To encourage dialogue and reflection about the process of change and adapting, our question for the week is: Do you think adapting and changing is easy or hard? Why? Adapting and Changing (Week of 9/10/23) (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
After the hot week we had, I hope that this past weekend was a relaxing and restful one for all! We had a pretty quiet one, with a few sports games for the boys, some gardening, and time outside. On Saturday I attended a memorial service for my childhood piano teacher - a wonderful testament to a long life, bringing back many memories for me and my family.
‘Speaking from the I’, it is challenging for us in schools as we are so grounded and rooted in traditions - and, we each bring our own experiences as students and teachers over the years. As teachers, if our own experiences proved successful (however that is defined - again, a discussion we continue to have) for us, it makes perfect sense for us to aim to replicate those experiences for students. The inherent challenge is that the context has evolved and ‘times have changed’ - therefore, I believe that our logic of repeating practices without adaptations is ‘off’. Over the past few days I have been reflecting, reading, and listening to various sources on this broad topic of ‘change’ - and, the words below have been referenced several times…
The two shares are ones that I have been thinking about as they have stayed with me…
CHANGE: How to Excel When Everything Is in Flux
From The Next Big Idea podcast
(1 hr, 2 min)
We go through at least thirty-six major changes in the course of our adulthoods. And yet adapting to those changes is really, really hard. Why is that? Health and science writer Brad Stulberg says it's because our model for change is broken. Luckily, he's here to fix it.
• Brad's new book is "Master of Change: How to Excel When Everything Is Changing – Including You"
No, AI Won’t Destroy Education. But We Should Be Skeptical
By Lauraine Langreo in Education Week
…since the arrival of ChatGPT almost a year ago, AI has captivated the public’s attention and reignited discussions about how it could transform the world. In the K-12 space, educators have been discussing what and how much of a role AI should play in instruction, especially as AI experts say today’s students need to learn how to use it effectively in order to be successful in future jobs.
Even with the healthy dose of skepticism, several educators have told me that schools need to accept that ChatGPT and other AI tools like it are here to stay. Schools, they argue, need to find ways to use the technology for the benefit of teaching and learning while being aware of its potential downsides.
…it’s imperative for the K-12 system to prepare students to be successful in the age of AI. ChatGPT has made it “painfully obvious that teaching the old ways and teaching the old curriculum is going to be out of date,” said Hadi Partovi, the CEO of Code.org, a nonprofit organization dedicated to expanding access to computer science education in schools. “How we work is going to change, and it also means how we prepare students for living in a digital world is going to change.”
In fact, everyone I interviewed argued that the existence of AI makes the purpose of education even more clear: to learn how to learn in an ever-changing, increasingly complex world.
“If we’re questioning the whole point of education, then it’s like we’re just sitting back and letting AI take control of everything instead of being the ones that are able to control it,” said Stephanie Harbulak, the curriculum, instruction, and assessment specialist at Meeker & Wright Special Education Cooperative in Minnesota. “Education doesn’t go away. It just needs to change.”
While reflecting upon adaptations and change, I am encouraged and inspired by the responses from within our community to last week’s question of the week…
Sampling of Responses from Last Week’s ‘Question of the Week’: What are you hoping to learn this year?
- Solar System
- Math
- New things
- Something that could be useful later in life
- Ancient Rome
- I am hoping to learn how to present what I learned in the proper fashion, whether in an essay or presentation.
- I hope to learn interesting facts in Science!
- Empathy
- fishing
- how to do square root
- New things and doing fun projects!
- I want to learn pi
- Chemistry
- This year, I'm hoping to learn about cool facts in history and how to write better in English. In math, I'm excited about the openers my math teacher uses and for science, I'm excited to learn a lot about the world I didn't know before. In explorations, I hope to learn about pottery and fun new things.
- I am hoping to learn more algebra.
- Pre-algebra, and have fun while doing so
- Genetics
- More about Algebra
- New things!
- Astronomy
- Science and writing
- Fantasy writing
- I am hoping to learn what I need to know to eventually get to college.
- I want to learn new and innovative ways to provide my instruction. I want to become proficient with using technology in the classroom.
- More about things in social studies
- I am hoping to learn and get better at MATH
- How to get better at understanding social studies
- Patience
- Have fun and learn stuff about the world
- Really down for anything
- How to write better.
- I am hoping to become more efficient at time management.
- Math Strategies
- chemistry in science
- science of animals and lots of art and soical studies
- Healthy dating relationships
- I can't wait for science.
- I am hoping to learn as much as I can this year.
- New things and doing projects
- I hope to learn more about science and social studies
- planets
- I want to learn many things in social studies and math. classes but I don't know what exactly
- I am hoping to learn about physics.
- More about science and how to right a better story.
- Hoping to learn how to help students increase their working memory.
- art, science
- I am hoping to learn a lot of new things in every subject.
- French
- I'm hoping to learn more effective ways to use movement and tactile experiences to better meet the needs of my students with their word work.