sense) spend so much time discussing learning, planning learning, and assessing learning - I’m hoping we (again, the broad ‘we’ - at Blake/Medfield and the larger scope of educators as well) can take a step back and calibrate/recalibrate the term ‘learning’. As we have discussed a lot over the last month, we have a unique opportunity to reset, listen, archive our own learning from this past year and calibrate our efforts to support all of our learners. It brings me back to Justin Reich’s words about coherence...

Connections to Our Work
At the outset of our faculty meeting this week, this week’s prompt helped me (and hopefully others) to get a sense of our own learning from a ‘year of chaos’...

One thing I learned over the last year (these are from our staff - responses from the weekly prompt are listed below as well)...

Best laid plans can blow up at a moment’s notice
Ask for help!
Flexibility
Grace not perfection (not learned but reinforced)
To be flexible
How adaptable we all can be
Actually, Yes, we CAN do that and Yes, it WILL get done.
I/we are so flexible
I can do hard things
For better or worse, humans can get used to anything
Slowing down is critical and really hard to do
Marie Kondo folding
To be grateful for what I have in front of me
Just keep swimming
Breathing helps.
That I miss smiles
Flexibility
I am the resource
The need to be flexible
One day at a time!
To be happy with our best efforts
Thinking on one’s feet
To rely on others more often.
It’s okay if things aren’t perfect
Deep breaths
I can make it work. Might not be ideal but I can make it work.
Practicing patience is easier said than done
I like walks
The struggle is real
That the work always gets done
Not to worry about too much initially because it will change!
Things aren’t going to be perfect, but everyone will still be okay
My lesson presentation really matters for many students.
Less is more
To just jump in and try it even if its messy
How to interpret a story in a wider way
It all works out
Just keep going
Be ready to change.
Saying no.
How to use Google classroom and EdPuzzle and Screencastify and Quizziz and about twenty other things I'd never heard of before September
Importance of rolling with the changes
Roll with change
How busy my life was pre-covid with all my family’s activities, my activities!
I can do hard things
roll with it
Relationships, patience, perseverance
Students want to do well!
animation
How to embrace reality vs my expectations, not be disappointed by how lessons actually go
I’ve learned/recognized that there are so many great parents and students that work hard each day and have our backs.
relationships are the driver
How to teach with my iPad
LEAN IN
Flexibility - knowing that every minute things can change, and you need to be ready to help everyone adjust
How to make an underline that students can actually write on in Google Docs.
How to really interact with students remote, in-person, attendance, google classroom slide shows that include student work
Kids are resilient, and we adults can learn to be once again.
Little by little, a little becomes a lot
Tests do not gauge learning
Accepting what I cannot change and rolling with all the changes
I cry for a day when I am asked to change things quickly, but then am able to move on. We have been really resourceful this year!
Focus on the things that are important and that list isn’t as big as I used to think it was
Many new tech platforms that allow me to see student work in real time
The pandemic has exposed so many inequities that I knew about, but hadn't experienced.
A lot of things that we all thought were really important, really weren’t important at all.

This relatively simple prompt alone serves as a great example of how learning is realized in various and personal ways - I hope that is not lost on us as we think about implications for our students. In reflecting upon the prompt ‘Imagine If…’, inspired by the legacy of Sir Ken Robinson’s work, it is important that we also keep aspirations, imagination, and #willfulhope at the heart of our practices - without these, adaptation, action, and learning will not take place….
How would you finish the sentence, “Imagine if…”? - Sir Ken Robinson
(1:30)
I am inspired and bolstered by the responses from our staff…

all students learned in districts with equal funding.
2020 never happened & the world didn’t change… on so many fronts… in the ways that it has!
Everyone was able to experience empathy for others
You were a student returning to a more “normal” back to school setting, how would you feel?
Personally: imagine if I didn’t have student loans. Less self-centered: imagine if bad things didn’t happen to good people.
we could always have class sizes this small!
Imagine if we didn’t ever have the opportunity to slow down and learn to appreciate the little things.
everyone were reflective and kind
Imagine if kids became more resilient as a result of what they have been through?
Imagine if someone had told us last January that there would be a global pandemic and life come to a halt. . . what would we have expected it to be like?
…the grass wasn’t greener
Imagine if we knew on March 13, 2020 what the next year was going to be like
Imagine if I had never revised my resume…
… we had three more hours every day
Imagine if I had bought stock in zoom in February of 2020
kept accessibility in mind
We keep some of the positive things from this school year.
The world returned to a sense of normalcy
If success were defined differently,
Every student felt equally cared for….
We can continue to figure out and work on the really important things with our students (life skills) through our content area.
There was no poverty
we could keep the small class sizes
Everyone was kind
we were freeeeeee
All students had similar opportunities
there were a world with no crime
there were no hatred and unkindness
Students could focus on school when they’re here and not have to worry about the struggles they may face outside of school.
Everyone has access to food and water
We always had smaller classes
We didn’t rush back to the same old rat race lifestyle / economic structure, that we all decried, after the pause of COVID, and we actually used it as an opportunity for real change
We could travel to the future to see what stuck what changed who benefitted etc… from this time during the pandemic
our US history invested in equity and sustainability from the start. Also, imagine if we played music in the hallways again! ;)
Every kid had someone that made them feel like they truly belonged
There were no inequities in resources and education - equity is not equal
kids and families didn't feel pressured to achieve at high levels...staff, too.
Imagine if our society prioritized the group’s success over the individual’s success.
There was no social divide
we just acknowledged the benefits to privilege
we could continue to work with students in smaller groups
We were more community oriented and less focused on the self, individual wants and success.
we had a snack break outdoors built in to our schedule next year!! :)
Everyone had equal access to vaccines around the world
imagine how Zoom classes would be different if you didn't have the choice to turn off your camera or microphone
We always had smaller Advisories.
The theme of building connections could be every year
all kids felt safe and supported
If everyone led with kindness
if we protected some of our time rather than planning and spending all of it

I hope we will find ways to make space for the imagination and hope of our students to be woven into their learning.

‘Learning Loss’ - Learning Gain?
Since last spring (about a month into lockdown) the term ‘learning loss’ has been a constant in conversations/discussions at local, national, and international levels in the realm of education. And, the presence of this term/concern has been increasing as we (again, both the local ‘we’ and broad ‘we’) are planning and actualizing the return to ‘in person’ learning. It is a fair concern and one that we must address. But, before we do this...we must have important conversations about the ways in which we foster, define, and ‘measure’ learning. If we do not do that, how can we define loss? It concerns me, on both a personal and professional level, when assumptions and conclusions are drawn about the ways in which we define and measure learning without having the critically important conversations and discussions about the ways in which these assumptions and conclusions are made (what’s behind them). As with many oft-used phrases/terminology, ‘learning loss’ (‘Speaking from the I’ here) is an overly simplified term for a broad area - learning. Again, Justin’s words resonate - we need a coherent and calibrated approach - and I look forward to these conversations. They are important. I hope we can take the concern of ‘learning loss’, define it, address concerns, and make necessary changes - that said, we also (and, maybe more importantly), need to make sure we focus on the ‘learning gain’ that has taken place - for our students and our schools.

Earlier this week, Diane Ravitch (@DianeRavitch) referenced the work of Yong Zhao (@YongZhaoEd) on her blog (Yong Zhao: Beware the “Learning Loss” Trap). I had the true fortune of hearing Zhao speak a few years ago - he was sharing insights from his book, What Works May Hurt - and, I could not agree more with Diane Ravitch’s description/assessment of his work…
Pay attention to whatever Yong Zhao writes. He is among the very top tier of educational thinkers in the world. I always learn when I read his work.

Here is an excerpt from Zhao’s post (Build back better: Avoid the learning loss trap) that Ravitch shares…
Education has many desirable outcomes (Zhao 2017, 2018b). These outcomes can be short term or long term, cognitive and non-cognitive, and instructional and educational. Short-term, cognitive, and instructional outcomes do not necessarily translate directly into long-term, non-cognitive, and educational outcomes. For example, test scores have often been found to have a negative correlation with students’ confidence and well-being (Loveless 2006; OECD 2019; Zhao 2018b). Test scores have also been found to have a negative correlation with economic development and entrepreneurial confidence and activities across (Baker 2007; Tienken 2008; Zhao 2012). Test scores do not predict the future of an individual’s success very well, and non-cognitive skills may play a bigger role than cognitive skills play (Brunello and Schlotter 2010; Levin 2012). Some assessments show successes that are only productive in the short term, while failures may actually be more productive in the long term (Dean and Kuhn 2007; Kapur 2014, 2016).

The post is worth reading, bookmarking, and holding on to as a reference - within, Zhao outlines ‘productive actions’ that can be taken ‘when the pandemic is controlled and schools reopen’...

Meet the students where they are.
Pay attention to all educational outcomes.
Engage learners as partners of change and owners of their learning.
Keep families engaged.
Keep online/remote learning.
Build back better.

It is this last ‘productive action’, Build Back Better, that I believe will help us both now and in future days. We should always be looking to ‘build back better’ - through programs, interactions with students, relationship building, assessments, feedback, and growth. If we can keep a mantra of ‘building back better’ in our work, we will be sure to keep our eyes on ‘learning gains’. The posts below are ones that provoke thought and action - I am interested in the thoughts and reactions from others and look forward to the dialogue...

What ‘learning loss’ really means
by Valerie Strauss in The Washington Post
Included within is a post by Rachael Gabriel…
There is no such thing as learning loss. When it comes to K-12 schooling, the truth is that some of us are more used to interruptions than others. Those of us who have to move around a lot, are living between two countries, or who have experienced a major injury, illness or are chronically ill, and even those who just changed schools once know what loss feels like. But it is not a loss of learning. It is loss of a previously imagined trajectory leading to a previously imagined future. Learning is never lost, though it may not always be “found” on pre-written tests of pre-specified knowledge or preexisting measures of pre-coronavirus notions of achievement.

The truth is that we are all in the process of learning and unlearning; of being schooled and unschooled. Our imagined trajectories were disrupted, and this particular disruption with its layers of grief and edges of uncertainty cannot be overestimated in scope or impact. This is precisely the reason we must stop telling the Corona Kids that they fell behind and have to catch up. Anything other than acknowledging unconditional learning is a lie that sustains fear-fueled systems of inequity.

If school is not a time for creativity, empowerment, choice and engagement, it is not likely to be a time of growth either.

If we narrow what counts as school to the aspects of school that can be counted and compared, we will certainly lose opportunities to engage students in formal schooling, but students will still learn. They always do. If educators and policymakers want to be part of guiding that learning, they need to honor it where it exists, and fuel it where it thrives.

The Key to Better Student Engagement Is Letting Them Show You How They Learn
by Jacquelyn Whiting in EdSurge
A year into the pandemic, the instructional sands keep shifting from in-person, to remote, to concurrent (or hybrid) and back again. And almost every conversation I have with educators regardless of whether they are classroom teachers, instructional specialists or administrators is around student engagement. Sometimes these conversations are with administrators concerned about the increasing numbers of students on the school’s D-F list or with teachers disconsolate about students who won’t turn on their cameras, turn in work or participate in discussions and whose attendance (virtual or in-person) is sporadic at best. All of them are asking, with some urgency, about how we can boost student engagement under these difficult and fluctuating circumstances. From my vantage point, the causes and symptoms are multi-faceted. We need to partner with students—individually and collectively—to discover the root causes and empower them to be their own antidotes.

When considering students as individuals and trying to identify the root causes of their perceived disengagement I find it useful to consider the variables of performance success—knowledge, skills, an environment conducive to learning and the motivation to learn. Missing just one of these variables can have a profound impact on engagement.

The more that our students become aware of their learning processes and can make their thinking visible to us, the better we can nurture their development. When students have agency over the path, pace, time and place of their learning, they will invest in it. The more we all make our thinking visible to each other, the better equipped we are to build strong, equitable learning communities that can thrive in these fluid educational circumstances.

Thinking Is a Mess We Should Talk About
by Emily Kaplan in Edutopia
At its core, learning is a change in the content, the patterns, and the movement of thought. In the physics of the intellectual universe, thoughts are the atoms out of which everything is made, bouncing around to form the molecules, elements, and matter of cognition. But thoughts, like atoms, are invisible: Even in the realm of education, we most often talk about finished products—the answer, the sentence—and not the messy, iterative, highly personal processes that built them. And even when we do talk about process, we tend to do so in superficial terms: one or two steps we took, perhaps, but not everything we considered, tried, ruled out. We don’t talk about what thought looks like, what it sounds like, how it feels: the tension and excitement of holding on to multiple options at once, the anxiety of forging ahead and drawing a blank. The dead ends.

When we teach students the components of thought, we should get granular. We should talk about what happens when a mathematician solves a problem—the way she might look at it one way and then another, brushing aside a thought or two about what to have for dinner—or when a writer composes a sentence: the pencil scribbling, pausing, hovering, erasing. We should teach students that creation is always a process, and the process is as complex as it is variable.

The finished product always reveals less than it obscures—and it obscures, well, pretty much everything. If, for some reason, you wanted to learn exactly how I develop and describe metaphors about thought, you wouldn’t be as served by reading the paragraph you read first—the final draft—as much as following the slippery, sometimes chaotic actions I took to get there.

