Principal's Blog

Starting With Conversations

10/23/2018

October 23, 2018

To help encourage conversations and dialogue about the ways we actively develop ourselves as learners, our topic/question for the dinner table is: How do conversations help us learn? Starting With Conversations (Week of 10/21/18) (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.

Having spent the end of the week at #MassCue18, it was great to go for a run on Friday afternoon before the 7th/8th grade dance. Special thanks are expressed for the staff members who chaperoned and helped provide a safe and fun night for the students: Lisa Matthews, Jillian Shaw, Kath McCullough, Kelly Ruminski, Kelly Campbell, Kristin Corcoran, and Matt Marenghi. We had a nice weekend with the kids, taking in some of their games, getting our pumpkins (feels late for us this year!), and starting to put the garden to bed.

Attending #MassCue18 is always a fruitful experience, not necessarily for the ‘tangible learning’ that will inevitably take place but for the connections that are fostered, developed, renewed, or begun. I look forward to sharing some of the learning that I experienced and the ideas that percolated over the two days, but I think my most significant ‘take-away’ (really more of a reminder for me) is the importance of connections, conversations, and relationships. One of the more meaningful ‘experiences’ over the two days was some dedicated time with Beth Holland (@brholland) - she had reached out to me ahead of time so that we could connect and catch up. I first met Beth through our work with EdTech Teacher back in 2012 and our friendship has grown since then. I highly respect Beth and appreciate her thoughtful approach to education, pedagogy, and learning - after each conversation I have with her (in person, on the phone, or virtually through social media or other means) I find myself in a more grounded place with my own beliefs and practices challenged and affirmed.

In an effort to take a step back and ground this thinking in conversations with an eye towards growth, below are a few items that connect - a few ideas from #MassCue18 (always happy to talk them through), a sampling of responses to last week’s question (seeing conversations as an additional way that we can seek, foster, and develop our own learning), and two posts - one highlighting attributes for teachers to grow and one regarding the importance and power of conversations...

Some #MassCue18 Notes, Ideas, Mindsets, and Thoughts

How can we make more connections with one another?
‘We the People’ - student voice
Ideas with Beth (Isomorphism, morphism, concept mapping, Richard Elmore - the ideas!!!)

Kids today have the same needs we had, but they have more opportunities to change the world
Culture is everything
Culture is built 30 seconds at a time - 30 seconds (Joe Sanfelippo)
More opportunities to change the world
Sometimes our own lens gets in the way
Pedagogy is the driver - technology is the accelerator
‘Digital Use Divide’ vs ‘Digital Divide’ - an important distinction
‘How will you fail forward?’
‘Today’s technology is the worst technology that our kids will use moving forward’
‘What is Your Why?’ - Would others recognize your why?

Topic/Question (Week of 10/14/18): How do you seek, foster, and develop your own learning?

Visually
Naturally...thinking every day, listening to my inner teacher's intuition
I just do it.
I do math and school to develop and get better at subjects and I seek learning in sports and friendships.
Digging deeper, reading, talking to others, listening to others, asking questions
Listen and watch students and how they go about learning. Spend time experimenting with materials to find new solutions in using. Read George Couros' blog.
Courses, articles, and other teachers

8 Things Every Teacher Needs to Grow
by Terry Heick (@terryheick) in TeachThought
The image below is a ‘snapshot’ of these attributes, but I encourage everyone to read this brief article as the ideas within apply to all educators on all levels.

The Brain-Changing Power of Conversation
by Bari Walsh in Usable Knowledge (HGSE)
Although this post is focused on the conversations and ‘interplays’ between parent/caregivers and children, the implications are important. We need to make sure we are present with students and one another, taking time to have conversations and learn.
A study in Psychological Science shows how conversation — the interplay between a parent or caregiver and a child — ignites the language centers in a child’s brain. It’s the first study to show a relationship between the words children hear at home and the growth of their neural processing capacities — showing, in effect, that how parents talk to their children changes children’s brains.

The “conversational turns” are key here, the researchers say. Conversational interplay — a verbal version of the serve-and-return caregiving that helps kids thrive — “involves not only a linguistic exchange, but also a social interaction that we know is crucial to cognitive development as well,” Romeo says. This work suggests how important it is that caregivers “not just talk to your child, but talk with them,” says Romeo. “Even from infancy, we can consider children to be conversational partners. Obviously, a ‘conversation’ looks very different with much younger children: with infants, it might be taking turns exchanging giggles or coos; with toddlers, it might be repeating and expanding their sentences; and with older children, it might be asking ‘who, what, where, and how’ questions. “Either way, it seems to be the interaction that best supports children's language skills and the underlying neural development.”

Each day we have many opportunities for learning, both formal and informal, and I hope that we can help our students and one another #slowitdown (certainly one of my ongoing goals) to have the necessary conversations to keep these opportunities present and moving forward.

I look forward to the work that lies ahead for all of us.
Enjoy the week and take care.

Nat

Developing Learners

10/16/2018

September 16, 2018

To help encourage conversations and dialogue about the ways we actively develop ourselves as learners, our topic/question for the dinner table is: How do you seek, foster, and develop your own learning? Developing Leaners (Week of 10/14/18) (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.

This past weekend felt like a blur as we went from one event to another, trying to mix in some much-needed yard work, exercise, and relaxation - I can’t necessarily say that we were successful, but we did our best! I’m looking forward to (hopefully) more typical fall weather this week to truly enjoy the pumpkins, apples, and colors of fall - one of my favorite times of the year.

Last week I shared some thoughts and reflections around the centering question, ‘Are our students and children going to be prepared?’ Thinking through this question a bit deeper, I think it’s important to look back to our essential question - checking to see if we can get there and if ‘we are on a path’ towards ‘preparation’: ‘How can we cultivate and curate the progression of student learning and growth?’ I do believe it is through the process of cultivation and curation of the learning that we will make progress - and, in the end, do what we aim to do, namely foster lifelong learners who ‘...seek and respect knowledge, integrity, character, wisdom, and the willingness to adapt to a continually evolving world.’ To do this we need to dive in the deep end of the pool, try some things out, reflect, and outline a plan of action.

