To encourage dialogue and reflection about the ways that reflection fosters action, our question for the week is: What is something you are working on improving? Share one step you can take towards that improvement. Action from Reflection (Week of 2/25/24) (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
Now back in the swing of school, hopefully everyone was able to rest, recharge, and take time for what was needed over vacation. We had a pretty quiet and low-key week, starting off with Maggie home for the long weekend. Even when she is home, it is rare for all of us to be under one roof at the same time, so our dinner out as a family was a treat! The rest of the week was a mixture of some basketball (always!), walks with the dogs, yoga, and good old-fashioned down time (hard for me to embrace - a steep learning curve still)!
The February vacation week has provided time and a loose structure for intentional reflection, health, and centering - looking back at the previous year while also naming intentions for the one that lies ahead. The ‘look back’ helps to outline the ‘next steps’ for growth, improvement, and learning. In one of the podcast episodes shared below (What Happens When We Believe All Young People Are Brilliant? with Dr. Sonn Sam), it is highlighted that we should be moving from the language of ‘theory of change’ to ‘practice of change’ - this nuance puts the emphasis on action and practice. The shares below are grouped from the reflective week and I my hopeful intent is that they can help all of us guide, push, challenge, and nurture our efforts (practice!) for our students and community of learners…
Grounding and Centering
Intentions for 2024
2023’s Posts and Podcasts of Influence
Posts to Frame our Work
Recent Thoughts/Responses from Our Community
Words of Hope
Grounding and Centering
Words of Wisdom from Student Panelists & Dr. Lisa Damour
From Challenge Success Presentation…
…here are some nuggets of wisdom from our student panelists and Lisa:
- Being a teenager today is significantly harder than it was for other generations, and they don’t want to hear us say, “when I was a teenager…” Spare them your stories and listen instead. When in doubt, empathize. And if you must say something, try, “that sounds really tough,” or “that stinks,” and watch how these few words can often be just what they need to hear.
- Good mental health doesn’t mean being happy all the time. From Dr. Damour’s point of view, we need to help teens understand that being mentally healthy is actually about having the appropriate emotions for the situation – good or bad – and knowing what will help you cope that won’t cause harm to yourself or others.
- Speaking of social media, is it really hurting our teens? Not necessarily. Silly cat videos, following a favorite band, and connecting online with peers who share interests and identities can be forms of healthy coping. Rather than judging teens for how they use it, let’s partner with them to understand the positives and set healthy boundaries.
- We all need more sleep, especially teenagers. Prioritizing this basic, yet often overlooked physical need has far-reaching effects on our well-being. Keep technology out of the bedroom and try a time management worksheet to intentionally carve out enough sleep. Model good sleep hygiene by taking care of yourself, too.
Providing a Human-Centered, Self-Actualizing Education to Every Student
(36 min) from Class Disrupted
Michael and Diane sit down with Dr. Scott Barry Kaufman, a cognitive scientist, researcher, professor, and author focused on intelligence, creativity, and human potential. They discuss the importance of placing all students – not just those that are in gifted or special education programs – at the center of their learning. They also apply nuanceContinue reading "Providing a Human-Centered, Self-Actualizing Education to Every Student.”
What Many Advocates—and Critics—Get Wrong About ‘Equitable Grading’
by Rick Hess in Education Week
Equitable grading presumes that our students and their families deserve dignity and respect, which means we must always be honest and accurate in our communication about where they are in their learning…Equitable grading means accurately describing their achievement and channeling empathy for students—not into reduced expectations but through actions that truly improve their learning: additional supports, relevant and engaging curriculum and instruction, and multiple pathways to access and demonstrate learning.
Grading is much more complex than it seems at first blush, implicating fields of pedagogy, adolescent development, and concepts of statistical validity.
There’s no coasting in equitable grading. In fact, teachers tell us—and students complain but appreciate—that equitable grading raises expectations. Rather than take a test and be done with it, equitable grading normalizes subsequent learning through additional practice.
We can make our grades more accurate and fair for all students by excluding nonacademic criteria, dampening subjective biases, and reducing the impact of resource disparities.
What Happens When We Believe All Young People Are Brilliant? with Dr. Sonn Sam
(55 min) from The Learner-Centered Collaborative Podcast
Sonn Sam, National Director of Partnerships at Big Picture Learning, discusses his experiences and insights on creating learner-centered education systems. Sonn shares how his experiences as a refugee from Cambodia shaped his educational journey and how he did not feel seen or supported in traditional school environments. He found mentors and purpose through community programs focused on his interests, like dance. Later, transformative educators helped Sonn discover his passion for empowering youth by asking him questions no one had asked before about what he cared about. This led him into education and working with Big Picture Learning.