Want to Tackle Learning Loss? First Listen to Your Students (Opinion)
by Max Silverman in Education Week
As the head of a group that works with school and district leaders, I too often hear of leaders’ eagerness to talk with students but rarely see this intention turn into a thoughtful and sustained approach. And that has me worried that we may miss a once-in-a-generation chance to remake the school experience so schooling works for all students.

To be clear, student experience shapes academic achievement as well as outcomes like identity development, social and emotional competencies, and a sense of purpose. In our own work talking with K-12 students around the country, students consistently say they want to feel happy and proud at school. They want to be known, seen, heard, and valued. They want a sense of belonging. They want a sense of accomplishment. Learning only gets harder when these things are absent, research increasingly suggests. So when district leaders stop to understand what their students experience at school, it helps put students where they belong—back at the center of district planning.

Fundamentally, schooling is for and about students. And students are the experts of their own experience. In this moment, with so much at stake, leaders need to stop and listen to the experts.

Sampling of Responses from Last Week’s ‘Question of the Week’: Over the last year one thing I have learned is...

I appreciate my family and the way we have adjusted to all the changes this past year has brought.
That is if you work really hard then something good will always come out of it
I do not do well at home learning
I learned throughout this year, during all of the COVID 19 Pandemic, that change can be hard, but it can make you a better person, and helps you improve and get better at different things, including new habits, and trying to be a more advanced and superior individual.
How to learn remotely
Stay focused
People can adapt to new situations really fast, and even while being isolated, some still can spread joy into the world
How to adjust
I may not be ready to handle the amount of responsibility and independence I thought I could
I have learned that people can solve any problem with enough time.
That I can do anything if I put my mind to it
I like scrambled eggs.
About checks and balances
How valuable time is with people
y=mx+b
To adapt
I have learned that I can adjust to hard situations
That you have to get through everything and you have to adapt
Algebra and fossils
Over the last year I have learned that we can't always predict what's going to happen next, but we can be ready for what might happen.
The longer the storm the brighter the rainbow
I learned I know more than I thought about Greek religion.

In keeping with the practice of highlighting words each week in honor of Women's History Month, the words below are ones that shine a light on learning and the process of learning...

I look forward to the work that lies ahead for all of us.
As always, let me know of any questions/concerns.
Please click here for Blake Updates.
Please click here for District Community Notices.
Take care.
Nat
“Education is really the only equalizer we have.”
—Robyn Jackson, ASCD Author
#willfulhope #willfulaction #longasIcanseethelight

Over the Last Year...

3/15/2021

March 16, 2021

To help encourage conversations, reflection, and dialogue about our learning over the past year, our question of the week is: Please complete this sentence - Over the last year one thing I have learned is... Over the Last Year... (Week of 3/14/21) (This is an anonymous Google Form)

Blake's Guiding Lights
Our Students
Blake's Core Values: Respect, Responsibility, Resourcefulness, Reflection
Our Essential Question: How can we cultivate and curate the progression of student learning and growth?
Our Mission: Blake Middle School believes in a living mission statement, based on the concept that our community seeks and respects knowledge, integrity, character, wisdom, and the willingness to adapt to a continually evolving world.
The most important attitude that can be formed is that of desire to go on learning. - John Dewey
You cannot teach today the same way you did yesterday to prepare students for tomorrow. - John Dewey

This weekend and the last few days have been emotional ones for me, and I am sure the same is true for many others. As we approached and passed the one-year anniversary of the school shut-down, thoughts and memories have been coming in and out of my mind. I have truly enjoyed reading reflections, op-eds, and posts that have taken ‘a look back’ and I know there will be many more to come. As a staff we have been taking time to do the same and we will continue to look back in an effort to also look forward for our students, ourselves, and our community. I also recognize that the coming days and months will mark other anniversaries of the pandemic, so the reflections will be living and evolving. In the spirit of this reflective time, I took a look back at some of the communication, resources, and information that was shared back in March, 2020 - it has been a cathartic experience for me and may do the same for others. Margaret Wheatley’s words help to frame this ‘journal/collection’...

7 Ways to Support Kids and Teens Through the Coronavirus Pandemic
from The Clay Center for Young Healthy Minds
Christi Barney shared this post with me a couple days after schools shut down - many similar ones were being shared at that time and I found this one to be particularly helpful - and, it sill resonates for educators, families, care providers, and parents/guardians.

E-mail to Blake Staff - 3/12/20…
Good morning -
With full awareness and understanding that there are many questions, concerns, and 'unknowns' for everyone, I wanted to write a quick note acknowledging our current reality. We are meeting as an Admin team this morning and updates will be shared as they are known. If Covid-19 comes up in your classes, please take the time to talk to students, listen, and dispel rumors/myths. Please also listen/observe for biased comments regarding the 'cause' of the pandemic. Being present for one another as a community is critical and I truly appreciate the collective care for our students and one another. I have shared the words and post below several times - they are pertinent, relevant, and true...
Listening is such a simple act. It requires us to be present, and that takes practice, but don't have to do anything else. We don't have to advise, or coach, or sound wise. We just have to be willing to sit there and listen. - Margaret J. Wheatley

Presence
Our days are busy, stressful and oftentimes we go home feeling as if we could’ve accomplished more. But at the end of the day we must ask ourselves one important question. "Do the people that we serve want to be in our presence? If the answer is yes, then we can accomplish most anything. If the answer is no. Well then we have work to do. Starting tomorrow.”

E-mail to Blake families - 3/17/20 (excerpted)
As a follow up to Dr. Marsden’s e-mail to all families, I am writing with Blake-specific information, reminders, and a few follow-up items. It is rare to find myself at a loss for words, but I am feeling that way right now as we are all adapting and norming to our current reality that feels as though it is changing ‘by the minute’. First and foremost, you (you, your children, our students, your families, our staff, your/our loved ones, and our collective community) are all very present on my mind and your health, safety, and well-being are the top priority. Our collective focus and message (to students, families, and staff) is on taking care of one another and ourselves - so, please do just that and let us know if there is anything we can do for support. There are lots of unanswered questions, but I do know we will adapt, support one another, and continue to be present. As Jeff conveyed in his e-mail to all staff yesterday, ‘Our work will look very different during the days and weeks to come, but our goal of doing our best to support kids remains the same. To be clear, this should not be seen as replacing the traditional school day...it just can't be done.’ Equity and support for all of our students and families are at the forefront of our thinking, decisions, and actions for students, families, and one another - expressing care, perspective, and an understanding of what is truly most important. Our Guiding Lights, mission, and core values will serve as our collective compass points - as Colby Swettberg shared with us, ‘We will make the path by walking it’.

I sincerely care a great deal about this community (students, staff, and families) and my (now virtual) door is always open. I fully recognize that I do not have the answers, but I can do my best to listen, process, brainstorm, and offer support.

Message shared by James Ryan (President of UVA) to students via Twitter on 3/15/20 - it expressed many of the feelings that we had - it was ‘spot on’, true, compassionate, affirming, and human...

E-mail to Blake Staff on 3/26/20 (excerpted)
Good evening/morning -
I hope this note finds everyone well - I wanted to send a note with some updates to everyone, knowing that some PD, collaboration, and meetings will be taking place throughout the day tomorrow (Friday, 3/27). As I shared with some (maybe many?) of you already, the Star Wars jokes of 'May the Fourth Be With You' were definitely conveyed by relatives last night! Lots of questions remain, but I know we will work together to continue a culture of care and support for our students, our families, and one another. It is important for all of us to remember that our 'new reality' is ever changing for students, staff, and families and that supports that may have been in place are evolving and changing (financial, emotional, physical, etc.) - we will continue to lean on one another and each other and will be 'the ones to lean on' for students/families as well.

I would be remiss by not sharing my deep appreciation for our staff and want to reiterate what I have said to Blake families and can't say it enough...

You (you, your children, our students, your families, our staff, your/our loved ones, and our collective community) are all very present on our minds and your health, safety, and well-being are the top priority.
Our collective focus and message (to students, families, and staff) is on taking care of one another and ourselves - so, please do just that and let us know if there is anything we can do for support.

As Jeff conveyed in this e-mail to the district this afternoon - 'I feel like this is an incredible opportunity for us to facilitate learning in a whole new way, while still using our frameworks as a guide. This truly is the time to take that risk and continue to provide students with meaningful learning experiences...Let's capture this opportunity!' I could not agree more and feel as though this is a true opportunity to actualize/realize and continue a lot of efforts we have been working towards. Our philosophies, beliefs, and practices of and for meaningful and thoughtful feedback, fostering/developing intrinsic motivation, authentic learning, and empowerment/agency are prime for this experience and time period. The impetus for engagement, choice, and support is critical. It will be critical that we build in systems of feedback and reflection for our students, staff, and families - I do not want us to miss out on what we are all learning right now (on many, many levels).

I have shared this with Department Chairs/Teamworks this morning - there has been a weekly Modern Learners chat with educators across the country and it has given me a great perspective and sense of connection. Here are some notes I took from last night (you may see them again in the Natworthy/blog) and hear them as well - but, they speak to this rare and pivotal time in education right now. With full understanding of the pandemic and scary reasons for this 'remote learning', this is a time in education to capture, be creative, and move forward. Here are a few notes...

We need to build in reflection for students/families - this is a pivotal and critical
If there ever was a window of opportunity, it is now
What have we learned about learning? What is our new normal going to look like?
Asynchronous learning is really ideal for agency and empowerment
What do you want to do differently now that we can?
This a time that begs us to engage our communities in explorations re: the purpose of education; we should acknowledge the ways school folks have stepped up to engage in addressing the needs for feeding kids and confronting issues relating to our most vulnerable students and families
Question to consider: How do we not let the need for comfort/normal allow us to “do school” as we always have? Will we revert back to 'normal' when we return?

E-mails/Blog Posts
Checking In With Blake Families (3/20/20)
Practicing Self-Care (3/25/20)
Finding Joy and Having Fun (4/1/20)

Flipgrids from Blake Staff to Students in Late March/Early April
Message to Blake Students/Families - 3/23/20
(Prompt: We are checking in and saying hi - we are thinking of all of our Blake students and families and wishing them well!)
Message to Blake Students/Families - 3/27/20
(Prompt: For our message this week to all Blakers, please say hi and share your favorite (or one of your favorite) foods/meals!)
Message to Blake Students/Families - 4/3/20
(Prompt: Hey Blakers - share what you liked to do for fun and to find joy as a kid and also share what you like to do now for fun and to find joy! I look forward to hearing how the Blake community makes fun/joy as part of our learning!)

Some Articles/Posts shared in March of 2020
School as Fiction
by Will Richardson (@willrich45)
I Refuse to Run a Coronavirus Home School
by Jennie Weiner in The New York Times
How to Cultivate More Self-Compassion
by Allison Abrams in Psychology Today
Brené Brown on vulnerability and courage - 60 Minutes
It's Time to Keep School Alive When We Shut the Doors
by Ewan McIntosh (@ewanmcintosh)
Where's the Silver Lining for Education?
by Tom Whitby (@tomwhitby)
That Discomfort You're Feeling Is Grief
by Scott Berinato in Harvard Business Review
Teaching Without Compulsory School
by Chris Lehmann (@chrislehmann)
Quotes shared in late March/Early April

I remember leaving the building last year on March 17 (the morning that we were able to come in to get what we might need for an extended period of time) - so many questions, so many emotions, so many thoughts - and not knowing what was to come. I know that is still the case for us (and has always been the case) in regards to what the future may bring, but I also know that our community is one that will continue to come together and show up with flexibility, grace, and care. At our incoming family information webinars over the last week, I shared these words from Sir Ken Robinson along with the guiding premise we embraced as a staff last spring - a time when we were uncertain of the future, but were certain of a path to navigate it…

Sampling of Responses from Last Week’s ‘Question of the Week’: Share a piece (or pieces of advice) that you have been given that you would pass on to someone else.

Make sure to have a good belly laugh before 10am each day.
When talking with people learning our language, (from a different country), say very little and simplify what you say.
Be positive!
Problems are guidelines not stop signs
The best thing to be is Kind.
Be kind to everyone cause you don’t know what there going through.
Be kind to everyone
That mistakes are proof that you are trying, nobody is perfect, so stop trying to be perfect, just do your best.
“let your smile change the world, do not let the world change you”
If you are early you are on time, if you are on time you are late, if you are late, you are forgotten.
No off days and if you push through rough days now, you will have a lifetime of happiness in the future

In keeping with the practice of highlighting words each week in honor of Women's History Month, these two quotes are ones that I find inspiring and encouraging to keep ‘fighting the good fight’ by sharing the learning and striving for the adaptation of systems for all of our learners...

Sharing Our Learning

3/10/2021

March 9, 2021

To help encourage conversations and dialogue about sharing what we have learned with one another to foster a culture of continuous learning and growth, our question of the week is: Share a piece (or pieces of advice) that you have been given that you would pass on to someone else. Sharing Our Learning (Week of 3/7/21) (This is an anonymous Google Form)

Blake's Guiding Lights
Our Students
Blake's Core Values: Respect, Responsibility, Resourcefulness, Reflection
Our Essential Question: How can we cultivate and curate the progression of student learning and growth?
Our Mission: Blake Middle School believes in a living mission statement, based on the concept that our community seeks and respects knowledge, integrity, character, wisdom, and the willingness to adapt to a continually evolving world.
The most important attitude that can be formed is that of desire to go on learning. - John Dewey
You cannot teach today the same way you did yesterday to prepare students for tomorrow. - John Dewey

It is really hard to believe that we are now in the midst of the second week of March - so many different thoughts come to mind with that reality! I have been really enjoying the extended daylight hours and am finding that it gives me such a boost towards the end of the day. Katie and I started off last weekend by taking Lila for a walk at the Medfield State grounds on Friday afternoon - it was beautiful and centering (cold too!)...