So...are we on track? The practice of holding up a ‘proverbial mirror’ to ourselves and one another is one that has spoken to me through some reflective questions...Are we doing what we say we aim to do? Do our practices reflect our beliefs? Where are the gaps? Can we be honest with ourselves with one another (i.e. ‘If we had truth serum…’, as John D’Auria often says)? Are we actually holding up a mirror? Are we trying it out? On Monday night (10/15) and Wednesday morning (10/17) of this week we will be having an information session for the Blake community, highlighting our work with feedback, namely Standards Based Reporting and our systems of feedback. The preparation, dialogue, and discussions have served the purpose of this ‘reflective mirror’ - identifying progress, areas of strength, and areas of growth - where we have come and where we need to go. Our work is far from perfect and we have some serious work that lies ahead (and always will) - that said, our process is developing and we are growing. And, in so doing, we are indeed living our mission - with bumps, disagreements, progress, and setbacks along the way - and learning.

Looking to keep some of these ideas in mind as we work to develop lifelong learners for our students and one another, I am sharing a sampling of responses to last week’s question (fostering strengths in others is a key attribute of a learning community) and a post from a ‘must follow’ educator, Rick Wormeli (@rickwormeli2)...

Topic/Question (Week of 10/7/18): What can you do to help support and foster the strengths in others?

Create a safe place and give people the chance to shine or experiment
Get to know the person as best you can - focus on their strengths with them and find ways to encourage development of those strengths. Can also notice a strength that the person doesn't realize they possess then name and encourage it.
You can shine a light on them. Sometimes people have a difficult time perceiving their own strengths, and pointing them out can help them focus on developing them further.
By truly listening to others and respecting and accepting their opinions.
Be positive when giving feedback and provide opportunities for success.
Recognizing and reminding students of their strengths. Giving them opportunity to grow and show leadership in small and large ways.
Share experiences built off of others in network circle. Share optimism. acknowledge and inspire!

The Problem with, "Show Me the Research" Thinking
by Rick Wormeli (@rickwormeli2) in AMLE Magazine
Wormeli’s thoughtfulness and understanding of the culture and dynamics of education shine in this post, as he reminds us to put research in appropriate context. He is not negating the importance of research and studies; rather, his recognition of the uniqueness of the nature of schools, learning, and students provides a framework for professional development and growth. His reminders and directions are important and timely: Avoid Physics Envy; Develop a Critical Eye for Education Research; and Accept a Little Professional Humility. With this framework in mind he encourages us to stay current, seek our own PD, and ‘dive in’ (my words, not his) - the learning is in the process.
To my knowledge, there has never been a full scale, amply sized, inclusive of all elements, random-selection, double-blind, causal relationship, official study of standards-based grading or differentiated instruction. And why is that? Because it's physically impossible to conduct either one, as there are too many confounding variables and intersecting elements for which we could control. It's prohibitively expensive, requires so much inference and extrapolation as to be functionally inconclusive, and in some cases, is unethical to control group students. To demand such studies and full proof of positive effects of either one before discussing their potential use in the classroom is toxic contrarianism for its own sake, and not helpful.

Let's read and respond to the research that is there–seriously, there's a lot out there that gets read only by other researchers, not classroom practitioners. Once we've read and discussed what's out there, let's get more invested in the research ourselves, conducting teacher action-research, forming Critical Friends Networks and Professional Learning Communities, and sharing what we find with each other and inviting its critique.

We are imperfect, and our field is imperfect. We'll shake apart, though, if we can't accept the ambiguities and messy evolutions that form our enterprise, or if we lose interest in keeping up with an ever-changing profession. Too much is at stake to remain aloof or instructionally impotent. It's unsettling to not have a clear view of the path ahead, but that's an enticing challenge—to boldly go. The successful among us see the merits of informed discussion and the limits of argument from myth. Though we might lack the tools to get it right every time, we are attentive to others' research while contributing research of our own. We make the most conscientious decision we can, given our growing expertise and the context of any given moment. For most of us, that'll do.

I continue to find myself coming back to the learning I gained from our Challenge Success training and the insight from Denise Pope, Madeline Levine, and Marc Brackett. Wormeli’s post and the emphasis on shared adult learning connects directly with Brackett’s insight and his ‘# 1s’:

The # 1 predictor of engagement is relevance
The # 1 priority is adult development (‘adult development over child development’) - ‘we can’t ask people to do things we don’t do ourselves’
The # 1 challenge we face is getting adults to see it as their inherent responsibility to do their own professional development

Circling back to some thoughts I shared last week (Fostering Strengths) from Madeline Levine help to provide some context for our need to ‘try things out’ and look forward, even when things are uncertain and unclear...

We need flexibility, agility, take risks, try and try again
VUCA - Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous - that is the world
In times of uncertainty, we go back to status quo - that’s not good
No consensus on what students are going to need (scary, worrisome)
- Used to be coding - there might be automated coding
- In times of uncertainty, we tend to go back to status quo - that’s not a good thing
- Need to encourage ‘safe risks’
  - Could be framed as ‘an apocalypse’ or as ‘an opportunity’
  - ‘Man, are we living in interesting times’
‘We must educate and develop young people for the world they will be entering, rather than the one we have known.’

It’s important to keep sharing the ways we find inspiration and, to continue this spirit of sharing learning this week, I am highlighting some images/quotes that help me - maybe they will do the same for you?

Grounding ourselves in the philosophy with a vigilant eye towards our ideals is critical. Although the path is not linear I have found James Ryan’s reference to an ‘imperfect journey’ The Imperfect Pursuit of High Ideals) along with our mission to be compass points, reminding us to embrace a collective ‘willingness to adapt’ - in so doing, I believe the ‘development of lifelong learners’ will come to fruition...

I look forward to the work that lies ahead for all of us.
Enjoy the week and take care.

Nat

Fostering Strengths

10/8/2018

Good morning -

To help encourage conversations and dialogue about the ways we can help one another in our community, our topic/question for the dinner table is: What can you do to help support and foster the strengths in others? Fostering Strengths (Week of 10/7/18) (This is an anonymous Google Form)

Blake's Guiding Lights
Our Students
Blake's Core Values: Respect, Responsibility, Resourcefulness, Reflection
Our Essential Question: How can we cultivate and curate the progression of student learning and growth?
Our Mission: Blake Middle School believes in a living mission statement, based on the concept that our community seeks and respects knowledge, integrity, character, wisdom, and the willingness to adapt to a continually evolving world.

With a beautiful afternoon to welcome the weekend last Friday, I hope that the three day break was enjoyed by all. With soccer games, dinner with some cousins, celebrating my mother’s 78th birthday, and seeing A Star is Born, I would say that we had a chance to recharge, relax, and regroup.

Are our students and children going to be prepared?
This may be the most often asked question that we share and hear. It drives our planning, decisions, actions, lessons, and is at the heart of our vision and mission. It comes up in some fashion, directly and indirectly, at most meetings and interactions and this was certainly true for me this past week...

