To encourage dialogue and reflection about learning and growth as we start a new school year, our question for the week is: What are you hoping to learn this year? A Clean Slate (Week of 9/3/23) (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 was great to be back together as a community this past week - as I shared with families on Friday afternoon, seeing and being with all of the students was a clear reminder of my 'why'!
** The words/reflection/thoughts/sharings below hope to serve as a framework for our learning community for the school year. As has been the practice in past years, my hope and intention is to open up and provide a space for dialogue, engagement, and collaboration - it will be important to continue our collegial, communal, and professional culture as we aim to provide a rich and meaningful learning experience for our students...
...it’s not that we don’t know better — hundreds to thousands more of these studies exist dating back more than one hundred years ago — It’s just the will to change. We need to recognize that youth and educators are in crises — and that schools need to change. It’s no longer warning bells — we are in a state of emergency.
It’s going to take mitigated risk-taking of thousands of educators and young people who have the willingness to take actionable hope. It’s only then that we’ll truly start to restore humanity to education.
- Chris McNutt
John Hattie’s research and findings emphasize the importance of professional learning and intentional learning of teachers -- ‘...the greatest effects on student learning occur when the teachers become learners of their own teaching and...when students become their own teachers.’ This is our true goal - to be a community of active learners. My intent for our learning community is to take both the proverbial 40,000 foot view and ‘rubber hits the road views’ during these days to ask questions, plant seeds, frame the year, and foster dialogue in an effort to grow and learn. It is through the questions and ideas that we discuss and explore that our beliefs will be formed - these beliefs will then guide our actions.
Our theme of belonging will be at the center of all of our efforts this year as we strive towards a place where everyone feels seen…
I see you is a powerful acknowledgement of an existence that is often painful and isolation…it's also code for a much deeper message I see you…I see who you are and what you bring and what you want…I understand what you're up against and how hard you're working to overcome it…I'm here for you I got you I believe in you…I'll help you because you belong here with me and anywhere you aspire to be…we are living in a time of divisiveness in the extreme - in a toxic environment that stokes our fear and distrust of one another while diminishing and even dismissing our deep need to belong…don't let it - don't…we cannot afford to cultivate or endorse a go back to where you came from culture and we don't need 26 million more DNA tests to understand that we are connected at the root and our futures are inextricably linked to one another…I see you and I know that you are here to be seen - wanting to make the world a better place, needing to set an example for our children, and longing to belong, and to invite others to belong with you…Mother Teresa once said if we do not have peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other…isn’t it time we remember?
– Caroline Clarke
At the outset of each school year I share these sentiments/thoughts and they are ...
As we aim to establish a foundation for our work, a continued goal that I have (and one that I hope is shared by our entire community - students, staff, and families) for both myself and Blake is that we purposefully, intentionally, and actively strive to maintain a culture of learning, sharing, and transparency with one another and the community. It is critical that we take the time to highlight our work and progress, both the good and bad, in a reflective manner so that we are all held accountable to both our mission and our essential question...
Mission: Blake Middle School believes in a living mission statement, based on the concept that our community seeks and respects knowledge, integrity, character, wisdom, and the willingness to adapt to a continually evolving world.
Essential Question: How can we cultivate and curate the progression of student learning and growth?
Guiding Premises for 2023-2024
The essence of these bullet points below have served as guiding principles/beliefs/convictions that were articulated as a staff in June 2020, as we entered a time of real ‘unknown’ and ‘uncertainty’. They are not unique to a pandemic, remote learning, or in-person instruction, and they are important to state and live - they are our ‘guard rails’ that we can (and need to) lean on for ourselves and one another…
- Safety, Health, and Shared Responsibility will be guiding principles throughout this coming year (they have always been guiding principles, but they will be emphasized and articulated more than ever).
- Priorities for the year: Care/Flexibility/Grace, Theme of Discovery Race/Social Justice, Our Mission - Adaptability (keeping our BCAP in mind), Priority Standards, Learning Skills
- Your well-being is most important - please take care of yourself, your family, and one another. Let us (the 'royal us') know if we can be of any help/support.
- Please take/make time for yourself and your family - at night, mornings, weekends - this will be helpful for our students/families as well throughout this coming year.
- Relationships, relationships, relationships - that is the most important thing we do and will continue to be the most important thing we do. Everything else is secondary (important, but secondary).
- What hopes do you have for this year?
- What fears do you have for this year?
- How can we help foster a sense of ‘belonging’ for students, families, and staff?
- What gifts (areas of strength/interest) do you bring to the Blake community?
Quotes…
Each and every school day will bring tens of thousands of reasons to celebrate in schools across the country. - Bill Ivey
Posts/Shares of Interest and Relevance for Our Work
The Difference of Belonging and Fitting In
(0:40) - Brene Brown
The Essential Power of Belonging | Caroline Clarke | TEDxBeaconStreetSalon
(11:27)
Author and journalist Caroline Clarke explores our fundamental need for belonging and how critical it is not only to every individual's fulfillment and success but to our collective wellbeing and future.
We’re Trying To Do “The Wrong Thing Right” in Schools
by Will Richardson
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.”
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?