After waking up early on Saturday for time on the exercise bike and some yoga, my Saturday morning was a reflective one...
Back in December I began a new routine at the start of each school day by taking a walk outside around ‘the campus’. I have always been an ‘early bird’ so the morning is an important time for me. Prior to December, I had always told the story in my head that this was time for me to center, reflect, and ‘be mindful’. The truth, however, was that I would arrive and dive right into ‘the work’. This routine of a walk has been wonderful - getting fresh air, moving my body a bit, and letting thoughts come and go. Sometimes it’s quiet reflection and other days I have listened to music or parts of a podcast episode.

On Friday morning I listened to some of Brene Brown’s episode, interviewing Dr. Yaba Blay (Brené with Dr. Yaba Blay on One Drop: Shifting the Lens on Race). Within the episode, Brene shares a ‘roughly translated’ non-attributed quote - ‘We don’t rise to our highest goals - we fall to our most broken systems.’ I had to stop walking, ‘rewind’ the episode, and make sure I had written the words down. I woke up Saturday morning and Googled the words and came across a tweet from the author James Clear back in 2018- ‘You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.’ The tweet thread from Clear outlines the origins and adaptation…
This is a quote from my new book Atomic Habits and was adapted from one of my favorite sayings by the Greek poet Archilochus: “We don't rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training.”

Self-admittedly, I feel as though I have been a ‘broken record’ as of late, reflecting (and asking others to reflect) upon our lessons learned, or affirmed, over the last 12 months - and, in particular, pushing myself and others to think about our ‘systems’. After reading about James Clear I thought back to the work of Peter Senge, author of many books, professor, and ‘systems scientist’. I was fortunate to hear him give a keynote back in 2016 - his work is inspiring, real, and honest. For me it is his focus on shifting the narrative from ‘information sharing’ to ‘creating learning processes’ that really centers the path that we must continually and intentionally create, establish, adapt, and nurture for our students...

To get a sense of Peter’s work, this post provides some highlights and links to a keynote address he gave in 2019 (description below the link)...
Peter Senge on the Creation of a Post-Industrial Theory and Practice of Education
In this 80-minute lecture, which has recently been posted on YouTube, with Peter’s approval, by the Academy for Systems Change, he shared his reflections on ongoing efforts to transform education systems across the United States, offering an extensive series of parallels with his wide-ranging personal experiences with the visible and invisible obstacles facing business transformations.

It is in the spirit of these reflections and in attempt to ‘channel’ and act upon these words (to be transparent and truly honest) - these are for myself as much as they are for others, I am sharing a post below from Tom Whitby (one of my ‘go tos’ for sure!), some responses from last week’s question, and a post I have shared in the past with our new teachers in the district as part of the mentoring program. For me (and maybe others) of these ‘shares’ speaks to the practice of shared learning, growth, reflection, and the systems that foster these practices on both a micro/personal and macro/collective level...

My AHA Moments in the Pandemic Education Plan
by Tom Whitby (@tomwhitby)
In this post Whitby shares the ‘Aha’ moments from the last year - they are certainly worth reading and thinking about in terms of our own learning and the potential and actual implications for our work.
Whether it is called an “Aha Moment” or ”an Epiphany” educators are seeing many aspects of their profession in a different light over this last year of the pandemic education plan. They are questioning, what was considered normal for centuries, as a system in need of change more than had ever before been realized. The pandemic blew up the existing education system, forcing changes that could never have evolved naturally at such a rapid pace under normal circumstances. Many concepts and assumptions, based on what was “normal” before the pandemic, have been discarded, replaced, adjusted and improved. Many changes have exposed more problems that will require new solutions to these new problems.

Probably the greatest of all the AHA moments that educators and parents have had is the role that relationships play in learning. From the beginning of the year of pandemic education, educators have stepped up in reaching out to their students. That has made a big difference in a bad situation for many kids, as well as parents. Now a term that we have all become familiar with is SEL, Social and Emotional Learning. AHA! Strong teacher/student relationships strengthen learning. We must deal with social and emotional needs of kids before we can accurately assess their learning.

My final Aha moment came after I spoke to hundreds of educators about how the year of pandemic education has affected them as educators. I was surprised that after at least a decade of professional development for educators emphasizing technology integration and online learning in education that a majority of educators were totally unprepared for the transition to online teaching. AHA! If we are to better educate our kids, we need first to better educate their educators.

The pandemic education plan that we have all been forced to endure for this last year is not all bad. We need to consider all that we have learned. Yes, many kids do not perform well with distance learning, but there are other kids who are thriving with it. AHA! There is no one method of education that works for every kid. We need to consider what we know to be true and build from there a flexible and evolving education system. We need to encourage and embrace the Aha moments and share these ideas through collaboration with all educators.

Sampling of Responses from Last Week’s ‘Question of the Week’: Share an important or impactful ‘life lesson’ you have learned (or re-learned) this school year. Why is/was it important or impactful?

The only true consistency in life is that things change. An ability to adapt to change is vital for success.
Disposition towards a subject is just as important as the skills acquired in the subject. This balance makes the best learning!
I've often had to remind myself to stay the course this year. For me, that has meant taking things one day at a time, or even one period at a time. This approach has really helped when I have felt overwhelmed this year.
Try your hardest and you will succeed
Time is important. Never take time for granted.
When you get mad, don’t do things that you won’t do when you aren’t. It was impactful because sometimes when I get mad I do or say things I don’t mean.
That things don’t go as planned.
treat people how you would want to be
I relearned that you always need to be yourself no matter what others think of you.
I learned that sometimes work you do isn’t perfect and how we make mistakes but need to learn to live expecting and accepting them
It’s ok to ask for help. This was important because I don’t like asking for help but it pays off.
I’ve learned that if you work as hard as you really can you can achieve anything.
I learned that you should ask for help when you need it.
I have learned that you can never give up.
I relearned and learned that you can do anything and you should adapt to change and its ok to ask for help when you need it
Look on the bright side
I have re-learned that you should always ask for help when you need it.
Whatever you say you are you are going to be. Ex. I said I am tired, I will be tired. If I say that it is going to be a good day it will be a good day.
I learned that I am much more fortunate than others even considering the time we are going through.
I learned that you can still stay connected even when your six feet apart.
You can only control yourself. I think this is important because there have been a lot of things that are out of my control this year, but I can keep making good choices for myself.
I learned that there is a lot you can accomplish if you try. It has been impactful because I have been able to complete lots of my schoolwork. At the beginning of the school year it took me much longer. Now I finish earlier.
I learned that you will feel better about yourself when you do good things and not bad things. And that you will always be more satisfied when you did your homework instead of video games.

A Letter to New Teachers
by Chase Mielke in Educational Leadership
As noted above, this share is a ‘repeat’ - it is wonderful and embodies the essence of what I believe we strive for Blake...a culture of caring, positive, student-centered, and passionate educators. This has been a ‘trying year’ on many levels and the messages within from Mielke are strong compass points and great reminders for all of us about the importance of mindset and centering as we embark each day on incredibly important (and ever-changing) work with five 'passion stokers': Find a Positive Tribe; Curate the Good, Don't Hoard the Bad; Forgive; Own Your Present and Future; Craft Your Calling.
Over the last decade, I've come to rely on a few daily actions that keep my teaching passion alive. Some of these I learned from research in positive psychology. Others I learned the hard way, by initially doing the opposite. All of them stem from a core philosophy: My well-being, passion, and ability to thrive are within my control. Yours are, too. If you want to continue being a passionate teacher, practice these "Passion Stokers."

The biggest challenge of your teaching career will be staving off burnout. And your students probably won't be the main contributors to your burnout. Adult negativity. Societal pressures. Diminished resources. Debilitating legislation. The dichotomy of over-involved and under-involved parenting. These are the rains that will threaten to extinguish your flame.

One of the best things you can do as a new teacher is look for the colleagues in your building who still love what they do. Seek out the veterans who haven't grown embittered...Surround yourself with these people, learn from them, and ask them questions...Who we spend time with is who we become. Choose wisely.

Be proud that you are in a meaningful profession. But be prepared to fight every year—and every day—to keep your passion alive. Remember that the conditions of teaching matter, but your actions matter most.

I would wish you luck in your future, but I don't believe in luck, and you don't need it. All you need is the resolve to curate the good, to forgive, to own your future, and to embrace change. And maybe more dry erase markers.

In keeping with the practice of highlighting words each week in honor of Women's History Month, these two quotes are ones that I find inspiring and encouraging to keep ‘fighting the good fight’ by sharing the learning and striving for the adaptation of systems for all of our learners...

'Life' Lessons

3/2/2021

March 2, 2021

To help encourage conversations and dialogue about the ways that we impact one another, our question of the week is: Share an important or impactful ‘life lesson’ you have learned (or re-learned) this school year. Why is/was it important or impactful? 'Life' Lessons (Week of 2/28/21) (This is an anonymous Google Form)

Blake's Guiding Lights
Our Students
Blake's Core Values: Respect, Responsibility, Resourcefulness, Reflection
Our Essential Question: How can we cultivate and curate the progression of student learning and growth?
Our Mission: Blake Middle School believes in a living mission statement, based on the concept that our community seeks and respects knowledge, integrity, character, wisdom, and the willingness to adapt to a continually evolving world.
The most important attitude that can be formed is that of desire to go on learning. - John Dewey
You cannot teach today the same way you did yesterday to prepare students for tomorrow. - John Dewey

The first week at school following a vacation certainly has an adjustment period - but, as I think more about it, the past 12 months has simply been full of an ongoing pattern (or non-pattern) of adjustment periods! As one who loves getting outside and taking in the sunlight, I do not always feel this way, but the wet/gray weather on Saturday was welcomed for me as it seemed to give ‘permission’ to have a quiet day. One area of growth for me is for that permission to be ‘internalized’ rather than waiting for ‘external’ permission - a work in progress, for sure!

The responses from the opening prompt at our faculty meeting last week (Share a fond or positive memory from your years in school (elementary, middle, or high school)) have really stayed with me. I cherish the honest and open reflections, and reading everyone’s memories struck me on multiple levels. They were specific (i.e. making gingerbread, time in the greenhouse, tug-of-war, ‘pop the cup’, teachers, reading, time with friends, marching band, clapping erasers) and I could really picture each individual experiencing the memory! And one thing that really stood out - they were experiences - that may seem obvious, but it is something I hope that we can hold on to for our students and ourselves.

The prompt came to me that day at lunch as I was thinking about the focus for our meeting - capturing/archiving the ‘learning/re-learning’ over the past 12 months. Last week I shared Adam Grant’s insight regarding ‘post-traumatic growth’ as a framework to ‘help articulate and implement systems and practices from our own learning (and more importantly, the learning of our students)’...
Post-traumatic growth is about recognizing that these challenges do make us stronger in some ways. If you break down post-traumatic growth, the most common forms of growth in the face of tragedy are gaining perspective and strengthened gratitude. Saying,“Okay, I got through that. I can get through almost anything.” Appreciating things that you might've taken for granted before. There's also, for many people, a sense of new possibilities or new meaning around saying, “Okay, you know what, I need to take a step back and really figure out what matters in my life and what's important to me.” Now again, that's not to say that anybody is going to appreciate the pandemic and all of the struggles and tragedies that have come from it. But recognizing that once we make it through this experience, there are ways in which we're going to grow from it, I think that gives us a chance to at least see some silver linings that we might've missed otherwise.
As with the discussions in breakout rooms, the collective responses about ‘memories in school’ spoke to greater or meaningful learnings - the kind of learning that we ‘hold on to’ and carry forward. They also led me down a path of reflection with our mission statement as a guide…

One of the more frequently asked questions I heard from students when I taught sixth grade math was ‘Why do we need to learn this?’ It is a question that is important, frustrating at times (if I’m being honest!), and sincere. And it is one that brings me quickly to the ‘40/40/40’ principle…
Which Content Is Most Important? The 40/40/40 Rule
The question was simple enough. Of all of the academic standards you are tasked with “covering” (more on this in a minute), what’s important that students understand for the next 40 days, what’s important that they understand for the next 40 months, and what’s important that they understand for the next 40 years?
I often wonder what answers I would give today to students if I could go ‘back in time’, as I reflect upon our ‘formal’ and ‘informal’ teaching and learning as a school and learning community. A number of years ago (2016) I shared some similar thoughts in a blog post entitled Reflecting Forward - and, as I read them today, they still hold true...

What is most important for our students?
What are the key conditions to provide the greatest opportunity for students to access those keys?

Oftentimes during these chats I find myself wishing I had a crystal ball and could really look far into the future to help answer these questions. It can be overwhelming when one takes a minute to sit down and reflect upon the 'worries' that we have for our students and children. We want them all to succeed, but one challenge is that the definition of 'success' or 'how to measure and foster success' is not necessarily shared by all. This is why we need to continue having these conversations - with each other, students, parents, colleagues, and community - so that we can try and come to a real shared understanding of the vision we have for our students, and in turn, school.