Faculty meeting - discussing the newly adopted homework policy and the role digital portfolios will play for our students
Site Council - outlining initiatives for the year and potential resources to connect families and school
Department Chairs - connecting departmental goals to the greater goals of the school and district
SEL Task Force - discussing current/potential programming and schedule implications
Professional Afternoon - sharing learning from Challenge Success, professional goals, educator plans

As much as we would like to believe that we know what our students need in ‘a concrete way’, the reality is that we do not know for sure. Our own experiences and biases certainly influence our opinions and the dialogue must be present, alive, and evolving. Although the paths are not always clearly defined for ‘preparedness’, alignment and coherence are critical - both within the school and between school and home/community - and we allow our students and one another (I am certainly including myself here) to #slowitdown, allow room for open discussion, and provide space for learning and growth to occur. Below I am re-sharing some of the highlights from work with Madeline Levine and a couple of posts that helped to re-frame some of my thoughts as a parent and educator, along with a sampling of responses to last week’s question (to keep conversations alive)...

My Notes from Madeline Levine’s Sessions at Challenge Success

Aside from genetics, the greatest predictor of depression is perfectionism
Research says teens do not feel invulnerable - it’s that they greatly underestimate risks - it’s not that they like risks; profoundly affected by peer presence - Think about driving - alone or with peers - awful with peers
‘I can’t stand to see my child unhappy’ - then you’re in the wrong profession; we are going to see them unhappy
If you’re not feeling good, it’s going to be hard on kids
A good predictor of substance abuse is a permissive house
We need flexibility, agility, take risks, try and try again
VUCA - Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous - that is the world
I’ve never had a patient say ‘My parents listen too much’ - When you listen, do not be rehearsing your response
Biggest thing we do with our students is modeling - Address sexist language, etc.
Parenting is a long-range project - It’s not polaroids; We want them to have work they like, healthy relationships, be curious, take care of themselves
No consensus on what students are going to need (scary, worrisome) - Used to be coding - there might be automated coding
In times of uncertainty, we go back to status quo - that’s not good
Need to encourage ‘safe risks’
‘It’s what you pay attention to’ that will matter as a parent
Covert vs Overt reactions - Do our beliefs reflect our practices? Is there a connection?

Topic/Question (Week of 9/30/18): What do you do to relax and take a break in your ‘down time’?

I will get outside and do a lot of walking looking at everything going on around me or just focusing on walking.
I read fun books, watch movies, and, unfortunately, spend too much time on my computer perusing Facebook and browsing/shopping.
Play with my dog
Video Games
read, cook, spend time with family
Read and listen to music (not at the same time.) 📕🎶
I hangout with my dogs
Watch TV
Sleep

Why parents should try to be happy, even when their child isn’t
by KJ Dell’Antonia in The Washington Post
The title of Dell’Antonia’s post spoke to me and the information within helps to provide a framework and focus on our students and children. As one who can ‘take on’ the challenges/problems of others with the intent of helping in mind, this mindset helped me to take a step back and allow room for the necessary growth and processing to take place.
A child’s life is full of setbacks...From such struggles as these, our children go onward. They aren’t in the same class as all their friends. They leave their homework at home and can get only half-credit. They don’t make varsity, they break a leg in preseason and can’t play that year, they fail a test because they studied the wrong thing, they don’t get into the dream college. They’re disappointed, angry, miserable, crushed.

When life really has our kids down, it’s tempting to go right down with them. Being happy when your kid is not sounds wrong. Isn’t the saying “you’re only as happy as your unhappiest kid”? We believe we’re supposed to throw ourselves into sympathizing and empathizing — and then we take that too far, as modern parents do. Their experience becomes our experience. That’s not good for our kids, and it’s not good for us, either.

When we board our children’s emotional roller coasters, we make things more difficult for them. Suddenly, they have an even bigger burden than their own unhappiness: ours...Of course, it’s easy to give lip service to this idea — to model a reasonable reaction for our kids even while our hearts are breaking for them on the inside. Do that, and you’re halfway there — but we owe it to our children, and to ourselves, to take that next step and go ahead and feel happy — or sanguine, or secure, or comfortable, if you prefer a different word. Our children don’t want to be responsible for our happiness. They want to be responsible for their own happiness. Their heartbreak — whether it’s over missing the cutoff for the fifth-grade spelling bee by one word or divorcing their partner of five years — is their heartbreak, not ours.

Empathize. Sympathize. Cry for them and, maybe, with them. But know that it’s okay for you to give them a hug, or put down the phone, and head out for your tennis game and enjoy it. Probably not as much you usually would, but some. Because you’re okay — and it’s important for your kids to know it. In fact, it’s part of what helps them find their way to okay, too.

How to Be a Strength-Based Parent
by Lea Waters (@ProfLeaWaters) in Greater Good Magazine
As we examine meaningful and effective systems of feedback for our students, Waters highlights the benefits of a strengths-based approach. The information within has significant implications for our work with students and one another as we look to foster an environment of learning, reflection, and growth.

Why do we zoom in on the things about our children that concern us more than the things that delight us? Why do we find it so hard to resist the urge to criticize, nag, and worry? Blame it on our brains. Our “negativity bias,” an ancient survival mechanism, hardwires us to spot problems in our environment more quickly than we spot the things that are going well. I call it the Dirty Window Syndrome: A clean window doesn’t attract your attention; you look straight through it. But a dirty window is something you notice. What’s more, your focus on one specific part of the window—the dirt—means you’ll often fail to see that the rest of the window is still clean and showing you a beautiful view.

The good news is that by learning how to shift your attention to your child’s strengths (the clean part of the window), you can override the negativity bias, clean the dirt, and prevent the problems from getting blown out of proportion—all while building up resilience and optimism in your children.

Our negativity bias helps us to survive, but our strengths help us to thrive. Showing our children how to harness their strengths is a key tool for their happiness, and a recipe for effective and enjoyable parenting. It’s not a “cure-all’’ but is most definitely a win-win.

As Madeline Levine shared, we are living in a VUCA world (a world filled with volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity) and I believe that our collective focus on the mindsets referenced above will help us to make progress towards our mission and enhance the learning and truly foster a ‘prepared individual’.
We must educate and develop young people for the world they will be entering, rather than the one we have known. - Madeline Levine
While we all hope that our children will do well in school, we hope with even greater fervor that they will do well in life. Our job is to help them know and appreciate themselves deeply, to be resilient in the face of adversity, to approach the world with zest, to find work that is satisfying, friends and spouses who are loving and loyal, and to hold a deep belief that they have something meaningful to contribute to the world. - Madeline Levine

I look forward to the work that lies ahead for all of us.
Enjoy the week and take care.

