To help encourage conversations about the prospect of changing one's mind, our topic/question of the week is...
Please choose which quote below, found in the readings today, more closely expresses your sentiments?
- 'One person's flip-flopping is another's enlightenment.'
- 'Those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.'
It is hard to believe that Thanksgiving was only about a week ago! Our weekend was very busy, and Katie and I felt like 'passing ships in the day and night' - chaperoning the dance on Friday evening, attending the Google Jamboree at MHS on Saturday and then taking the boys to the Super Bowl at Gillette Stadium to cheer on Holliston (I know - rivals in TVL), and Sunday afternoon I enjoyed running in the Angel Run! (This is all, of course, while we are trying to find some time to breathe amidst the busyness of December.) I would like to thank and recognize all of the staff who helped to chaperone the dance this past Friday evening: Matt Marenghi, Kelly R., Kelly C., Travis, Elise, Jen, Keri, Lisa, Greg, and Kayla. I truly appreciate (and I know the students and parents do as well) the cross-section of teachers who helped to assure a safe and positive experience for our students.
Each week I look forward to the time on the weekend to reflect and write. It probably comes as no surprise that 'Reflection' is certainly my favorite 'R' of our core values at Blake, and the journaling process - blogging - is one that helps me to take a step back, frame my thoughts, hold myself accountable, ask questions, and share ideas. I would be lying if I did not admit that it can be a challenge to find the time to write and read and 'fit it all in'. Our 'to do' lists seem to be ever-growing, both personally and professionally, and I do recognize I am a contributor to these lists for our staff. It is a struggle - finding the right balance of newness and excitement with maintenance.
The end of this past week was very full - all good for sure, but full...a workshop with Medfield's new teachers on assessment, traditions and relevance; Google Jamboree at MHS on Saturday; hosting a visit from Principal Alex Todo from Uganda; etc. These, of course, are all in the midst of the day-to-day work. As teachers and educators (and, to be honest, just people) I feel like we are often simply 'tending to fires' that are burning - some small, some big, some urgent, some slowly burning, some productive, some emergencies, etc. We need to be continually assessing the status of these fires to determine where our energy is best served. For our content specialists meeting this week, I am asking the content specialists to reflect on this question: 'What is your brightest burning fire right now at the middle school?' In other words, what fire needs to be tended to the most? My hope in this exercise is to not place a hierarchical value on our challenges/successes, but simply to recognize where we are at and to share/reflect. I also hope that the sharing process can lend itself to support. Challenges can lead us to growth and progress and it is important to embrace the messiness that may ensue. But, we need to first name these challenges or ideas for the 'ball to start rolling'.
In the spirit of sharing and reflection, as I have done in the past, I have bulleted some of the thoughts that have stayed with me since Saturday morning at MHS. These all come from the 'Ignite Keynote' talks from Tom Daccord (@thomasdaccord), Justin Reich (@bjfr), Greg Kulowiec (@gregkulowiec), and Richard Byrne (@rmbyrne). I would love to talk more about them if you want to chat...
- 'Monday/Someday' - what can we do/think about on Monday and what can we do/think about for someday?
- What's your vision for great learning?
- Fundamental question - What is it you want students to understand and be able to do?
- ‘What does Awesome look like?' - We have to start somewhere
- ‘Are we using computers to program kids or kids to program computers?’
- We should be finding and publishing examples of extraordinary work by our students
- Technology in the service of learning
- Looking for systemic change - Who can I get to do this with me? Who can be my partners?
- 'We should consider a bigger playground for our students'
- Is what we are doing ‘value added’?
- We should open the playground and embrace the chaos' - embrace the messiness!
- ‘Our students are expecting more choices’
- ‘What’s an expert?’ - What’s normal to you can be amazing to someone else
- Create wise consumers of information
- Acknowledge when you are stumped and need help
- What do your students want to be?
The Virtue of Contradicting Ourselves
by Adam Grant in The New York Times
In this op-ed, Grant addresses the concept of cognitive dissonance (the feeling of saying something that is inconsistent with your beliefs), in particular how the term 'flip-flopping' comes up in the election cycle with the candidates. Grant's brief post highlights the importance of change and that the process of change reflects growth and holds real value. Although this piece may have been inspired by politics, the underlying message and implications for our students and ourselves is important.
Intelligence is often defined as the ability to learn, and a sign of learning is changing your views over time.
“Progress is impossible without change,” George Bernard Shaw observed, “and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.” And when it comes to facing our own contradictions, perhaps we should be more open as well. As the artist Marcel Duchamp observed, “I have forced myself to contradict myself, in order to avoid conforming to my own taste.”
It can’t just be new…it has to be significantly better.
by George Couros (@gcouros)
As we continue to read and hear about new ideas and are asked to change, Couros expresses a fundamental tenet - we need to ask 'why' and 'how' these changes will improve our efforts.
What I do understand is that change for the sake of change is not good enough. There has to be proof on why it is better. There has to be something that compels me to see that the change I am partaking in creates something that I could not do before without it. All change takes time, and since time is the most valuable asset in the world, we need to prove that change will be an investment, not an expenditure.
Does Education Need a Software Update?
by Peter DeWitt (@PeterMDeWitt) in Education Week
DeWitt's blog post centers around this question by Ray McNulty - "Why is it that in the tech world most people look forward to a software update, but in education we resist it?"
We update our wardrobes...Many of us update our haircuts...We even update our furniture...Do we update our teaching?
Whether we always like them or not, updates are important. They cause us to think differently, and challenge us to step outside of our comfort zones. We struggle and learn through our own errors, and then find mastery...to the point that our struggles seem far, far away.
In education we have not developed a culture of growth-inspired change as much as we have fostered a culture of accountability. Technology breeds creativity-inspired updates, and education seems to be forcing compliance-based updates that don't lead to better outcomes.
Thinking back to the Guy Kawasaki's (@GuyKawasaki) keynote at the iPad Summit a few weeks ago, he encouraged educators and schools to veer away from a mission and think about a 'mantra'. I must admit that this challenged my thinking/values as I believe that the mission statement guides all of our work and we need to keep it front and center: 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. Guy's point was that we need to keep it simple and really pare it down to the essence to guide our thinking and work. So, I've been thinking about it more and more, and for me the mantra that I want to hold up for our students, staff, community, and myself is this - 'a willingness to adapt'. If we can maintain a 'willingness to adapt', we can then be open to the ideas of change and learning. Again, this does not mean that we must always adapt, as Couros notes in the post referenced above. But, if we can keep a willingness and openness present in our thinking, and the thinking of our students and one another, our steps towards progress can begin, minimizing resistance and maximizing potential. Term 2 begins this week, and this brings forth new opportunities and 'fresh starts'. I'm looking forward to it.
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Take care.
Nat Vaughn