As we begin and continue these discussions I find it is important to listen to all perspectives, try and better understand opposing viewpoints, listen, and engage in the conversations on a frequent basis. One principle/frame of thought that has really resonated with me is the 40/40/40 framework for our work - Is this (fill in the blank - assessment, curricula, test, fact, etc.) that will be remembered and applied 40 days from now? 40 months from now? 40 years from now? The increments can change (i.e. minutes, days, months), but the idea remains the same. My steadfast hope is that we are not limiting our work to the first increment of 40 - rather, I hope we are working towards the larger increments as our overarching goals. And that can bring us full circle - how do we get there? From my perspective we need to make sure we focus on the 'learning skills' of our students, and helping one another to not get too focused in a myopic manner on the content and scores as we aim towards the skills. Don't get me wrong - I care about the frameworks, content, and standards - they are incredibly important as they establish a fount of knowledge and understanding. But, what I care more about is what skills the students will acquire and hone to better understand, synthesize, and apply that knowledge/understanding.

It is hard to believe that we have the Incoming 6th Grade Information Night for families this week - it is one of my favorite nights/events, and I have to admit I am mourning the fact that it will not be ‘in person’. However, this night provides an opportunity for sharing, connecting, and reflecting upon the values of our learning community. Similar to the responses from the opening prompt and the learning we have all had over the last year, what ‘we take’ and move forward with from our experiences is very individual and also different. My responses to the 40/40/40 may be different from yours, but it is in the collective sharing, listening, and reflecting that we can grow, push, and support one another - the key is simply that we are each learning and growing.

Below are a few posts that ‘spoke’ to me over the last week and certainly provide some applicable ‘lessons’ for my own learning and growth. The prompt from last week is one I hope to continue to ask one another (students, families, colleagues) as they will shed light on the ways that we can support the learning that sticks (40/40/40)...

Sampling of Responses from Last Week’s ‘Question of the Week’: What are some ways that we can help others succeed? Be specific.

To help others succeed, start by listening. What does the person want? What are they struggling with? In what ways are they asking for support? Sometimes all they need is a sounding board. Starting with listening will inform your next step.
Listening
Making connections
Uplifting them and celebrating their accomplishments
Empathy
Offering support

Parents can care about education and still be OK writing this school year off
by Christine Koh in The Boston Globe
I read this post the morning it was published (2/24) and received several texts from friends and colleagues with the link as well. It spoke to me both personally and professionally - the sentiments align with my own experiences this year, and I believe the ‘lessons within’ are worthy of carrying forward into our day-to-day practices with all of our learners, our families, and ourselves.
...I achieved neither excellent SAT scores nor stellar upper body strength. Instead, for a variety of developmental and emotional reasons that became clear to me in adulthood, I was, by conventional standards, a terrible middle and high school student: mostly Cs, some Ds, and As only in music, the one graded subject that brought me joy during those challenging years. Whenever I relate these facts, people are shocked. Why? Because academically speaking, I ended up becoming a highly functional adult, culminating with a doctorate in the brain, behavior, and cognitive science track from Queen’s University and a triple appointment postdoctoral fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Harvard Medical School. Prestigious grants from the National Institutes of Health paid for my degree and fellowship.

Add a pandemic and remote learning to these mixed feelings and I am left with two seemingly opposing conclusions: My empathy and appreciation for educators and administrators has soared to new heights, while my expectations about academic achievement have completely bottomed out. Yes, you read that correctly. This child of Korean immigrants who used to pore over flashcards and multiplication tables, and who collected academic accolades like precious gemstones, has zero expectations this year when it comes to grades and standardized tests. Let me be clear, this is not a reflection on my kids’ teachers or school administrations; their efforts have been herculean. Instead, I believe that our kids’ current experience is so far afield from normal that carrying on with academic evaluation and standardized tests per usual feels ridiculous.

Do I still want my kids to put forward their best effort and be active, respectful students? Yes, but I don’t care about the metrics. Instead, I’m focused on how my kids can become stronger through their non-school life. I look for small moments where they can level up their life skills. I support their pursuit of what lights them up and where they find self-direction. I try to help them develop a deeper understanding of what is happening in the world despite our inability to actually move much in it. And I’m not alone.

The pandemic has shown us that not everything is going to turn out the way our kids want, and while painful, those limitations and disappointments can be learning experiences, too. A couple of years ago, I worked on a project with the Centers for Disease Control Injury Center and the American Academy of Pediatrics, and learned from Dr. Andrew Garner that joy — and finding things you are passionate about — is a crucial lever to mitigating stress and preventing toxic levels of stress hormones that can lead to negative changes in genes and brain form and function.

While life as we know it is on hold, now is a time when we have a little more space to encourage our kids to figure out how to be humans beyond grades or standardized test scores. It doesn’t mean you give up on education; it simply means you level-set your quantitative expectations based on the current circumstances. And that you encourage your kids to process the losses of the year by learning how to be functional human beings who are tuned into passion, creativity, and the world beyond their doorstep.

The Most Important Lesson of 2020
by Will Richardson (@willrich45) and Homa Tavangar (@HomaTav)
Description of this brief post that is worth reading and ‘bookmarking’: This is an excerpt from the free ebook “9 Big Questions Schools Must Answer to Avoid Going ‘Back to Normal’ (*Because ‘Normal’ Wasn’t That Great to Begin With)” from the BIG Questions Institute co-founders Will Richardson and Homa Tavangar. The book provides extensive context for the disruptive moment that we now find ourselves in, and it offers practical steps to reflect on who we are now as individuals and institutions, and to begin a process of reinvention to make sure our students can thrive in an increasingly uncertain future. The ebook can be downloaded from the link above.
...what we learned about learning over the last 12 months offers us a powerful model for what classroom learning might become, virtually or face-to-face. The most important lesson from 2020 is the reminder that deep and powerful learning only happens when it’s relevant, real-world, collaborative, driven by inquiry and passion, and shared transparently. That captures the learning that we adults did this year.

... real change will require us to leave many of our old ideas about school behind. And the pandemic gave us a kick start: Cancelled SAT, AP, IB and state and national exams. Pass/fail assessments. Reduced time on task. Less homework and fewer tests. In these ways, the pandemic has already lightened our luggage. Now, as we begin to emerge from lockdowns and quarantines, will we fall back and add on the dead weight that we already shed? Or will we choose to leave it and other aspects of school behind?

To have survived the immediate though prolonged crisis of the pandemic is one step. Now the question becomes: how do we thrive into the future? To arrive at an honest and realistic answer, we must take stock, reassess and recalibrate what the fundamental purposes of school are in an age of deep uncertainty and change. Now is the perfect time to ask whether the learning environments our students need today are the same as the ones schools offered them pre-pandemic.

To even entertain the notion of reimagining schools for this new age, we have to be willing to think “radically,” to pull up at the root as the definition of that word suggests. To truly thrive, we need to rebuild our foundations at the same time that we widen the aperture of what children need to flourish. We believe that means going back to and spending time interrogating the more fundamental questions about the way we think about not just the practice of school but the idea of school itself. To that end, we offer nine big questions to start us on that journey:

What is sacred?
What is learning?
Where is the power?
Why do we _____?
Who is unheard?
Are we literate?
Are we ok?
Are we connected?
What’s next?

We are convinced that as we enter 2021, the work not to go back to normal starts with these fundamental questions. The answers we articulate will form the foundation for our collective work to reimagine the experience of school for children not just in a post-pandemic world but in whatever future may be on the horizon.

How Learning Science Is Catching Up To Mr. Rogers
by Anya Kamanetz (@anya1anya) in MindShift
Kamanetz’s post came into my Twitter feed this week - Mr. Rogers is the ultimate teacher for me - full of ‘life lessons’ and a model of vulnerability and care. I hope we can continue to hold on to the ‘learning science’ that Mr. Rogers lived and shared.
His shows, books and songs were carefully designed to give kids the tools to deal with what he called "the inner drama of childhood" — from sibling rivalry to loneliness, anger and edgier topics like gender expression (as in the song "Everybody's Fancy").
Today, the science has caught up. Research tells us social and emotional skills, including self-regulation, and being able to recognize emotions, are as important to success as academic achievement.
The good news is that Mr. Rogers left us enough episodes that there is one to fit almost anything that might come up in the news today.

Meena Srinivasan on Mindful School Leadership
Interview with Sarah McKibben in Educational Leadership
Although written with an intended audience of school leaders, the ‘lessons within’ apply to all - emphasizing the role that mindfulness plays in our learning, growth, care, and leadership.
To be present, we have to pay attention in real time to what is unfolding internally and externally. But our attention has to be infused with what I call the four Cs: compassion, connectedness, curiosity, and care. They remind me of the late, great Maya Angelou, who felt that at all times, we are unconsciously asking each other: Do you see me? Do you care that I am here?

Mindfulness isn't another thing you have to do on top of everything else. It's really the foundation of being an effective leader. One of my teachers, Larry Ward, who is a senior student of Thich Nhat Hanh, said that if you're a revolutionary at heart (and you are if you're in this work of educational leadership), you can live like a comet—be a brilliant light and vanish quickly. Or you can be like the sun, always returning. So attending to our inner work enables us to continue to return like the sun. Transforming our educational system requires leaders to have a long view: It isn't possible with comets. We must all be like the sun.

I think self-compassion is key, especially when you're in a service profession. Self-compassion means being warm and understanding toward yourself when you suffer rather than ignoring what's arising or engaging in self-criticism.

I think for those of us who are working in schools, one of the most powerful ways in which we can offer compassion to others is seeing our students, colleagues, and the parents of our students as we see ourselves. That increases compassion, altruism, and prosocial behavior—essential qualities for a thriving school community.

I look forward to continued conversations and defined action steps as we adapt, grow, and learn from our individual and shared experiences. March 1 marks the beginning of Women's History Month and I will be sharing some words each week that resonate, hold meaning, and bring forth ideas/ideals that speak to potential and realized ‘life lessons’ for me and (I assume) others as well…

Impacting Others

2/25/2021

February 23, 2021

To help encourage conversations and dialogue about the ways that we impact one another, our question of the week is: What are some ways that we can help others succeed? Be specific. Impacting Others (Week of 2/21/21) (This is an anonymous Google Form)

Blake's Guiding Lights
Our Students
Blake's Core Values: Respect, Responsibility, Resourcefulness, Reflection
Our Essential Question: How can we cultivate and curate the progression of student learning and growth?
Our Mission: Blake Middle School believes in a living mission statement, based on the concept that our community seeks and respects knowledge, integrity, character, wisdom, and the willingness to adapt to a continually evolving world.
The most important attitude that can be formed is that of desire to go on learning. - John Dewey
You cannot teach today the same way you did yesterday to prepare students for tomorrow. - John Dewey

February vacation provided a welcome break from the routines and, although we did not do too much, it sure went by quickly! I felt a real sense of appreciation and gratitude for the time to catch up on some reading, naps, podcasts, yoga, and walks. Although I long for the days of spring and extended light, I do not want to wish time away - I’m trying to focus on the beauty of the snow and keep coming back to this sentiment shared by poet Anne Bradstreet: “If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome." I hope that the time allowed for whatever ‘fills your cup’ and that you and your families and ‘circles’ are healthy and safe.

Heading into the vacation week, my answer to last week’s question (Hopes for vacation week - sampling of responses below) was to read, catch up on some podcasts, and build in some down time. As shared above, I feel quite fortunate that I was able to do those things. Through both reading and listening to podcasts (I highly recommend Jon Meacham’s It Was Said series) over the last week, I found myself jotting down notes and reflecting upon the ways that our words and actions impact one another. These two quotes have stayed with me...
“Education is really the only equalizer we have.”
—Robyn Jackson, ASCD Author

We often talk about wanting our students to succeed, but I think we really need to take more time to talk about our definition of success as I do not think we have a shared definition or understanding of that term. Through our district’s work with Challenge Success, we have been looking at reshaping the path towards success in the spirit of CS’s mission: Challenge Success partners with schools, families, and communities to embrace a broad definition of success and to implement research-based strategies that promote student well-being, equity, and engagement with learning. However, I firmly believe that we need to pause and make a holistic and concerted effort to articulate and implement practices that align with a more human and learner-centered definition of success. And the essence of the words from both Robyn Jackson and Adam Grant speak to the roles we play, and must play, as educators - seeing, understanding, and actively living our roles as facilitators to equalize the proverbial playing field and help others on their path to success. In addition to Meacham’s podcast noted above, these four episodes are ones that speak to our roles (and by roles, this holds for all caregivers - educators, parents/guardians, mentors, etc.) - and, I promise that although the two titles are the same, the ‘Grading for Equity’ ones are different episodes…

Grading for Equity
From the Harvard Edcast Podcast
(32 minutes)
When Joe Feldman, author of Grading for Equity, looked closer at grading practices in schools across the country, he realized many practices are outdated, inconsistent, and inequitable. Today he helps educators develop strategies that tackle inconsistent grading practices. In doing so, Feldman tells the Harvard EdCast how shifting grading practices can change the landscape of schools and potentially the future for students.