Nat

Time to Play

10/2/2018

October 2, 2018

To help encourage conversations and dialogue about the importance of play time, down time, and family time, our topic/question for the dinner table is: What do you do to relax and take a break in your ‘down time’? Time to Play (Week of 9/30/18) (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.

It is hard to believe that October has arrived and we are over a month into the school year, yet we just finished our first five-day week of school! It was an activity-filled weekend for us - attending the Holliston-Medfield football game Friday night, kids’ sports games on Saturday and Sunday, and trying to do ‘fit in’ some gardening and yard work in the beautiful fall weather. I know I am not alone in sometimes feeling as though the weekends are more hectic than the weekdays. With this in mind, and trying to ‘practice what I preach’ about balance, down time, and ‘slowing it down, I am intentionally taking a step back and keeping it brief - trying to foster and allow more time for me to ‘play’

It is hard for me to not share at least one post this week, as reading, learning, and making connections between home and school is both relaxing and centering for me. With this in mind I am sharing a post I read a few weeks ago, along with responses to last week’s question (to keep conversations alive)...

Topic/Question (Week of 9/23/18): What is one step you can make this year to better support student learning?

I'm going to try writing more alongside my students this year and informally sharing out our writing more (including my own).
LOVE them!!
Always try to understand HOW they are learning and see if this is another way, in which you can learn, their way, too. If it is a silly way...they will see you being silly and then go in another direction, (that you might include at that moment), that is a good way to move forward in learning. Also, other students might be better at helping a particular student learn better than the teacher imparting their learning information.
Taking notes in class
Make others feel comfortable
One step I can take this year is to help others if they are struggling.
Listen when the teacher is talking.
Give them my heart, and be consistently clear that I truly hope that my students make the effort to participate in the process, and prepare for what comes next (effort, participation, preparation)

To Raise Independent Kids, Treat Middle School Like a Dress Rehearsal for Life
by Braden Bell in The Washington Post
Bell offers a nice perspective on parenting, as a teacher and a writer, acknowledging the challenges we encounter as we want things to ‘go well’ for our children. Embracing the ‘messiness of middle school’, Bell offers some mantras he strives to embrace as a parent - they are ones worth embracing as educators as well: I’m not going to intervene; I’ll try to give the gift of perspective; I’ll focus on effort, not outcomes; I’m going to help him develop empathy; I’ll laugh and enjoy the ride.
The goal of a successful production is not a polished dress rehearsal. That confuses the process and product. Sometimes the best productions have messy dress rehearsals because the only way to integrate the complexities of scenery, costumes, props, lights, sound and special effects is to make mistakes.

Middle school is a dress rehearsal. It’s almost always messy, and we worry that it foreshadows a disastrous future for our children. Meaning well, we jump in and initiate, fix and micromanage, telling ourselves we will stop when the child matures enough to take over. But middle school is supposed to be messy. It’s how kids mature. This means making lots of mistakes, then experiencing consequences just strong enough to be an incentive for correction, but not strong enough to damage a life.

I look forward to the work that lies ahead for all of us.
As always, let me know of any questions/concerns in the school.
Enjoy the week and take care.

Nat

Active Steps

9/24/2018

September 25, 2018

To help encourage conversations and dialogue about the roles we all can play and responsibilities we have in improving our learning environment, our topic/question for the dinner table is: What is one step you can take this year to better support student learning? Active Steps (Week of 9/23/18) (This is an anonymous Google Form)

Blake's Guiding Lights
Our Students
Blake's Core Values: Respect, Responsibility, Resourcefulness, Reflection
Our Essential Question: How can we cultivate and curate the progression of student learning and growth?
Our Mission: Blake Middle School believes in a living mission statement, based on the concept that our community seeks and respects knowledge, integrity, character, wisdom, and the willingness to adapt to a continually evolving world.

With the fall weather finally upon us, it was great to start the weekend by running with the high school cross-country team Friday afternoon - it's always great to see our former students in a new and different light! We had a busy weekend, mixing in soccer and flag football with Celebrate Holliston, our annual block party, and Tim's Trot (a community walk/run in memory of a Holliston student) on Sunday afternoon. After all of these events it was nice to settle in with family dinner before enjoying the Patriots game.

Throughout my life I have heard the phrase 'Learn something new every day', and it is one that I find myself as a parent trying to share with our own kids. It is one of those moments where I find myself wondering when I became one of my parents, as the spirit of the phrase captures messages impressed upon me growing up - in dinner conversations, car rides after school, or as I was heading off to an endeavor for the first time. Last Thursday night I had one of those experiences where unanticipated learning simply 'just happened'. While waiting for Owen's basketball practice to end, I was scrolling through Twitter and Instagram - catching up on events and checking things out when I came across the image above from Edutopia, and having just come back from our Challenge Success weekend the words felt as though they were popping out at me! I saw the descriptor after George Lucas's name - and having been an avid reader and follower of Edutopia for a long time, I had no idea that Lucas 'founded the George Lucas Educational Foundation (Edutopia.org) in 1991 to highlight proven strategies, tools and resources for creating lifelong learners.' That is something new I certainly learned that day. So, why am I sharing this new learning about George Lucas? Well, a couple of things...first, I thought it was a 'cool fact' and wanted to pass it along. Second, it both directly and indirectly connects to aspects of the mission we have outlined for the Blake community.

At the end of each week, either on my drive home Friday afternoon or on my early Saturday morning run, I try and take set aside some 'intentional time' to reflect on the week by asking myself two questions: What did I learn this week? How can I take what I learned and 'move forward' (What action can I take?)? Some weeks I feel as though the learning is abundant, while others it can a stretch to articulate the learning. In a similar vein, sometimes the action is clear and other times it feels cloudy or unclear. But, one thing I have learned is that this reflective process does indeed lead to growth and, without it, meaningful action rarely takes place - learning helps shape beliefs and beliefs guide action. The real dialogue lies in the interpretation and implications of our learning for the collective action. In other words, do we have a clear vision/understanding of our own beliefs? If that is in place, do we have a shared vision/understanding of our collective beliefs? Both of these questions are ones we must always be asking and we need to be willing to challenge one another. Last January I shared some thoughts about the struggle to determine 'the right things' to focus on (What are the right things?) in response to Will Richardson's post below as he reminds us that it is better to 'do the right things wrong than the wrong things right'...

