To help encourage conversations and dialogue about the importance of acknowledging and ‘allowing’ our emotions and feelings, our topic/question for the week is: How can an awareness of your feelings and emotions help you learn? Acknowledging Our Feelings (Week of 4/20/20) (This is an anonymous Google Form)
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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
Although it was well forecasted, waking up to the sounds of birds chirping while the snow was falling was not something I was ready for on April 18. As with much of our current reality, the new norm is to ‘expect the unexpected’ (or so it seems). We did our best to unplug and carve out ‘weekend time’ as the days always blur right now, with some walks, reading, gardening, and just being. If you had asked me four weeks ago, I would have thought that ‘just being’ would be something I would be doing a lot and that just has not turned out to be a reality.
Dr. Marc Brackett has dedicated his life to studying emotions and to teaching us what he’s learning. In this episode, we talk about how emotional literacy – being able to recognize, name, and understand our feelings – affects everything from learning, decision making, and creativity, to relationships, health, and performance.
I have really embraced his practice of acknowledging and naming feelings at the outset of meetings, presentations, and talks - in fact (and it may sound extreme), I think it’s great and beneficial in every interaction. And, with yesterday’s ‘Marathon Monday’ was no different as that day has been spent almost every day of my life watching, cheering, and enjoying the entire scene. I feel grief, loss, and some anger, yet I would be remiss by not naming the gratitude for healthy, well-being, and security that my family has right now. These feelings and emotions are dichotomous, real, and important. And, right now, I just want to name and share them - nothing more, nothing less.
As you know I have found the weekly blog updates to serve as a vehicle to process thoughts, emotions, and feelings - and I appreciate everyone indulging me (if you are able to ‘stick with it’ and read to the end!). I miss our day-to-day, face-to-face community of learners at Blake and sincerely look forward to our return, whenever that may be. The quotes, notes from recent learning, sampling of responses from our recent Topic/Question, and posts are ones that have ‘fed me’ this week - I welcome conversations and dialogue, during this ‘remote period’ as we well as when we return...
A Couple Quotes…
Both of these quotes speak to me on many levels, particularly at this time of ‘emergency remote learning’ - when everything is new, feelings are abundant, and incompetence can often feel like ‘a norm’...
These are notes from some ‘recent learning’ from two mentors, John D’Auria (@jdauria) and Justin Reich (@bjfr), who have had a great impact on my own professional development and growth - although the ‘titles’ vary, the essence of their messages and suggestions align with our mission...
‘Emotions are Contagious’ - Webinar with John D’Auria
- SEL boosts creativity and innovation - if you pay attention to emotions, it will help you be more creative and better serve our students
- If we pay attention we will be open to more novel solutions
- We rush to solutions before fully understanding the problem
- This is our version of trying to create a vaccine
- We don’t think less of scientists for not having a vaccine, so we need to go easy on ourselves as teachers
- Emotions are contagious
- We need...nimble learning, collaborative problem solving, frequent mini experiments
- We are not going to get this right; we are going to have lots of questions; we need to learn from this
- We don’t know what kind of a mindset we have until we are in the midst of something difficult
- ‘Learning makes us incompetent just before it enables us to grasp mastery’ - Seth Godin
- Mindsets: Is this about who I am or what I did?
- Put together a diverse team with multiple views
- Establish key assumptions (Roger Schwarz): I have information, so do other people; Each of us sees things others don’t; People may disagree with me and still have pure motives; Differences are opportunities for learning; How might I be contributing to the problem?
- Involve stakeholders in defining and understanding the problem...Did we miss anything? Did we list all the known factors?
- Groups are still reluctant to be honest…
- Antidote - create an anonymous survey: what worked about the meeting? What didn’t? What would you have liked to have said and didn’t say? (Ground rule: will share at next meeting)
- Challenging obstacles: Discomfort of public disagreement; Making sense of emotions
Episode...Online Learning in the Age of COVID-19 (guidance and strategies)
- Connections are most important
- We are motivated by social connections and meaning
- We are good at online learning, but not that great at online schooling
- ‘This is really hard’
- Everything is magnified by pandemic
- Demands of life
- Pandemic is not a great time to get better at things
- Students are stressed, sad, and having a hard time (most students)
- Some amazing things will happen, but most people will just get by
- Be careful about the language of ‘silver linings’
- We should focus on advancing our mission and advancing equity
- Find time for the arts, creative expression, and exercise every day
- Design lessons for small increments and frequent connections
- We often design for the ways we wish people learned vs how they do learn
- Most efforts at synchronous learning won’t go well
- Need to hold 2 contradictory ideas: Some amazing things, but most people will just get by
- This is a time to help people
- People who need our support are often the least likely ones to ask
- How are we going to serve our students who are vulnerable? How can we make it accessible for all?
- Put the health, welfare of all, and relationships at the forefront
- Emerging competencies - what are they? Let’s notice...
- In best circumstances, our policies support our mission
- Think about - what are our most important learning goals?