Grading for Equit‪y‬
From the CS-Ed Podcast
(35 minutes)
Joining us today is Joe Feldman, author of Grading for Equity and the CEO of Crescendo Education Group. We discuss the historical overview of grading and why now is a good time to rethink our grading process to make it more equitable. We got concrete by discussing our host's, Kristin Stephens-Martinez's, syllabus for her class and changes she was considering after reading Grading for Equity. One significant point Joe made is that grades should only convey the student's level of mastery, not their behavior. Finally, we closed the episode with him pointing out we should do small experiments, iterate, and over time transition our classes to be more equitable, as well as discussed ways to normalize the new practices in the classroom. If you are interested in learning more, there is not only the book but also an online class.

How They See U‪s‬
from The Hidden Brain podcast
(50 minutes)
Stereotypes are all around us, shaping how we see the world – and how the world sees us. On the surface, the stereotypes that other people hold shouldn’t affect the way we think or act. But our concerns about other people’s perceptions have a way of burrowing deep into our minds. This week, social psychologist Claude Steele explains the psychology of “stereotype threat.”

School Rankings, Ratings, and Wrongdoin‪g‬
from the Have You Heard podcast
(39 minutes)
The brutal pessimism of school rankings and ratings, starring Akil Bello, Senior Director of Advocacy and Advancement at FairTest.

Along with Jackson and Grant’s words and the ways we impact others through our actions, I have been thinking a great deal about the drivers in our practices with students and these words (I’ve shared these a lot this year!)...

We need to look at our systems and policies as they are the drivers for the implementation of our ‘whys’ for how they impact learning. And it is critical that we have an active and embedded willingness to examine our practices and adapt. Adam Grant’s new book, Think Again, is excellent (in full disclosure, I love all of his work!) as it articulates the implications and importance of staying curious and actively learning.

At our rescheduled faculty meeting this week, we will be taking intentional time to discuss our experiences and the experiences of our students over the course of the last (almost) 12 months with an eye towards archiving and capturing the lessons learned/affirmed. One concept that Adam Grant speaks to in his work is that of ‘Post-traumatic growth’ (the resource is shared below) and it is in this vein that I believe we can help articulate and implement systems and practices from our own learning growth (and more importantly, the learning of our students)...
Post-traumatic growth is about recognizing that these challenges do make us stronger in some ways. If you break down post-traumatic growth, the most common forms of growth in the face of tragedy are gaining perspective and strengthened gratitude. Saying,“Okay, I got through that. I can get through almost anything.” Appreciating things that you might've taken for granted before. There's also, for many people, a sense of new possibilities or new meaning around saying, “Okay, you know what, I need to take a step back and really figure out what matters in my life and what's important to me.” Now again, that's not to say that anybody is going to appreciate the pandemic and all of the struggles and tragedies that have come from it. But recognizing that once we make it through this experience, there are ways in which we're going to grow from it, I think that gives us a chance to at least see some silver linings that we might've missed otherwise.

In addition to the sampling of responses from our pre-vacation Question of the Week, the resources shared below have served as prompts for my own reflection - and, I hope they will serve as sources for the reflection of others as well. As always, I welcome thoughts, dialogue, push back, questions, and action - it’s important and necessary...

Sampling of Responses from Last Week’s ‘Question of the Week’: What are you looking forward to doing or hoping to do over the vacation week?

Reading a good book. Creating some art.
Reading! Reading! Reading!
I can't wait to put the final preparations together for the Fall 2 season. Football in February / March is still football!
Watching shows, reading and playing with my pets
Spending time with my family, and reading at least 25 books!
I am hoping to go skiing.
Just to relax and have fun.
I am looking forward to spending time with my family.
Skiing
Playing piano and tetris

Trust in the Time of COVID
by Jonathan Landman
Landman references the work of Ronald Heifetz and Marty Linsky (A Survival Guide for Leaders), encouraging leaders and schools to ‘get up on the balcony’ to note lessons and opportunities learned and gained since March, 2020. The tenor of this post is excellent, emphasizing the importance of embracing vulnerability as a key ingredient for growth and learning.
To start with, there has never been a moment in our careers like this one - when veterans and novices, school leaders and teachers - have all been forced to learn so much so fast. Since last March, I cannot count how often I have heard experienced professionals say they’ve felt like they were back at square one, like new teachers or new leaders. As a consequence, whether we wanted to or not, all of us have had to air our vulnerabilities; all of us have had to take risks.

The interesting thing is that this vulnerability and risk-taking are very good for learning organizations. For professionals engaged in complex, challenging work, vulnerability is essential to growth.

Beyond the Time of COVID, the collaborative habits we build now can be transformative. In my experience, schools have always been at their best when colleagues have come together to rise to a challenge. If we come out of this time proceeding on the presumptions that we do not have all the answers; that we can grow through openly sharing and tackling our challenges with our colleagues; that we can learn from one another, then our in-person practice next year and beyond may be enhanced by the hard-won lessons learned in this year of crisis.

Children Will Eventually Return To Schools, But Schools Won't Be The Same
Transcript of Lulu Garcia-Navarro’s interview with Theresa Thayer Snyder via NPR Weekend Edition
Theresa Thayer Snyder is a former Superintendent of Schools in Voorheesville, NY and shares her view that schools can not (and should not) return ‘back to normal’ - rather, they need to recognize the needs of our students and make adjustments to support all of our learners and families. Earlier during the school year Diane Ravitch shared a post from Snyder that is worth reading (linked below).
I think my biggest concern is that we're going to be very caught up in what we're considering for lost time, and we're going to be working very hard to catch the children up to where we think they should be. And I really fear that because I really believe that we have to greet them where they are and understand that they haven't stopped growing in this last year of a pandemic. They've been growing maybe not with traditional school curriculum, but certainly, they've been growing and maturing and thinking. And I believe that when we reenter schools, we need to celebrate that and welcome them back.

I would hope that it would be a place where children would rather be than any place else. I have a 13-year-old granddaughter who was a straight-A student. And in the first quarter, she just plummeted. And I said to her, you know, it isn't normal for an eighth-grader to be learning in isolation. And even with all the drama of middle school that we all remember and we all know very well, that's also part of human growth and development. And I also think that the curriculum will take care of itself. There are children in many places in the world where a curriculum has been interrupted. And yet when they came back to a school setting, they've been fine. They've thrived, and they've managed to achieve. I think that sometimes we underestimate the capacity of the human child.

Teresa Thayer Snyder: What Shall We Do About the Children After the Pandemic
Posted by Diane Ravitch
I sincerely plead with my colleagues, to surrender the artificial constructs that measure achievement and greet the children where they are, not where we think they “should be.” Greet them with art supplies and writing materials, and music and dance and so many other avenues to help them express what has happened to them in their lives during this horrific year. Greet them with stories and books that will help them make sense of an upside-down world. They missed you. They did not miss the test prep. They did not miss the worksheets. They did not miss the reading groups. They did not miss the homework. They missed you.

‎Masters of Scale with Reid Hoffman: Rapid Response: Why we need to think again, w/Adam Grant on Apple Podcasts
(30 minutes)
“Why we need to think again, w/Adam Grant” - Transcript
This podcast is worth listening to - highlighting aspects of Grant’s new book and sharing the importance of reconsidering our preconceived notions and ideas.
As we grapple with pandemic-charged change in business and as a society, we’ve become more fractured, more divisive, and more vulnerable. Adam Grant, best-selling author and professor at the Wharton School, argues that recognizing what we don't know is the key step on the road to insight, competitive advantage, and community peace. In his new book, "Think Again," Grant illuminates why taking a fresh look at our assumptions, about others and about ourselves, is such a powerful tool. His in-the-trenches research – from Silicon Valley's halls of power to the beliefs of anti-vaxxers – provides actionable advice for all of us.

Students Respond to Adults' Fixation on 'Learning Loss' (Opinion)
by Neema Avashia (@avashianeema) via Larry Ferlazzo’s (@larryferlazzo) blog in Education Week
Larry Ferlazzo is a prolific blogger, sharing resources and perspectives on ‘all things education’. Here he shares the perspective from educator Neema Avashia in response to this prompt: There’s a lot of talk about students suffering “learning loss” because of the pandemic—what does that mean, and how concerned should we be? ‘Learning loss’ is an important conversation to be had and Neema’s perspective should be given serious consideration. Within she shares three questions she asked her own students along with the themes that emerged...
Three questions asked of students…

During the pandemic, what are things that you feel like you’ve lost?
During the pandemic, what are the ways that you have seen yourself grow or learn new things?
Many adults in education right now are very focused on the idea of “learning loss.” They think that kids are falling behind academically during the pandemic. What do you want those adults to know about you and your experience during the pandemic?

Three themes that emerged…

Post-pandemic schooling needs to focus on relationships.
Post-pandemic schooling needs to prioritize mental health and wellness.
Postpandemic schooling needs to take a less-is-more approach.

If our educational response to the pandemic is more of the same tired approaches that we were already trying before the pandemic—pages of standards, longer school days, more and more and more assessment—it will fail, just as it was failing prior to the pandemic. We have an opportunity to think and plan differently in this moment—to build a system that is responsive to the needs of the students it purports to serve. Doing so requires that we begin by listening to those young people and amplifying what they say they need, as opposed to what we as adults think they need.

Here’s the truth that too many adults who don’t directly work with young people refuse to acknowledge: When our youths are frightened, disconnected, grieving, or anxious, they aren’t learning. Their brains aren’t taking in our lessons, or holding on to the Common Core standards. Their amygdalas are in charge, and adults just sound like Charlie Brown’s teacher. If we are going to address the academic loss that may have occurred during the pandemic, then we also need to fully understand the other kinds of loss our young people have experienced and have plans in place to support them through those losses.

Let’s not return to our previous ways of educating students. We have an opportunity to think and plan differently in this moment. To build a system that is responsive to the needs of the students it purports to serve. A first step in doing so is to listen to our students.

What Is The #New Curriculum? | Will Richardson
by Will Richardson (@willrich45)
Richardson continues to push my own thinking towards productive and necessary changes in our education system. Here he poses an important question about our curriculum and the need to collectively reflect and define our #newcurriculum for our students, sharing four examples that are pressing...

Algorithmic Literacy — So much of how we experience the world is now mediated by technology and driven by algorithms. The explosion of AI, VR, AR, and other initials require each of us to have a deep understanding of how what we read and hear, and experience is driven by code and a skillset to combat the ill effects of that.
Racial and Social Justice — The furor of last summer may have died down a bit, but it is not going away. Nor should it. And the deeply colonial roots of our current curriculum is doing nothing to advance the conversations we need to be having and the questions we need to be asking around race and equity.

Power — There are huge shifts in power that are happening in the world today, politically, economically, and socially. These shifts are rarely interrogated in schools, but if we want to help students develop into adults who can create a more equitable future for all, we need to examine them and equip them to use their growing power well.

Climate — Many are suggesting that the pandemic was just a light jab compared to the looming uppercut that climate change is about to hit us with. Part of the work is to solve the problems that are causing the crisis. But another part is helping students develop the social and emotional coping skills necessary to deal with what’s to come.

Let’s start here: Curriculum is just a guess. And to paraphrase the late, great Seymour Papert, now that we have access to just about everything there is to know, what one-billionth of one percent are we going to choose to teach in school?

The reality is the moment we’re in is seriously pushing against the what and why of curriculum in schools. I know, colleges require it, and parents expect it. But that doesn’t absolve us of the need (and duty) to interrogate just how well the current offering is actually preparing kids for a world that in large measure colleges and parents don’t fully understand.

We don’t have to guess any longer what topics and skills kids need to learn in school. They’re staring us in the face. And they are urgent. Now the question is do we have the courage to build a more relevant, just, and equitable #newcurriculum with our students.

As we enter the last week of February and #BlackHistoryMonth, these words from James Baldwin are relevant for our learning community, as well as the community that extends beyond our school - embracing a willingness to reflect, acknowledge, and face our current challenges and realities; being open to changes for improvement; and, most important - acting on the lessons learned for real, sustainable change.

Taking the Time

2/12/2021

February 9, 2021

To help encourage conversations and dialogue about the ways we intentionally make use of the time we have, our question of the week is: What are you looking forward to doing or hoping to do over the vacation week? Taking the Time (Week of 2/7/21) (This is an anonymous Google Form)

Blake's Guiding Lights
Our Students
Blake's Core Values: Respect, Responsibility, Resourcefulness, Reflection
Our Essential Question: How can we cultivate and curate the progression of student learning and growth?
Our Mission: Blake Middle School believes in a living mission statement, based on the concept that our community seeks and respects knowledge, integrity, character, wisdom, and the willingness to adapt to a continually evolving world.
The most important attitude that can be formed is that of desire to go on learning. - John Dewey
You cannot teach today the same way you did yesterday to prepare students for tomorrow. - John Dewey

I have shared before that time has felt like a blur in so many ways as of late - things are moving rather quickly (how is vacation already here?), while I also find myself bogged down by what has felt like the never ending reality of our altered shared existence since last March. This past weekend was a mix of quiet and busy, and we also celebrated Katie’s birthday on Sunday! I came across this quote on Friday evening and I thought it was appropriate to share as we all look towards a break from our routines (by no means am I implying that we are failing!)...