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.
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?

Where does that leave us and how do we begin? It is here that I come back to the two questions that help me to reflect - What have I learned? and What action can I take? To get our beliefs and determine 'our right things', we need to be committed to continuous learning - reading, listening, attending seminars and workshops, seeking out knowledge, and processing with others. In so doing we will be combating static learning and fostering active learning. One of my key take-aways from the Challenge Success weekend was the research and evidence that professional development has the greatest impact on practice, yet one of the greatest challenges we face is in getting adults to do their own professional development. It must be a collaborative effort (administrators, teachers, families, and community) and we all play a part. And, it is an ongoing dialogue that must stay open and continue. As for the action, once the beliefs and learning is recognized, we need to simply (and this is easier said than done) try. We need to begin somewhere, put our beliefs into practice, and then try with action. Otherwise we will be static and learning is not static. It is an active process and one that aligns with our mission.

As we are trying to determine the right things and potential steps forward, I am sharing some responses to last week's question (to keep conversations alive) along with some notes from Challenge Success and a post from Psychology Today about the 'ultimate psychological paradox'...

Topic/Question (Week of 9/16/18): If you could change one thing about our 'system of education', what would it be? Why?

I would have MCAS occur only once every 4 years.
I would love if we had more chances to interact with the other grades to get to know the people that are in our school, but that we do not know well.
I would like to have recess every day. I would like to have recess every day because we need more exercise, and because study shows that you learn more when you are moving.
Standard based learning
Longer school days or year
Make the portfolio, hard copy, the true evidence of how student is progressing in learning and skill development.
Cultivating talents/passions/interests and not just focusing on educating everyone the same way. (I know this is SO difficult.)
Nothing

Challenge Success Notes (from sessions with Madeline Levine, Denise Pope, and Marc Brackett)

Velocity of change is mind boggling - ability to predict the future is challenging
Allow children to face the challenges that confront them - students need to have the experience of 'trial and error'
There is a need to create emotionally intelligent schools
#1 predictor of engagement is relevance
# 1 priority is adult development - can’t ask people to do things we don’t do ourselves
Building positive relationships is most important part of leadership
Assessment - Latin root of the word means 'to sit beside'
Emotions drive engagement - How many of our students have a toolbag to manage their emotions?'
Flexible emotion management drives creativity
Adult Development before Child Development
Set the vision, try the vision, revisit the vision
There is no straight trajectory for success
Process of reflection is more important than the product
It's never too early or too late to do this work
It's what you pay attention to that matters

What’s the Ultimate Psychological Paradox?
by Leon Seltzer (@drlee1) in Psychology Today
Seltzer's post explores our natural tendencies to resist change and the paradox that results with this as a reality. As one that espouses change but struggles with it personally, it is an important read and one that will help me to take some risks, try things out, and be open to change. The implications are strong for our students and the practices we employ in school.
...what I’d like to suggest here is that the farthest-reaching paradox about human nature and its powerful defense system is this: Most of us try to control life by protecting ourselves from it. Rather than “going for it”—living life as the indomitable adventure it is—we too often decide it’s better to be cautious, to hold ourselves back. Employing all sorts of personal prohibitions, we minimize risks by “disciplining” many of our natural impulses. And we demonstrate a strong tendency to resist change. Our self-protective stratagems, however unconscious, are all designed to shield us from failure and rejection—not to mention, anxiety and fear, sorrow and grief, humiliation and shame.

A complementary paradox here is that not taking risks might well be the greatest risk of all. In our self-inhibiting cautiousness, we hazard depriving ourselves of all the wonderfully novel, creative, and gratifying involvements that emerge only through giving ourselves the permission to drop our guard and be spontaneous. But in not trusting ourselves—or in life itself—such distrust can harden to the point of irreversible obstinacy or intransigence. And, in theory at least, who wouldn’t agree that life is best approached with an open-minded flexibility, vs. an unyielding rigidity.

More than anything else, resilience is exactly what we require to thrive in life. And this is hardly about abandoning all discretion or prudence. It’s simply about not automatically backing away from anything which, in the moment, raises our anxiety level because it reminds us of earlier situations that left us feeling defenseless, afraid, or ashamed.

It’s the choice between living a life that’s rich and meaningful—creative, nurturing, vibrant, and exciting— vs. settling for one that may be safe and secure but which is mostly static, dull, empty, or unrewarding.

In an effort to try and synthesize all of these thoughts, ideas, 'sharings', and posts, I think that we must make a concerted effort to grow, learn, and be willing to take a step forward. Steps may look different for all of us (it could be a conversation, a change in practice, an openness to a new idea, etc.), but it is clear that actively seeking growth is critical for both students and adults. I have shared the quotes below from Madeline Levine and Mark Brackett (from our Challenge Success work) with some already - they speak to me on a deep level as a parent and educator, and I hope you find them affirming and centering as well. Pairing them with Justin Reich's words about coherence can serve as compass points for our action steps with the as we collectively 'make the path by walking it' (Colby Swettberg) towards the hopeful and potential realization of doing the 'right things right'.

While we all hope that our children will do well in school, we hope with even greater fervor that they will do well in life. Our job is to help them know and appreciate themselves deeply, to be resilient in the face of adversity, to approach the world with zest, to find work that is satisfying, friends and spouses who are loving and loyal, and to hold a deep belief that they have something meaningful to contribute to the world. - Madeline Levine
If we look at the schools that have grown the most in the last five or ten years, schools that have made the really significant improvements for their students in learning, these are the places that have had teacher communities that have been willing to come together and pull their oars together toward the same coherent goals. - Justin Reich
The number one challenge we face is getting the adults to do work on their own professional development. - Marc Brackett

I look forward to the work that lies ahead for all of us.
As always, let me know of any questions/concerns in the school.
Enjoy the week and take care.

Nat

Starting the Conversation

9/17/2018

September 18, 2018

To help encourage conversations and dialogue about school, potential adjustments to our system/practices, and starting points, our topic/question for the dinner table is:  If you could change one thing about our 'system of education', what would it be? Why?  Starting the Conversation (Week of 9/16/18) (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.

Although it feels as though we have been 'in the rhythm of school' for a while (at least for me - I can not speak for everyone else!), it is hard to believe that we had our first Monday of the year this week. This past weekend has been an invigorating one, having traveled to Stanford University with our 'Medfield team' to begin our partnership with Challenge Success, a coordinated program designed to help schools and families develop and articulate alternative models of success that are aligned with current research on healthy child development.  It is good to be home and I am looking forward to sharing the experience with everyone.