- Focus on creating conditions to want to learn more
- Have students work on questions to issues never addressed/questioned before
- Prioritize taking care of each other and focus on lifting each other up
- Let’s keep learning and doing
- It's not a race to make things normal - it's a time for accommodations
Responses from Our Last Topic/Question (Week of 4/13/20):
How do you learn best? How do you know?
- By linking new information/experiences to as many things that I already know
- I learn best by doing. I can read something and not remember the steps as well.
- I learn best by thinking of something positive and then doing the schoolwork
- Reading…
- I learn best when I’m working on a project that has an end goal in mind but no clear path to get to that end goal. My ideas evolve during the journey as I ask more questions, stumble over set-backs, and get to the answers I need to figure it all out. I know this is how I learn best because it ends up being all I can think about and my curiosity never wanes.
Posts that Resonate...
But what could you learn instead?
by Seth Godin (@thisissethsblog)
I found this post after John D’Auria referenced the quote about incompetence during the webinar - it struck a chord with me and the post is excellent as he discusses the distinction between ‘education’ and ‘learning’.
You can learn just about anything now. Thirty years ago, that statement was ridiculous. In just one generation, we put everything you need to know about anything you want to know just a click away. The hard part isn’t access to it, the hard part is finding a cohort and a system that helps you do it. Because learning comes from doing.
Learning takes effort, and it’s hard to find the effort when the world is in flux, when we’re feeling uncertain and when we’re being inundated with bad news. But that’s the moment when learning is more important than ever.
...unlike education, learning demands change. Learning makes us incompetent just before it enables us to grasp mastery. Learning opens our eyes and changes the way we see, communicate and act.
“What did you learn today,” is a fine question to ask. Particularly right this minute, when we have more time and less peace of mind than is usually the norm. It’s way easier to get someone to watch–a YouTube comic, a Netflix show, a movie–than it is to encourage them to do something. But it’s the doing that allows us to become our best selves, and it’s the doing that creates our future. It turns out that learning isn’t in nearly as much demand as it could be. Our culture and our systems don’t push us to learn. They push us to conform and to consume instead. The good news is that each of us, without permission from anyone else, can change that.
Educational Zoom Activity #1
by Gary Stager (@garystager)
Stager’s post suggestions an activity via Zoom to engage students/families and foster reflection - the activity is certainly one worth trying, but it is the ideals noted below that I found to be particularly meaningful and worthy of consideration and thought.
When I think about education, these are three ideals I cling to.
- The best thing we can do is to create as many opportunities as possible for young people to be in the company of interesting adults.
- Greatness is achieved through a laser-like focus on overcoming bugs that bother you. Once you approach overcoming that obstacle, a new challenge reveals itself. Such focus tends to make experts great teachers since such self-awareness is easy to articulate.
- If you wish for others to learn from you, your practice needs to be as transparent as possible.
Keep It Simple, Schools
by Justin Reich (@bjfr) in Educational Leadership
Justin’s brief post provides a structure for schools during this period of ‘emergency remote learning’, emphasizing simplicity with a concerted focus on equity, engagement, and accessibility. Within, he shares the three key principles within the plan that was shared by MA Commissioner Jeff Riley: First, care for students. Prioritize keeping students fed and sheltered, supporting emotional needs and mental health, and attending to the most vulnerable students. Second, create opportunities for projects and enrichment. The state recommends that schools focus on student interests, family projects, and reinforcing previously taught skills over addressing new material or learning objectives. Third, set realistic expectations. The state suggests that schools aim for about one-half of a typical school day of learning time, with a combination of student-driven learning, educator-recommended activities, teacher check-ins, physical activity, arts, and play. For credit-bearing classes that do continue, the state recommends switching to credit/no-credit grading for work.
Even in the best of circumstances, effective distance learning can be difficult to accomplish. Research suggests that young people have great capacity for online learning, but much less facility and persistence with online schooling. Young people are remarkably facile at using the internet to learn how to cook a new recipe, beat a level in a video game, or explore their interests (Ito et al., 2012). Unfortunately, the research on pursuing formal schooling and courses online provides much less cause for optimism.
For schools and districts that want to adopt Massachusetts' proposed remote learning model—one based on projects and enrichment—there are four big questions to address:
How will you publish good projects and enrichment activities?
How will teachers remotely coach students?
How will you partner with students, teachers, and families?
How will you plan for re-entry?
Publish good projects and learning resources. Make them accessible. Disseminate widely. Check in with students. Solicit feedback. Plan for re-entry. Schools that do a few simple things well, listen to stakeholders, and plan for the future will likely be in the best position on the other side of this crisis. My hat is off, and my heart is with, all of the teachers and administrators serving students and families in these difficult times.
At the end of this past week I shared the gratitude I have that the community we have at Blake is one that fosters and encourages the ‘permission to feel’ and I hope we will continue to live and embrace this mantra for students, staff, families, and one another (both now and in the days ahead).
This week in recognition of National Poetry Month, I am sharing a stanza from Maya Angelou’s poem, Caged Bird…
The caged bird sings
with a fearful trill
of things unknown
but longed for still
and his tune is heard
on the distant hill
for the caged bird
sings of freedom.
I look forward to the work that lies ahead for all of us.
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Enjoy the week and take care.
Nat