Last Saturday Susie Boulos sent me a text with this quote from Walt Disney...

These words speak to me on many levels - I remember seeing them on the family trips we have been fortunate to take to Disney World, and they speak to a mantra/culture I believe we aim to embrace on a daily basis at Blake. I think it’s important and critical that we do take the time to reflect by looking backwards, but as Disney says we should not linger there. Our theme of #curiosity has been one that has been more than appropriate for us this year, and I know we are not alone in that capacity - and, we have needed to continue to provide flexibility, grace, and understanding to others and ourselves.

On our remote snow day this past week, I took some time to pause and reflect on the last month and the last 12 months as well - both personally and professionally. In so doing I realized that I forgot (neglected?) to carry forth a practice/tradition of formally setting/sharing intentions for the year along with some influential posts/resources from the prior calendar year. To be honest, my initial reaction was disappointment in myself - that may read as an extreme reaction, but for whatever reason, that is what I first felt. After working through that a bit, I paused and recognized that I can’t look back and recreate a process - I will simply take the time this weekend (now) to share. So, here goes with a potpourri of reflections and sharings - some that look backward and some that look forward, but all with an eye towards moving forward and acting as a community of curious learners…

Resolutions/Intentions for the 2021 calendar year (some carry-overs from previous years)...

#slowingitdown with intentional time for self-reflection, mindfulness, and growth
Defining ‘personal time’ and ‘professional time’ (an uphill climb for me)
Intentionally strive to be anti-racist by integrating social justice, equity, diversion, and inclusion into all facets (personal, professional, leadership)
Practice #willfulaction with #willfulhope
Lead with flexibility, understanding, and grace
Explore musical interests (playing and listening)
Listening to understand rather than listening to respond
Embrace and model authenticity and vulnerability
Explore ways to 'go deeper' and find more meaning
Think about ways to connect more directly with students (focus groups, check-ins, discussions)
Broaden and redefine some methods of sharing and growing (networking, connecting, collaborating) within Blake, Medfield, and beyond

My Annual Resolutions/Intentions

Be open to the ideology of those who do not share my thinking and better understand those views (ask questions and be genuinely curious for feedback)
Be a mirror for others and ask others to do the same for me
Articulate and focus on the 'good problems'
Foster leadership at all levels (students, staff, parents, and community), balancing ownership with healthy delegation and growth for others
Stay the course and keep the 'big picture' in mind at all times
'Lean towards yes' and maintain the mission of our mantra, 'a willingness to adapt'

2020’s Influential Posts
These are not necessarily the ‘top posts’ - rather that are ones that have held meaning for me, our collective work, and our community of learners (many of these may read as unique to this period of remote/hybrid learning, but my firm belief is that they hold true for learning at all times)…
A Nobel Laureate’s Mind-Blowing Perspective On The Ultimate Outcome Of An Education
by Brandon Busteed in Forbes
Spend More Time Planting Seeds and Less Time Measuring Vines
by Jon Harper (@jonharper70)
What's the Goal of Education?
by Tom Whitby (@tomwhitby)
The Dangers of Screen Time . . . in 1440
by Douglas Reeves
The Grief of Accepting New Ideas
by Rick Wormeli (@rickwormeli2)
Opinion | Why Can't Everyone Get A's?
by Alfie Kohn in The New York Times
GENER(aliz)ATIONS
by Alfie Kohn (@alfiekohn)
Show What You Know: A Parent’s Guide To The Global Shift To Competency
by Tom Vander Ark (@tvanderark) in Forbes
Why Focusing On Adult Learning Builds A School Culture Where Students Thrive
by Katrina Schwartz (@KSchwart) in MindShift
Do You Have the Backbone for a PLN?
by Tom Whitby (@tomwhitby)
Pedagogy vs. Andragogy
by Tom Whitby (@tomwhitby)
We must reverse the ‘outcome oriented’ educational monster we have unleashed
by Cathy Davidson in The Guardian
The Joy and Sorrow of Rereading Holt’s "How Children Learn"
by Peter Gray in Psychology Today
The Path to Success Is a Squiggly Line
by Madeline Levine in The Atlantic
Discovering Learning or Delivering an Education
by Will Richardson (@willrich45)
School as Fiction
by Will Richardson (@willrich45)
Low floor, wide walls, high ceiling
by Mitch Resnick (@mres)
Seven Reasons to Geek Out on Educational Theory
by John Spencer (@spencerideas)
What teenage brains can teach us about thinking creatively
by Steven Johnson in The Washington Post
I Refuse to Run a Coronavirus Home School
by Jennie Weiner in The New York Times
It's Time to Keep School Alive When We Shut the Doors
By Ewan McIntosh (@ewanmcintosh)
Where's the Silver Lining for Education?
By Tom Whitby (@tomwhitby)
That Discomfort You're Feeling Is Grief
by Scott Berinato in Harvard Business Review
This Is the Time
by Dean Shareski (@shareski)
Teaching Without Compulsory School
by Chris Lehmann (@chrislehmann)
The Parent Opportunity
by Will Richardson (@willrich45)
Bill Withers' 'Lean on Me' Is a Song for Every Crisis -- Especially This One
By Daniel Kreps in Rolling Stone
Keep It Simple, Schools
by Justin Reich (@bjfr) in Educational Leadership
Being OK With Discomfort
by Leigh A. Hall (@leighahall)
Embrace the Messiness of Learning
by Megan M. Allen in Education Week Teacher
The Secret to Schools that Keep Getting Better
by Justin Reich (@bjfr) in Education Week
“New Normal” of Education, Start With the “Old Normal” of Learning
by Will Richardson (@willrich45)
If You Build It Will They Come? (How Distance Learning Could Change Education)
by Rachael Kettner-Thompson
This Pause in Our Lives Can Lead to Reflection and Greater Fulfillment
by Robin Stern, Zorana Ivcevic Pringle, and Nicole Elbertson from Yale’s Center for Emotional Intelligence
Leaning Into The Innovation Opportunity
by Tom Vander Ark (@tvanderark) in Forbes
Has This Crisis Really Changed Schools?
by Will Richardson (@willrich45)
What It Means to be Anti-Racist
by Anna North in Vox
Five Things Not To Do When Schools Re-open
by Pasi Sahlberg (@pasi_sahlberg)
What If We Tried “Radical Acts of Education”?
by Homa Tavangar and Will Richardson in Big Questions Institute
A School Year to Make a Difference
by Anthony Rebora in Educational Leadership
Do We Have the "Situational Awareness" to Navigate Into the Future?
by Homa Tavangar (@HomaTav) and Will Richardson (@willrich45)
Grading to Encourage Re-Learning
by Bryan Goodwin and Kris Rouleau in Educational Leadership
What Is Truly the Meaning Behind Words Like 'Disadvantaged' and 'Disengaged'?
by Peter DeWitt (@PeterMDeWitt) in Education Week
Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed at Fifty
by Liza Featherstone in JSTOR Daily
How much learning is really ‘lost’ when children aren’t in school buildings?
by Valerie Strauss in The Washington Post
Are We In a “Talk – Walk Gap”?
by Will Richardson (@willrich45) and Homa Tavangar (@HomaTav)
Forget About Making This School Year as Normal as Possible
by Vicki Abeles (@VickiAbeles) in The Boston Globe
In Schools, Are We Measuring What Matters?
by Stephen Merrill in Edutopia
We Don’t Value Education. We Value The Credential.
by Brandon Busteed in Forbes
To Engage Students, Focus on Connection Over Content
by Katie Martin (@katiemartinedu)
Does a Single Story Define You?
by Samantha Boardman in Psychology Today
School Wasn’t So Great Before COVID, Either
by Erika Christakis in The Atlantic
Falsehoods We Believe about Grading and Reporting | NGLC
by Gary Chapin (@GaryChapin67) in NGLC (Next Generation Learning Challenges)
Turn & Talk / "Antiracist" Grading Starts with You
Interview between Sarah McKibben and Cornelius Minor in Educational Leadership
The Dangers of Standardized Testing and Why We Need to Slay the Beast
by Bruce Dixon (@bruceadixon)
Learning Uncertainty
by Pasi Sahlberg (@pasi_sahlberg) and Saku Tuominen (@sakuidealist)
Processes and Principles for Public Schools Navigating Uncertainty and Adapting to Change
by Eric Tucker, Ashley Deal, Raelynn OLeary and Sarah Pactor in Getting Smart
The Tests Are Lousy, So How Could the Scores Be Meaningful?
by Alfie Kohn (@alkfiekohn)
How to Be an Antiracist Educator: An Interview With Ibram X. Kendi
by Rebecca Koenig in EdSurge
What Covid-19 Revealed About Schools and Education - Make Schools More Human
by Jal Mehta (@jal_mehta) in The New York Times

Two Posts to Frame Our Reflections, Learnings, and Action
The two posts below are ones that have helped to center me, challenge my own thinking, reflect, and to frame/map a vision that I hope we can all embrace for ALL of our learners. Margaret Wheatley’s post is one I have shared before and Beth Holland’s post is from January, 2021 (again, one I have shared a lot over the last few weeks). For those who do not know Beth, she used to work for EdTechTeacher and provided professional development for a number of years to the Blake/Medfield staff. She certainly is a gifted writer and a researcher/educator to the core with a keen eye for 'speaking truth' and providing context. They both look backwards with a foundation of curiosity - encouraging us to look forwards in a productive, progressive, creative, and honest manner.

Willing to Be Disturbed
by Margaret Wheatley
This piece is an excerpt from Wheatley’s book, Turning to One Another: Simple Conversations to Restore Hope to the Future, and the phrase ‘willing to be disturbed’ is one that helps to open up conversations. This mantra will help us to listen to one another and examine our own practices - a key component of a learning community. There is much about this excerpt that I love, but the creativity element really speaks to me today.
As we work together to restore hope to the future, we need to include a new and strange ally—our willingness to be disturbed. Our willingness to have our beliefs and ideas challenged by what others think. No one person or perspective can give us the answers we need to the problems of today. Paradoxically, we can only find those answers by admitting we don’t know. We have to be willing to let go of our certainty and expect ourselves to be confused for a time.

It is very difficult to give up our certainties—our positions, our beliefs, our explanations. These help define us; they lie at the heart of our personal identity. Yet I believe we will succeed in changing this world only if we can think and work together in new ways. Curiosity is what we need. We don’t have to let go of what we believe, but we do need to be curious about what someone else believes. We do need to acknowledge that their way of interpreting the world might be essential to our survival.

Sometimes we hesitate to listen for differences because we don’t want to change. We’re comfortable with our lives, and if we listened to anyone who raised questions, we’d have to get engaged in changing things. If we don’t listen, things can stay as they are and we won’t have to expend any energy. But most of us do see things in our life or in the world that we would like to be different. If that’s true, we have to listen more, not less. And we have to be willing to move into the very uncomfortable place of uncertainty.

We can’t be creative if we refuse to be confused. Change always starts with confusion; cherished interpretations must dissolve to make way for the new. Of course it’s scary to give up what we know, but the abyss is where newness lives. Great ideas and inventions miraculously appear in the space of not knowing. If we can move through the fear and enter the abyss, we are rewarded greatly. We rediscover we’re creative.

We Were Warned
by Beth Holland (@brholland)
Beth typically writes an 'end of year post' with predictions for the next calendar year. I touched base with her at the end of 2020 and she told me she was thinking about writing one. After the events on 1/6, she wrote this post and shared it with me back in mid-January. I echo the sentiments and hope that we do not 'sleep through this wake-up call' that we have all experienced. It speaks to a lot of the conversations we have and have had - also provides context for the need to push against 'the norms' that Beth notes have unfortunately become so embedded into the 'culture of schools'.
'Instead of evolving into a system that valued and honored ALL students, American public education largely institutionalized structures intended to sort and rank individuals so that existing power structures remained fully entrenched.'

Two Quotes to Frame Our Reflections, Learnings, and Action
The words below speak for themselves and are ones I hope we can instill for ourselves, our students, and our communities...

Sampling of Responses from Last Week’s ‘Question of the Week’: What can we do (or keep doing) to help all learners love to learn? Be specific.

Make it fun
You can try to keep them engaged and try to make the learning fun so it doesn't feel like learning
We need to provide plenty of choice where applicable. By identifying the core skills being practiced and allowing choice in what those skills are applied and practiced through, students are able to pursue learning by also engaging in their own interests.
We can make it smooth, exciting, encouraging, and enjoyable.
Teach with enthusiasm and provide a variety of ways for students to access information within our lessons.
I think to help learners love learning you can keep making lessons fun and enjoyable.

And, as always, some words that have been shared in the past that continue to offer perspective, inspiration, guidance, and #willfulhope...