As I am sitting down to draft this blog entry before heading to the airport for our trip back to Boston, there are lots of ideas and thoughts running through my head from the last two days. It has been wonderful to connect with other educators, examine our practices, reflect, and look ahead with promise. I so enjoy professional development as I firmly believe that the reflection that comes from this work is what will lead to our growth and progress. Reading through my notes and reflecting on the conversations that have taken place, I have been trying to articulate the thread lines and themes to synthesize my own understanding and direction. My morning runs often help with this process as they allow me the quiet 'space' to formulate the thoughts, and my early run today did just that. The ideas are still flowing and weaving, but I keep coming back to 'the little things' and 'starting the process'.

Through the work and the learning from the immersive experience of a conference, it is easy to get overwhelmed and lost in the proverbial forest of ideas but 'the little things' help to center me - sometimes it's reading, sometimes it's an article, sometimes it's a conversation, sometimes it's a way of things, sometimes it could be practice, and sometimes it may be a reminder. Whatever the 'prompt' may be, these help me to approach a new lens and entertain a different approach. The key mindset that I hope to bring forth is to start and continue our process of growth and reflection. We need to continue some aspects of our work while allowing an openness to start afresh, when appropriate. I have always enjoyed the work of Alfie Kohn (@alfiekohn), as he shares his belief of 'We've always done it that way' being one of the worst rationales for our practices. Along similar lines, he often references and negates the BGUTI mantra (the students Better Get Used To It) as a rationale of many in our field, when explaining or 'defending' practices in question. One mantra or mindset that we all can agree on is that we want to prepare our students and ourselves for the future. However, it is the careful exploration of what that preparation will look like that is critical. The video we watched together as a staff on Day One this year (The Future of Work: Will Our Children Be Prepared?) is one of those 'sparks of discussion' and the Challenge Success experience provided many more for me, as we think about as we reflect upon what preparation means and the questions, hopes, and fears that arise.

I look forward to sharing and reflecting the learning with our Blake and Medfield community in the coming days, weeks, and months, but for now I am feeling inspired that we are starting and continuing a process, taking a step or two forward, reflecting, and having conversations.  Below I have listed some responses to last week's question (to keep conversations alive), along with two posts that connect to the ideas of starting change and adjustments to practice to benefit our students...

Topic/Question (Week of 9/10/9/14):  What question(s) is/are on your mind right now?

Is my son learning enough about race, institutional racism, and role it plays in our society?
What is the best way to teach grammar?
What are week 3s like?

Welcoming Students With a Smile
by Youki Terada in Edutopia
The premise of Terada's post is both simple and self-explanatory, yet it is important and affirming to 'read in print' the impact that positive interactions with students can have. These small adjustments and practices are investments worth making and must continue.
Greeting students at the door sets a positive tone and can increase engagement and reduce disruptive behavior. Spending a few moments welcoming students promotes a sense of belonging, giving them social and emotional support that helps them feel invested in their learning...In the study, when teachers started class by welcoming students at the door, academic engagement increased by 20 percent and disruptive behavior decreased by 9 percent—potentially adding “an additional hour of engagement over the course of a five-hour instructional day,” according to the researchers.

When teachers focused their attention on students’ positive conduct and avoided rushing to correct minor disruptions, students had better behavior, and their mental health and ability to concentrate also improved.

Starting class by greeting your students at the door helps set a positive tone for the rest of the day, promoting their sense of belonging, boosting their academic engagement, and reducing disruptive behavior.

Attaching Complexity With Confidence
by Jonathan Rochelle, Katherine Prince, and Tom Vander Ark in Getting Smart
Greg Kulowiec (@gregkulowiec) shared this post with me this week and I have marked it as one to reference again and again in the future. It poses some excellent questions, encourages a movement of change in our schools, and offers suggestions while placing an emphasis on humility, curiosity, and confidence as our students navigate a complex reality.
Of one thing we can be sure: tomorrow will be more complex than today...We agree that a complex future warrants intellectual humility and curiosity, but we want every young person to know where to start and what to do when facing a new situation. What we most desire for young people is confidence in the face of complexity.
With this extreme level of change, it’s obvious to ask, “How should education change?” While the answer is less than obvious and could vary in different places and in different circumstances, the one thing that is clear is that our students deserve a new set of learning priorities (not just more added to a crowded set of learning objectives). This is the challenge before us.

Economic opportunity now lies more in the hands of the people than ever before, rather than just with large, established companies...Yet there are also significant social and ethical implications to navigate as we enter the Fourth Industrial Revolution...In face of the uncertainty on the horizon, we most want young people to be confident — to be assured by prior success that they know how to address complex situations, how to navigate new places and people, and how to deliver value. Basic literacy remains important in the innovation economy but three new priorities are design thinking, social-emotional skills, and entrepreneurship.

Every community is experiencing high levels of change and is struggling to interpret signals about what’s to come. It’s time for a community conversation. School communities, employers, civic leaders, and service organizations should begin (or accelerate) a conversation about what’s happening, what it means, and how to prepare.

As with much of our work, there are many layers and it is hard to talk about any of our initiatives without talking about all of them. That said, we need to start having conversations, and continue having other conversations, as it is clear that the complexity of our reality - for us and our students - is not going away. And I do believe that progress begins with dialogue and listening.

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

Asking Questions

9/10/2018

September 11, 2018

To help encourage conversations and dialogue about consistently keeping questions as part of our learning processes, our topic/question for the dinner table is:  What question(s) is/are on your mind right now? Asking Questions (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 cooler weather has certainly been a welcome presence for all of us, and I am sure that is the same for everyone! After a nice Friday afternoon with the high school cross country team at Hospital Hill, we had fun with the boys celebrating the birthday of one of Grayden's friends with friends - a really nice way to welcome the weekend. The rest of our weekend has been pretty low-key, with a few sports games for the kids, exercise, gardening, and down time.

Each September I try and set aside some time to outline both personal and professional goals for the year, and one that is continually on my list is that of 'balance' - balance between home and school, balance with initiatives, balance with work/rest, etc. The list could certainly go on and on, and I would venture to guess that this 'goal of balance' could be on the list for others as well. In many ways this goal leads to more questions (What is balance? What am I trying to balance? Is there a right amount of balance?) and I have continue coming back to the conclusion that asking these questions is an important part of the process of learning and growth. And, I think that the questions that are asked can be more important than the answers - this aligns with the work of Dan Rothstein and The Right Question Institute's Question Formulation Technique (We have used the QFT as a staff at various points as a staff and I hope that we can come back to it as a regular practice). This is not to say that the answers are not important; indeed, the answers are very important. However, if we do not take the necessary time to work towards articulating and identifying the right questions to ask, the answers may not be productive or fruitful.