The Parent of a Teen-Ager Is an Emotional-Garbage Collector
by Jessica Winter in The New Yorker
It’s enormously useful to work with the understanding that all teen-agers have two sides. They have the side that can be mean and impulsive and immature and unpleasant and self-centered. And they have the side that is decent and kind and philosophical and broadminded. The side that you speak to will tend to be the side that’s going to show up for the conversation. One of the hardest moments in raising teen-agers is when they’re showing you the first side and you have to speak to the second. But I can tell you that it tends to work. And seeing it work makes it easier to repeat.
...I do remember feeling as a teen-ager that my friends were so interesting and that we all had so much going on. Part of why I enjoy my work with teen-agers, and why I can be effective with them, is that teen-agers can quickly sense who credits them as being interesting and complex, and who stereotypes them as being merely provocative or impulsive.
The Homework Apocalypse
by Ethan Mollick
Students will cheat with AI. But they also will begin to integrate AI into everything they do, raising new questions for educators. Students will want to understand why they are doing assignments that seem obsolete thanks to AI. They will want to use AI as a learning companion, a co-author, or a teammate. They will want to accomplish more than they did before, and also want answers about what AI means for their future learning paths. Schools will need to decide how to respond to this flood of questions.
Instructors are going to need to decide how to adjust their expectation for essays, not just to preserve the value of essay assignments, but also to embrace a new technology that helps students write better, get more detailed feedback, and overcome barriers.
AI provides the chance to generate new approaches to pedagogy that push students in ambitious ways.
There is light at the end of the AI tunnel for educators, but it will require experiments and adjustment. In the meantime, we need to be realistic about how many things are about to change in the near future, and start to plan now for what we will do in response to the Homework Apocalypse. Fall is coming.
Battling Toxic Achievement Culture with Jennifer Wallace
from The Puberty Podcast
(45 minutes)
Young people are struggling under the weight of today’s toxic achievement culture. Journalist Jennifer Wallace’s new book, Never Enough, provides rigorous research to help make sense of how we got here, shedding light on the critical underpinnings of how to combat this issue in our own families.
In Never Enough, award-winning reporter Jennifer Breheny Wallace investigates the deep roots of toxic achievement culture, and finds out what we must do to fight back. Drawing on interviews with families, educators, and an original survey of nearly 6,000 parents, she exposes how the pressure to perform is not a matter of parental choice but baked in to our larger society and spurred by increasing income inequality and dwindling opportunities. As a result, children are increasingly absorbing the message that they have no value outside of their accomplishments, a message that is reinforced by the media and greater culture at large.
Through deep research and interviews with today’s leading child psychologists, Wallace shows what kids need from the adults in the room is not more pressure, but to feel like they matter, and have intrinsic self-worth not contingent upon external achievements. Parents and educators who adopt the language and values of mattering help children see themselves as a valuable contributor to a larger community. And in an ironic twist, kids who receive consistent feedback that they matter no matter what are more likely to have the resilience, self-confidence, and psychological security to thrive.
Kids' Declining Mental Health Is the 'Crisis of Our Time,' Surgeon General Says
by Caitlyn Peetz in Education Week
Murthy called the increase in youth mental health needs “the defining public health crisis of our time,” and underscored that kids’ mental health has taken a hit as they turn to social media more often and at younger ages. The increased use has led to more feelings of isolation, stress, and inadequacy as they constantly compare themselves to others, he said.
…the most important thing parents can do is to simply remind their children that they’re ready to listen.
“The most important thing that you can do for your child during turbulence is to make sure that they know you love them and that they can talk to you,” he said. “For them just to know it’s OK for them to talk to you, it’s not something to be ashamed of, and there are people they can go to for help … can go a long way to helping a child feel that they’re not alone.”
The #1 Factor That Determines a Toxic or Thriving School Culture (Opinion)
by Alex Kajitani in Education Week
Here’s what I’ve concluded: the number one factor that determines whether a school culture is toxic or thrives is how staff members deal with their own conflicts as they arise.
It’s Up To US.
When it comes to the success of an individual classroom, nothing is more important than the relationship between the teacher and the students. When it comes to the success of an entire school, nothing is more important than the relationship of the adults in the building.
Conflicts happen when human beings work together. How we deal with those conflicts is where we have the power to truly shape our school’s culture.
‘Shining Eyes’
We started our school year together last year by watching Benjamin Zander’s TED talk (The transformative power of classical music) in which he shares his goal to 'awaken the possibility in other people' and to establish an environment for 'eyes to shine'. This is one of our steadfast goals for all of our students here at Blake as well. As Zander says at the end of this talk...
I have a definition of success. For me, it's very simple. It's not about wealth and fame and power. It's about how many shining eyes I have around me.
This is a mantra and definition I believe we all can and should embrace for our learners. And, as he says, taking the time for self-reflection when the eyes in front of us are not shining…
So if the eyes are shining, you know you're doing it. If the eyes are not shining, you get to ask a question. And this is the question: who am I being that my players' eyes are not shining? We can do that with our children, too. Who am I being, that my children's eyes are not shining?
I look forward to the successes, challenges, and opportunities for growth that await us. It is my steadfast hope that we can keep our Guiding Lights (students, core values, mission and essential question) at the forefront of our thoughts, mindsets, and actions with strategic foresight, hope, grace, and a willingness to adapt so that our precious children (and all of us) feel beloved and supported (Knowing our Why, Starting with Why, Sharing our Why, and Acting with Why) on this important and imperfect journey.