That which is unspeakable is unmanageable. - Colby Swettberg
We are going to make the path by walking it. - Colby Swettberg
We can't teach what we don't know. We can't lead where we won't go. - Malcolm X
If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn. - Charlie Parker

Learning to Love Learning

2/2/2021

February 2, 2021

To help encourage conversations and dialogue about the systems and practices that need to be in place to foster lifelong and ‘long life’ learning, our question of the week is: What can we do (or keep doing) to help all learners love to learn? Be specific. Learning to Love Learning (Week of 1/31/21) (This is an anonymous Google Form)

Blake's Guiding Lights
Our Students
Blake's Core Values: Respect, Responsibility, Resourcefulness, Reflection
Our Essential Question: How can we cultivate and curate the progression of student learning and growth?
Our Mission: Blake Middle School believes in a living mission statement, based on the concept that our community seeks and respects knowledge, integrity, character, wisdom, and the willingness to adapt to a continually evolving world.
The most important attitude that can be formed is that of desire to go on learning. - John Dewey
You cannot teach today the same way you did yesterday to prepare students for tomorrow. - John Dewey

With the frigid weather this past weekend, I hope that everyone has been staying warm and safe. Even though I have lived my entire life in New England, I had forgotten that this cold weather can be pretty typical - amazing how the mind/memory can romanticize things and ‘blissfully ignore’ reality! It looks as though some more wintry weather will be continuing - I have to say that despite the cold temps, the sunshine has been a real source of hope and light.

A few questions have been floating around in my head over the past couple of weeks…

What can we do (or keep doing) to help all learners love to learn? (Question of the Week)
What systems to help to support all learners?
What practices help to support all learners?
What practices free us to support all students?
What systems free us to support all students?
Given our learning over the last (almost) year, what is something that you will keep doing (and we should keep doing)?
Given our learning over the last (almost) year, what is something that you will never do again (and we should never do again)?

We will be taking time at our faculty meeting this month to explore the essence/themes of these questions with the intent to try and ‘archive/capture’ and reflect upon the learnings we have all experienced over the last year - What practices should we continue? What should we resume? Should we go back to 'normal'? etc. All of these questions are critical and important - and I really believe (you have heard me say this before) that we would be remiss (and irresponsible) by not taking intentional and concerted time to name, process, and incorporate the answers and learning into our practices.

This past week I listened to (among others) a couple of podcasts that helped further my own thinking and answers to these questions - one is from What's the Big Idea? and the other is from Future U Podcast...

Over, Under, or Properly Rated? Education in 2020 with Amy Fast
(42 minutes)
In which Dan weighs what 2020 taught us about many of the tenets of education. He's joined by Amy Fast (@fastcrayon), principal of McMinnville High School in Oregon, to take part in "Over, Under, or Properly Rated?", a game of evaluation and reflection. They talk synchronous vs asynchronous, teacher content knowledge, parental involvement, college prep, and more. As always, we welcome comments and questions on Twitter @BigIdeaEd.

Preparing For Jobs That Don’t Yet Exist
(40 min, 40 seconds)
Michelle Weise returns to Future U to talk about her new book, Long Life Learning: Preparing for Jobs that Don’t Even Exist Yet and why creating a new learning ecosystem for what’s ahead is so critical for all of us.

The interview with Amy Fast (@fastcrayon) provides an excellent framework for reflection (over, under, or properly rated) and the segment with Michelle Weise (@rwmichelle) provides insight into the importance of long-term thinking/planning - they both speak to the need to examine and shift our current systems for all of our learners. Weise shares her mindset shift from ‘life-long learning’ to ‘long-life learning’ - as life expectancy increases, an important question to think about is the inevitable need (yes, need) for a longer span of learning over our lives.

How do these episodes relate to our current realities - students, teachers, and learning at Blake? In addition to the listening and reflection that has come forth for me (and sharing with others - some have received these already and have heard some thoughts in recent meetings/interactions), direct and indirect connections have been made clear to me (and potentially others as well) over the last few days...

Start With Hello assemblies- How do we help our students and families feel connected? What systems and practices help to foster growth and connection?
Black History Month planning - Are our plans indicative of our culture and practices at Blake?
Student Council - How can we incorporate our students into leadership roles as it is their school?
Blake Think Tank - What is on the minds of our staff? Are we (and I mean both me in my role and the ‘greater we’) listening?
Professional Development - How are we encouraging continued growth for all to reflect the new needs that develop at a rapid pace?
Communication - How do we continue bridging the inherent gap between the internal and external communities at our school?

Two themes become very clear for me…

We have an inherent responsibility and obligation to foster a love and desire to learn for ALL of our students
Systems are the levers for change and improvement, and they all connect - we can not look at one practice/system without acknowledging, articulating, and considering the impact and interdependence on other practices and systems

Building upon these points of clarity, I am sharing some notes from some recent professional development, posts of interest, and the weekly sampling of responses from our question of the week. I hope that they foster reflection, dialogue, and action as they touch on the need for a love of learning and interconnectedness of systems and practices...

A Few Notes from Recent Professional Development…
Part 1 of ‘Culturally Responsive & Sustaining Pedagogy’

How does systemic racism manifest itself in the education experience for students?
Is systemic inequity too big for me to make a difference?
Need to share hope
Teachers make a difference
How Do I Become an Anti-racist Educator/Leader?
Sphere of Concern, Sphere of Control, Sphere of Influence
- What is an area of concern you want to address?
- What learning will help you to be impactful?
- What, within your sphere of control, can you do?
- What, within your sphere of control, can you do?
- How can you expand your impact into your sphere of influence?
Collectivism vs Individualism

IEP Improvement Project daylong workshop

Culture is software to hardware (Zaretta Hammond)
Concept of ‘Organized Flexibility’
We believe in the future of our children
Consistency is what we would hope for - equity comes from consistency
Concept of Nexus vs Pipelines for students
Paradox of ‘Special Education’: Ever since the passage of the original IDEA, educators, researchers, and policymakers have acknowledged concern over the “paradox of special education.” The paradox being: special education provides students with critical services, supports, accommodations, and legal rights that help them succeed in school; yet, at the same time, special education identification can result in lowered expectations from teachers, limited access to the general education curricula, and stigma.” — The Century Foundation, Students from Low-Income Families and Special Education

Making Connections: Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain
by Elena Aguilar in Edutopia
Almost six years old, this post is a Q&A with Zaretta Hammond (@Ready4Rigor) in regards to her new (at the time) book, Culturally Responsive Teaching and The Brain: Promoting Authentic Engagement and Rigor Among Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students. The neuroscience of her work is enlightening and critical.
In reality, cultural responsiveness is more of a process than a strategy. It begins when a teacher recognizes the cultural capital and tools students of color bring to the classroom. She is then able to respond to students' use of these cultural learning tools positively by noticing, naming, and affirming when students use them in the service of learning. The most common cultural tools for processing information utilize the brain's memory systems -- music, repetition, metaphor, recitation, physical manipulation of content, and ritual. The teacher is "responsive" when she is able to mirror these ways of learning in her instruction, using similar strategies to scaffold learning.

It's a misconception that culturally responsive instruction has to mention race. It's not race that matters in culturally responsive teaching but awareness of implicit bias that gets in the way of healthy student-teacher relationships and narrow interpretations of learning that ignore the cultural tools students bring to class.

Teachers need to simply begin with understanding the cultural dimensions of communalism -- most communities of color have this cultural trait in common, namely a focus on the interdependence of the group. It can be summed up in the African proverb, "I am because we are." This way of being is contrasted with our dominant culture's more individualist, pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps worldview.

The neuroscience is clear on the connection between emotions, trust, and learning. Stress hormones from mistrust block cognition.

...the neuroscience is so cool in helping us understand the role of culture in learning. It is like software that programs our "hardware" (the brain). Cultural values and learning practices transmitted from our parents and community guide how the brain wires itself to process information and handle relationships. Neural pathways are over-developed around one's cultural ways of learning.

How To Raise Kids Who Love To Learn
by Caroline Bologna in Huffington Post
Curiosity is at the heart of this post by Bologna as she shares insight from researchers as to how we as educators, parents, and caregivers can foster and promote a love and passion for learning.
Fostering a love of learning and critical thinking skills in children has always been a goal for parents, but these days, it feels rather imperative.

“Curiosity helps a child expand their horizons and thrive in changing circumstances, promoting continuous intellectual growth,” she added. “Plus, a sense of curiosity keeps anyone, child or adult, intellectually vital and stimulated – it’s difficult to be bored when you’re curious. Curiosity also helps a person stay open-minded and less egocentric, so they’re more understanding of the perspectives of others who may not share their experiences.”

Fostering a child’s natural curiosity is about following their lead and enhancing the experience. Offer new takes on a subject they enjoy and push them to examine different perspectives.

Adult and child psychiatrist Lea Lis believes the best way to instill a love of learning in children is for parents to model intellectual curiosity themselves.

“If you say, ‘Did you get an A?’ they’ll think that what matters is getting an A. If you say, ‘What did you learn about and why does it matter?’ they will see that you value more the intrinsic aspect of the learning.” - Jal Mehta

Mehta emphasized the importance of focusing on the long-term goal of intellectual curiosity for life, rather than short-term goals like good grades, gold stars and other types of rewards that go away after graduation.

What If Schools Were Places Where the Value of Learning Was Obvious?
by Dave Stuart, Jr. (@davestuartjr)
This brief post imagines and articulates a vision for a school focused on and living a ‘learning-valued’ culture. These are worthy of reflection, practice, and implementation - and, we must think about the systems that would not only allow for these ‘truths’, but mandate them.
What would it be like if you went into a school building and shadowed a student for a day, and during that day you and the student experienced 100 or so signals that pointed to the following truths:

Learning is transformative. When you learn what the solar system is and how stars work, you don’t see the night sky the same. As you grow in knowledge of the world’s history, you don’t see the news the same.
Learning is emancipatory. Every era of human history is filled with stories of the choice-rich life that learning can bring. Learning frees and empowers people — always has, always will.
Learning is possible. Given the right foundations and proper strategy, the human mind is remarkably good at learning.
Learning is challenging. And challenges make us stronger. Challenges are good.
Learning is plentiful. It’s not a race to anywhere, not a game to win. It’s a journey we’re all on, a bounty we share.
Learning is beautiful. The longer you learn, the clearer it is.

...just imagine what it would be like if schools were places where these beliefs were actually self-evident — where classroom walls and hallway decorations and loudspeaker announcements and parent newsletters and teacher comments and school policies and initiative decisions and labor contracts were infused with these things like the air you’re breathing now is infused with oxygen.

So, let’s stop there for the day and let me ask you this:

What signals have you sent, implicit or explicit, in the last twenty-four hours?
How could you increase the volume of signals like those above and decrease the volume of signals to the contrary?

Sampling of Responses from Last Week’s ‘Question of the Week’: What helps you to improve and learn?

Working with people who are not like me. They always cause me to pause.
Being motivated to be my best and having an interest in the topics I am learning about help.
When I see student results in their interpretation of art concepts/lessons, I learn a lot about what "works" and what doesn't work. I develop new lessons that respond to "their" learning style.
Zooms
Always give my 100% even if it’s really hard.
Well if I’m listening to music I can get my work done. But ask help from a teacher
A mix between challenging and easy things to do.
Studying the topic, then testing myself on it
Practicing and sharing.
I improve by listening to the teacher and all of the directions and then ask questions when I need to.
What helps me to learn is staying organized.
Trying again and again until I understand
practice and a quiet space
Keep focusing
Music
Having a set schedule for myself made by me
One thing that helps me to improve and learn is when I can work together and ask questions with other people.
Read the questions slower
A quiet space to learn
To have teachers there to help me when I learn

Through this reflective practice of learning, listening, and writing, I continue to find myself coming back to our culture - and the ways we actively foster a culture of shared learning and care. Culture must be intentional and it needs to be actively fostered and lived. I shared this via e-mail with staff on Friday afternoon, but it is worth re-sharing - receiving the gift of a card from two of our students was simply wonderful. Below is a ‘rough photo’ of the front of the card - 'We made you this rainbow star because it takes many different colors to create something AWESOME just like everyone at Blake'. It spoke to me and brought tears to my eyes (and, I do recognize that as a relatively frequent occurrence as one who shares feelings and emotions openly!) and captured the essence of a culture of care, shared learning, and interconnectedness...

Each of the last two years I have shared the poem below from Harlem Renaissance leader, Langston Hughes, at the beginning of February as 2/1 marks the beginning of Black History Month and Hughes’s birthday. Dreams articulates the importance of vision, #willfulhope, culture, and aspiration - our dreams and hopes inform our beliefs and guide our practices. I am also sharing an excerpts from Amanda Gorman’s poem, The Hill We Climb, as she shares the importance of #willfulaction and collective forward progress within...

Reflecting, Improving, and Learning

1/26/2021

January 26, 2021

To help encourage conversations and dialogue about reflection and the process of improving and learning, our question of the week is: What helps you to improve and learn? Reflecting, Improving, and Learning (Week of 1/24/21) (This is an anonymous Google Form)

Blake's Guiding Lights
Our Students
Blake's Core Values: Respect, Responsibility, Resourcefulness, Reflection
Our Essential Question: How can we cultivate and curate the progression of student learning and growth?
Our Mission: Blake Middle School believes in a living mission statement, based on the concept that our community seeks and respects knowledge, integrity, character, wisdom, and the willingness to adapt to a continually evolving world.
The most important attitude that can be formed is that of desire to go on learning. - John Dewey
You cannot teach today the same way you did yesterday to prepare students for tomorrow. - John Dewey

I hope that everyone found some time this weekend for yourselves. I certainly found myself pretty tired Friday evening - not necessarily exhausted - almost a ‘good tired’, if that makes sense. So much change has been taking place as of late - both at Blake with the change in our structure as well as on the national level - that down time is of the essence. The colder weather this weekend certainly had the effect of wanting to curl up by a fire for a book, cup of tea, or a nap! Although putting that relaxation into action (is that an oxymoron?) is a challenge for me, it is definitely one that I am continuing to pursue.