With this idea of working towards 'balance' and incorporating the 'practice of questions', I am sharing a couple of posts that connect as well as a sampling of responses to last week's Topic/Question for the week (a practice I will look to continue building upon this year to keep conversations and dialogue alive)...

Topic/Question (Week of 9/4-9/10): What are you hoping to learn this year?

I hope to learn my way around Blake, how to code, new math curriculum, meet new people, and to have a good experience in general.
I’m just hoping to be more confident in math and I hope we learn all the rules of writing in English.
I hope I will be able to find my way around Blake, and make new friends
I hope to learn how to dissect this year in science
I am looking forward to learning Pi

It looks like fun but are they learning?
by Lynn Rupe (@LynnRupe)
Rupe explores the importance of 'tinkering', exploring questions, and 'bouncing ideas around'. These processes will ultimately help both teachers and students grow and foster a culture of learning.
Tinkering is ultimately about inquiry. For me one aspect of tinkering has been about taking an idea and letting it bounce around in my head for awhile - shaping and reshaping my thinking - it's about being able to mentally take apart an idea, belief, tradition or way of being and then maybe putting it back together as it was or totally reshaped by my thinking.

All teachers should be open to tinkering with ideas - putting their ideas of teaching and learning under the lens of who said this is good? The only way to shift education is to be open to possibilities, to be reflective practitioners and to engage with inquiry.

As teachers we should delight in stretching our own thinking about teaching and learning, keeping up to date with research, not stuck in out dated ways of being and constantly critiquing our practice through our inquiry. Not just believing in tinkering but also modeling that tinkering with ideas is fun, stretches us, grows creative problem solving and ensures we stay current in our thinking and practice.

Problem-solving techniques take on new twist
from The Harvard Gazette
Although this post is not directly connected to the practice of questioning, it explores a question that was posed and the interesting results of a study of 'problem-solving techniques' that addressed 'a question'. I found the implications of 'intermittency' to be of interest, as we think about our work with students and our mission.
Groups whose members interacted only intermittently preserved the best of both worlds, rather than succumbing to the worst. These groups had an average quality of solution that was nearly identical to those groups that interacted constantly, yet they preserved enough variation to find some of the best solutions, too.

Organizations known for their excellence in creativity and brainstorming ideas, such as IDEO, often use a process that has intermittency built in...Given the study’s findings, the researchers conclude that these design-based tools for intermittent rather than constant interaction may be even more important for organizational productivity and performance than previously thought.

Through our process of questioning, coupled with the 'spirit of inquiry' and practice of 'intermittency', the answers or paths may not always be clear, but we need to make sure we keep trying things out (tinkering) and asking more questions. I would love to hear some questions that are on your mind as well - I, for sure, will be sharing mine and look forward to your thoughts as a sounding board. I hope I can do the same for you.

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

Creating Learning Processes

9/3/2018

September 4, 2018

To help encourage conversations and dialogue about learning together as a community, our topic/question for the dinner table is:  What are you hoping to learn this year? Creating Learning Processes (This is an anonymous Google Form)

Blake's Guiding Lights
Our Students
Blake's Core Values:  Respect, Responsibility, Resourcefulness, Reflection
Our Essential Question:  How can we cultivate and curate the progression of student learning and growth?
Our Mission: Blake Middle School believes in a living mission statement, based on the concept that our community seeks and respects knowledge, integrity, character, wisdom, and the willingness to adapt to a continually evolving world.

I hope that this update finds everyone relaxed and rejuvenated and that the Labor Day Weekend was a nice respite for all after our busy first week of school!  After 20 years in education, I am not sure why I still am surprised how tired I am on Friday evenings - the long weekend was a welcome one in our house.  Our family had a nice few days together, finding some time for relaxation, nice meals, yoga, walks, reading, and a few naps.  The opening days this past week were a great success and I want to thank our entire staff for their help in making it happen - the professionalism, care, and commitment to our students and one another was certainly present and felt.

Each year I share these sentiments/thoughts and this year will be no different - I think it is important to establish a foundation at the start and to keep coming back to it, adjusting as necessary.  A continued goal that I have and hope you share, for both myself and the school, is to maintain a culture of sharing and transparency with one another and the community. It is important to take the time to highlight our work and progress, both the good and bad, in a reflective manner so that we are all held accountable to both our mission and our essential question...
Mission:  Blake Middle School believes in a living mission statement, based on the concept that our community seeks and respects knowledge, integrity, character, wisdom, and the willingness to adapt to a continually evolving world.
Essential Question:  How can we cultivate and curate the progression of student learning and growth?

My hope is that we continue to come back to our mission and essential questions so that they become, as I said at our opening meeting together, 'broken records' and the mantra of a 'willingness to adapt' becomes second nature for all of us. The weekly 'Natworthy/blog' will remain as one of the vehicles for communication and transparency, sharing what we are talking about as a community, highlighting some readings, and simply offering some of my own thoughts and questions that are floating about in my head.

Our opening days together as a staff provided a forum for reflection, visioning, and centering. As Peter Senge articulates so well in the quote referenced above, the 'genuine' and sincere interest in helping others to define and develop new capacities for action will help to 'create learning processes'. And, truly, that is our ultimate goal. My intent for our learning community is to take the 40,000 foot view during the opening days to ask questions, plant seeds, frame the year, and foster dialogue in an effort to create learning processes. It is through the questions and ideas that we outline and discuss that the action will take place.

In an effort to keep these ideas (and others) on the forefront of our thinking, I am re-sharing some of the links and quotations from the opening days, along with some posts of interest. We will be coming back to them and I hope you will help me do that as well. Much awaits us - hopes for our students and community, ups/downs, successes/challenges, theme of diversity - and I am hoping we can continue to be learners together and reflect as a community, pushing and supporting our individual and collective growth...

Questions to Frame the Year...

What hopes do you have for this year?
What fears do you have for this year?
What challenges do our students face?
What do you hope our students will experience this year?

Some Videos/Clips
James Ryan's 5 Essential Questions in Life
The Future of Work: Will Our Children Be Prepared?
The Imperfect Pursuit of High Ideals - James Ryan
Dear Teacher Anti-Bullying PSA
Jaime Casap Discussing How Learning is Changing
Dave Grohl and His Mother - Raising a Rockstar

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

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

Questioning what we do and why we do it is essential for innovation. - George Couros

Vulnerability is the birthplace of love, belonging, joy, courage, empathy, accountability, and authenticity. - Brene Brown

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

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

The electric light did not come from the continuous improvement of candles. - Oren Harari

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

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

Hope will never be silent. - Harvey Milk

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

Two Posts
‘Teens get a bad rap’: The Neuroscientist Championing Moody Adolescents
by Decca Aitkenhead in The Guardian
This post highlights the work of Sarah-Jayne Blakemore and the work she has done studying the adolescent brain. As both a parent and an educator, I found this post affirming and enlightening - it is critical that we better understand our 'audience'. Blake addresses common 'characteristics of adolescents' - sleep patterns, peer pressure, hypersensitivity to social exclusion, propensity for embarrassment - and puts them in context. It is an excellent read.
“Until about 15 or 20 years ago,” she says, “we just didn’t know that the brain develops at all within the teenage years.” Until then, it was assumed that teenage behaviour was almost entirely down to hormonal changes in puberty, but brain scans and psychological experiments have now found that adolescence is a critical period of neurological change, much of which is responsible for the unique characteristics of adolescent behaviour. Far from being a defective or inferior version of an adult brain, the adolescent mind is both unique and – to Blakemore – beautiful. “Teenagers,” she says tenderly, “are brilliant.”

What may look to us like jaw-dropping self-absorption is, she explains, in fact essential neurological development, because the biological function of adolescence is the creation of a sense of self. Teens achieve this through creating new allegiances, independent of their parents – which is why their friendships suddenly become so viscerally important. What is known on social media as Fomo – fear of missing out – may look like an irrational sense of priorities, if it means skipping revision to attend a bog-standard party. But when nothing matters more than the approval of their peers, “That brings with it a hypersensitivity to being excluded by friends”.

“I do often think about why it is that we find it hilarious to mock teenagers, and why there are whole comedy shows laughing at teenage behaviour. I wonder whether it’s because, as a society, we find it really hard that our little children stop wanting to be with us all the time, and wanting to hold our hand in public, and doing more or less what we say...“That’s not what teenagers do. And it’s really important that they don’t, because they have to become independent from us – so there has to be a lot of rebellion, and embarrassment in front of us, and it’s all part of what’s important for teenagers to do. But that’s really hard for parents to take. And I think that’s reflected in society this sneering we do about teenagers.”

Those Who Can Do, Can’t Teach
by Adam Grant (@AdamMGrant) in The New York Times
Grant's post is thought-provoking and was sent to me by colleagues and friends, as it challenges the oft-spoken phrase, 'Those who can't do, teach'. This op-ed highlights teaching as an art, commending the vulnerability and communication skills necessary to be a great teacher. He shares three factors to consider when choosing a teacher...
First, pay attention to how long it has been since a teacher studied the material.
Second, consider how difficult it was for the educator to master the material.
Third, focus as much on how well the teacher communicates the material as on how well the teacher knows the material.

Here’s another flaw in that “Those who can’t do, teach” canard: Teachers often turn into great doers. After all, the best way to learn something is not to do it but to teach it. You understand it better after you explain it — and you remember it better after retrieving and sharing it. As you gain experience studying and explaining a skill, you might actually improve your ability to execute that skill. A powerful example comes from a study of what happens when teachers become doers...Compared with closely matched industry competitors, the companies with ex-professors in their executive ranks generated significantly higher revenues per employee, especially if those former teachers were in vice president roles where they could leverage their academic expertise. Knowledge from researching and teaching didn’t prevent them from making good decisions; it actually seemed to help.

Before universities recruit high achievers, it would be a good idea to find out whether they can teach. Before you seek out an expert as your teacher or coach, remember that it’s not just about what they know; it’s about how recently and easily they learned it, and how clearly and enthusiastically they communicate it. Studies of world-class scientists, musicians, athletes and artists reveal that they didn’t have top teachers or coaches from a young age; they started with a teacher or coach who made it fun and enjoyable to learn.

As I shared last week with the staff, I do struggle with 'finding the balance' of initiatives, as it is my sincere belief that we can not talk about any of this work in isolation if we are going to really make progress and support the learning of our students. It is a 'balance' and I will continue to strive towards the appropriate 'collective balance' while recognizing that we each have our own 'personal balance' that varies from person to person. Two quotations that inspire and challenge me in this work are from George Couros and Ted Sizer...
More so than ever before, educational organizations need to focus more on depth than breadth. Quality should always override quantity. But that isn’t what happens in schools where teachers feel inundated by new initiatives and a myriad of organizational objectives. - George Couros
Things remain the same because it is impossible to change very much without changing everything. - Ted Sizer

As I share at the outset of every school year together (in fact, it would behoove me to say it at the outset of every day!), I look forward to the success, challenges, and opportunities for growth that await us. I hope we can continue to channel the words of Peter DeWitt and James Ryan so that students, staff, and parents all feel supported and beloved on our 'imperfect journey together'. I think - in fact, I know! - we can do that.

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

Update from Blake - Welcome Back!

8/28/2018

August 28, 2018

Dear Blake Families,

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

During our opening faculty meetings we took some time as a staff to outline the school year and our hopes for our students. The last couple of years we have taken time to reflect on the following questions: What are the attributes, characteristics, and core values we hope to foster in our students? What are the attributes, characteristics, and core values of a Blake Middle School educator? What helps you learn? How can we empower our students?' This year I asked the staff to share their responses to these two questions: 'What challenges do our students face? What do you hope our students will experience this year'? I have attached for your reference a visual representing the collective answers of all four, reflecting the thought and care that we hope to foster and bring each day for your students. We also took the time as a staff to outline our goals and vision and began our formal work with our 'theme of happiness' for the 2018-2019 school year.

I encourage all families to take some time to watch the two links below as a fun way to welcome the beginning of school at Blake...
Message to Blake Students 2018-2019
(A compilation of messages from Blake teachers to all of our students)
An Open Letter to Students Returning to School
(a message from John Green that I share each year)

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

We are all looking forward to an exciting year!
Take care.

Nat Vaughn

Opening Letter to Blake Families, August 2018

8/24/2018

August 24, 2018

As we start our 'last weekend of summer', I am sharing the link to the letter sent to all Blake families on August 15, 2018...
Opening Letter to Blake Families, August 2018
Have a wonderful weekend!
Take care.

Nat

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