It seems like the past year (or at least since mid-March of 2020) has been the year of reflection. We have been in a continuous ‘state of change’ and learning, and I find myself continuing to sit down and note the learning so that it is not lost. As I have shared before, it is my sincere hope that this learning is archived and internalized as we look at our systems to support, nurture, and challenge all of our learners. Last May I shared similar sentiments (Intentional Learning) regarding the necessary changes that this period of learning should inspire in schools...
Taking these thoughts and reflections into a productive mode (beyond just the nostalgic mode that I thoroughly enjoy), I am encouraged by the optimism I feel for the learning, opportunities, and growth that lie ahead for our students, school, and community. We (students, staff, and families) have learned a great deal and it will be important that we, in the educational realm, do not ‘sleep through this wake-up call’ (to quote a dear friend) and make concerted steps to make necessary changes for our students - some that have been ‘a long time coming’ (if you have not seen or heard about the changes in CA, this is worth the read - University of California Will End Use of SAT and ACT in Admissions).

We are seeing more changes like this taking place, as evidenced by the recent decision by the College Board (College Board will no longer offer SAT's optional essay and subject tests) - this speaks to much of what we have talked about learning, equity, and the ways in which we assess learning. Although some of these changes have been, in my opinion, a long time coming, I am glad to see them taking place on a larger scale. It gives me hope. Taking and making time to reflect upon the needs of our students and aligning our practices with our mission and core values will help us to ‘capture the learning of the past year’ to help imagine, re-imagine, and realize the systems in the service of our students.

In an effort to continue the practice of intentional and collective reflection with both staff and families (and, in turn, with the hopes of impacting all of our learners), this week I am sharing three posts as examples of reflection leading to action - action that is rooted in an inherent need to improve - along with a sampling of responses from our question of the week (seeing references to our Start With Hello assembly this past week)...

Our Unpleasant Truths: Where Have They Delivered Us? — Part I | Will Richardson
by Will Richardson (@willrich45) in IntrepidEdNews
As I have shared many times, Richardson is a ‘must follow’ - challenging the norm with a clear focus on all learners. The structure of his reflection is an excellent ‘mirror moment’ - pushing us to address our ‘unpleasant truths’ with an eye towards action.
Regardless of your political persuasion, the color of your skin, your age, or where you happen to be living, life is appreciably different at the start of 2021 from just a year ago. One of my new favorite writers, Scott Galloway (and others), is arguing that while the calendar ticked off one year in 2020, changes that were just starting to make inroads into our lives accelerated the equivalent of five or maybe even 10 years last year.

Schools of all stripes will not escape their own reckoning at this moment. Under siege are time worn narratives and mental models of what an education is, how we acquire it, and what value it holds longer term. Like so many other institutions, we find ourselves in the angsty in-between as our old stories fade and we begin, perhaps because of the events of last year, to write new stories for a much more uncertain future.

And at the heart is the difficult and daunting question: To what extent have the practices and systems we’ve been living in schools contributed to the fraught moment we all now find ourselves in? A truthful interrogation of that question leads to some uncomfortable answers. It’s hard to explain away the inequity, the inertia, and the growing irrelevance of the school experience today. These and other “unpleasant truths” as I’ve been calling them have been festering just below the surface for decades. But 2020 uncovered them all. And our moment of reckoning has arrived.

Despite all of the ambiguity of this moment, what is absolutely clear is that despite a strong urge to do so, there is no going “back to normal” for any of us, for in so many ways, “normal” wasn’t that great to begin with. Instead, we are entering an age of “no-normal” in which the world will be continually buffeted by challenges and change. We will need a new approach.

That doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t hold out hope, or that there won’t be new, powerful opportunities to pursue. Restorative justice activist and educator Mariame Kaba famously said, “Hope is a discipline,” calling for a commitment to the future that must manifest as action. Amidst such hope, this is no time to give it up. But we who care deeply about children and learning are going to have to get our own school house in order if we’re to fully take advantage of the opportunities ahead.

5 Practices to Reimagine Education in 2021 and Beyond
by Katie Martin (@katiemrtinedu)
This post by Martin offers the perspective of the Beginner’s Mindset, rather than the perspective of an ‘expert’ - As Shunryu Suzuki says in Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind: “In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, in the expert’s mind there are few.” Martin shares 5 questions to help us reimagine education as we take into account our learning over the last year and look forward to benefit all learners.
Learning is hard. It takes time, it’s uncomfortable, it’s not always clar what the best path forward is. And when we’re in the middle, it can feel like we are failing. And sometimes we do, but that is part of the process. As you experience that breakthrough or the success that you have been working so hard for, the struggle and challenges that you faced become part of the journey and in retrospect, are necessary.

Specifically in education, this collective experience has challenged educators, administrators, policy makers, families, and communities to reimagine how we educate young people. For so long school has been a place where we would take our kids as parents and show up to work as educators. The schedule kept us all in place and moved us from class to class so we could make sure to cover and essentially learn all that was required of us in our given class, or semester, or year. It was a system that was predictable and that allowed for us to feel safe going through the motions. The tests tell us that the majority of students are learning and therefore they were on track as they moved from grade level to grade level. We rarely question this process, because the structures have existed for so long have allowed us to keep the system in place that look very similar and function as they have for over 100 years.

What if we reimagined homework and all the stuff that we require students to do to create assignments, work and accountability that aligns with our goals?
What if we expanded options for students and provided access to a variety of courses that would meet requirements and based on their interests, challenges, questions?
What if school was more like camp? What if we learned solving problems, tackling challenges, and having a lot of fun doing it?
What if we create opportunities for smaller learning communities with mentors or advisors that create a sense of belonging, connectedness, and accountability for students?
What if we created personalized pathways for students to meet them where they are and ensure they get what they need?

Margaret Wheatley reminds us that, “Without reflection, we go blindly on our way, creating more unintended consequences, and failing to achieve anything useful.” My hope for 2021 and beyond is that we can collectively create the space in schools to pause, and reflect on what matters most and work together to make it happen. Let’s not aspire to go back to normal, let’s use the beginners mindset to stay curious, free ourselves from the expectations of what school should be, and explore the possibilities of what it could be.

A 12-Year-Old’s Letter to Her Post-Pandemic Self
by Julia Cho in The New York Times
Cho’s brief post is a model of reflection - sharing her daughter’s letter to her future self. It captures the essence of self-reflection with the hope of holding on to and internalizing ‘lessons learned’.
My 12-year-old daughter, Audrey, told me recently on one of our many walks around the neighborhood that she would never forget this pandemic, and that she never wanted to take for granted having friends over, visiting extended family or hugging her grandparents again. She wondered, though, whether people would really live with new appreciation. Over time, would we all forget?
I learned that it takes intention, hard work and a lot of hope to make it through grief with a new sense of awareness. Living through that experience didn’t automatically give me a lasting appreciation for life that I wouldn’t otherwise have had. Wisdom, I found, is not a guaranteed byproduct of losing a loved one, or a job or a sense of normalcy as we have during this pandemic. For me, that kind of growth took lots of reflection and introspection — which is why I suggested my daughter write down her feelings.
I am struggling and would do anything to get out of 2020 and this pandemic, to see my friends and family normally. You are able to do that. You have what I want so badly. So please, I urge you to enjoy your life, your friends, your family, your experiences. Remember — everything is replaceable and unimportant, but people are the only true thing that matter in this modern-day world. Love your life, and be filled with joy this year.

Sampling of Responses from Last Week’s ‘Question of the Week’: What is one action you can/will make to ‘serve’ and help others?

I can / hope to start buying an extra item or two at the grocery store each week and dropping it in the food bank box on the way out of the store.
Linking service of others (for students) as a key to success in life
I can simply make an effort to be kinder
Donate to charity
Include them
One action is by donating to organizations like the food pantry.
Help them after school with homework
Help them study
If somebody is being bullied or bothered you can stand up for them.
Smile at strangers even through a mask
To be honest i don't know but in the future i might become part of the army! but that was a one day thought.
I can pick up trash on the side of the road
Some people don’t have what I have, so me and some friends donated lots of food to the midfield food cupboard.
Help out when possible
Help them
I will compliment people
Give coats to charity
During these tough times I will wear a mask and appropriately follow social distance guidelines
I will start with hello and greet others
Kindness
Just to say hi and ask them how they are
I don't really know what i would do but I really would like if maybe I could do a fundraiser for people in need in the future!
Say hello and be friendly

As one of our core values, the practice of intentional reflection leads to improvement and learning. I do believe they go ‘hand in hand’ and are dependent on one another. When we think about improvement and the impact of practices for our students, we need to continually get back to ‘the whys’ of our work. The ‘whys’ of what we do serve as compass points and help to outline decisions and directional paths. The ‘whys’ should always be at the heart of what we do. Each year we take some time to follow Rachael George’s words as a staff - and I have shared our collective responses from our check-in at the end of the most recent PD day below. As I read and reread them, our paths toward student-centered learning with meaningful and authentic systems of feedback are affirmed - and, I believe they echo Will Richardson and Katie Martin’s aspiration to ‘not go back to normal’ as we move forward...

Responses from Blake Staff - What is your why?
** I heard from several staff that they felt as though they could have written each one of these ‘whys’ - that almost every one of them applies. I found the same to be true - and I encourage everyone to keep coming back to our individual and collective ‘whys’. They establish the foundation of hope, action, and learning...

To make a positive impact on the children
To be a person that can go to in their life, to be on their side
the lightbulb moments and watching them grow into contributing adults
Because I care.
Middle school is a fun and creative age where its OK to make mistakes and find out who you are as a learner.
To take care of kids and teach them how to love learning
because they need someone on their side
Spending time with children
the students
I want to make them feel a sense of belonging
Their imperfections make them absolutely perfect learners!
Kids this age need help. I like kids this age. I like helping them.
they make me happy
I love this age and I know that what we do matters a lot
To connect with kids and hopefully make their days a bit better while maybe learning something along the way
I love giving kids a space to think and grow.
To help students grow and come to be who they are want to be
They make me laugh and are sponges for information. I love their questions.
To help students succeed
Because I want to make a difference in the lives of these kids. Now more than ever, they need positive role models
Making a positive impact
To make a difference in students’ lives
Making connections
To help these kids feel safe.
To help a child feel positive about themselves
To help students at this in between phase of life.
To be a supportive adult for kids
I enjoy interacting with kids this age
To empower kids and help them know they can do ANYTHING, anything at all, that they decide they want to do.
The hope that I can help even a few kids feel like they have someone who really believes in them
To show them possibilities, build a community, brighten out future
To help them work through some of their biggest ‘growing years’ of adolescence
I want to be someone that helps them realize who they are or who they might become
The kids are why I became a teacher….to help them
Building confidence in young people
To help kids.
Because they have so much to offer us!
To help students connect to their strengths and know that all have the ability to learn and to be successful!
Help them get through these adolescent years!
connections and to help
To watch them grow/help them become adults that bring something positive to our society
To connect with students and help where I can
To bring out the best in all kids and to be sure they all know they CAN learn.
a noble profession, that includes creativity, and life
To help kids
to help the kids
Paying it forward for what my teachers meant to me
To be a positive impact. Do something that will matter for a long time.
to be the person who makes kids feel safe and welcomed during a difficult time in their lives.
Middle School years were the hardest for me. I felt very isolated and disconnected. I want to help students like this.
Teaching kids today is touching the lives of tomorrow
To share my passion for music with kids
I think it evolves over time but helping students grow is a major reason
This is a difficult developmental time for kids and I want to help make a positive change for them. To help them.
To keep kids safe so they can have fun & learn
They still have the creative purity of children but the cognitive abilities of adults. LOVE middle school kids
To be a kind voice, try to inspire a love of learning and hopefully provide light in their day
I tell them that my middle school experience was awful, so I try to make their time in middle school just a little bit better.
To provide a better experience than I had when I was in MS.
To help build the next generation of caring, thinking people.
Love seeing them learn; want to be their to support them as they grow and learn about themselves and the world
They need to know that anything is possible no matter who you are
I remember what it was like, and I also recognize that I might make a difference in the day just by being here and understanding them.
I enjoy being around kids and the energy that they have. Especially in these times, it reminds me of a simpler time and an innocence that we are all struggling to hold on to.
To make a difference
making a positive impact on our future by showing how much we care about the next generation. all about the kids
I'm still re-living and re-doing my own middle school years. I guess I'm stuck at this age in some ways.
I love being around them, and I love being a support, and helping them find things they love or love about themselves,
Love seeing middle school kids “figure it out” and their willingness to try
to help engage with and develop curiosity
To be there for kids and contribute as best I can to the next generation of good humans and life long learners
To help students participate in music making that allows them to grow, learn, share, and find joy in life - and their own awesomeness
Middle school was a tough time for me, as it can be for so many at that age of 11 - 15. I wanted to be one of those teachers who could help make life/school a cool, fun place to be. To help students see they are smart and always have something to contribute to the group.
To encourage them to believe in themselves and be the best they can be. They each have so much to give as they grow and develop through the years from young children through adolescence on their way to becoming adults.

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