Key topics covered include:
The importance of knowing students' interests and passions to drive relevant learning
Small group advisory structures for relationship building- Connecting students with mentors and internships in the community
Developing competency-based systems and authentic assessments
Moving from theory to action by starting small and evolving practice over time
Sonn emphasizes the need to build ecosystems that honor the brilliance in every student, not just those who fit traditional measures of success. His vision is for an education system where every child feels seen, heard, and loved.
How To Be A Friend with chef Christina Tosi
(30 min) from A Bit of Optimism
When life gets tough, true friends ask for help. Christina Tosi is that kind of friend. She's someone I can trust with anything and someone I can cry with. She also happens to be a world-class pastry chef, a genius dessert maker, and the founder and CEO of Milk Bar. We reflect on the art of asking for help and how sometimes all we need from a true friend is 8 minutes of their time.
AI Is Disrupting Professions That Require College Degrees. How Should Higher Ed Respond?
(45 min) from EdSurge Podcast
A recent study ranked the top professions that are likely to be disrupted by ChatGPT and other new AI technologies, and most of them require college degrees. How does higher ed need to change what it teaches to respond?
Intentions for the 2024 calendar year (some carry-overs from previous years)...
- #slowingitdown with intentional time for self-reflection, mindfulness, and growth
- Practice #willfulaction with #willfulhope
- Lead with flexibility, understanding, and grace
- Align beliefs with practice (hope with action) in the realms of anti-racism, social justice, equity, diversity, belonging, and inclusion (personal, professional, leadership)
- Listen to understand rather than listen to respond
- Embrace and model authenticity and vulnerability
- Explore ways to 'go deeper' and find more meaning
- Think about ways to connect more directly with students (focus groups, check-ins, discussions)
- Broaden and redefine some methods of leading, sharing, and growing (networking, connecting, collaborating) within Blake, Medfield, and beyond
- Be open to the ideology of those who do not share my thinking and better understand those views (ask questions and be genuinely curious for feedback)
- Be a mirror for others and ask others to do the same for me
- Articulate and focus on the 'good problems'
- Foster leadership at all levels (students, staff, caregivers, and community), balancing ownership with healthy delegation and growth for others
- Stay the course and keep the 'big picture' in mind at all times
- 'Lean towards yes' and maintain the mission of our mantra, 'a willingness to adapt'
2023’s Influential Posts
These are not necessarily the ‘top posts’ - rather that are ones that have held meaning for me, our collective work, and our community of learners (some may appear or ‘read’ as time-specific, but I believe they are timeless)...
Surgeon general confirms what parents know. Young people are in crisis.
by Heidi Stevens and Tribune News Service from Chicago Tribune
Our public schools have long been a catalyst for progress
by Don Haddad in The Longmont Leader
Five Principles for Thinking Like a Futurist
by Marina Gorbis in Educause
There’s No Such Thing as a Bad Emotion
by Marc Brackett and Co-authored with Robin Stern in Medium
Researchers studied kindergarteners' behavior and followed up 19 years later. Here are the findings.
by Evan Porter in Upworthy
Education in the World of ChatGPT
by Josh Brake
How Might Change Be Driven by Coherence?
by Homa Tavangar (@HomaTav) and Will Richardson (@willrich45)
Five Themes for Educators in 2023
by Will Richardson (@willrich45)
To Improve a Child's Education, We Must Be Willing to Let Old Practices Die
by Isabel Bozada-Jones in EdSurge
Pay Attention, Class: Here Come More Facts for You to Forget
by Alfie Kohn
A Culture of No: How to Get Past Fear and Risk-Aversion to Make Things Happen
by Trace Pickering in Getting Smart
Parents can help children learn to stand up to hate. Here's how.
by Phyllis Fagell in The Washington Post
Purpose: Reflecting on Our Role as Educators
by Ian Craig in NAIS Online
A Role for Every Staff Member in Promoting Student Mental Health
By Micere Keels in ASCD
The Parent of a Teen-Ager Is an Emotional-Garbage Collector
by Jessica Winter in The New Yorker
The Homework Apocalypse
by Ethan Mollick
Designing a Better Student Experience
by Tim Fish in NAIS Online
It’s time to drop the ‘sticks and stones’ cliche and help kids cope with the pain of exclusion
by Anna Nordberg in The Washington Post
Prompt Literacy: A Key for AI-Based Learning
by Heidi Hayes Jacobs and Michael Fisher in ASCD
The Students Are Not the Problem
by Erin Raab in ASCD
AI as a Mass Extinction Event for Dead Ideas in Teaching and Learning? with Cynthia Alby
(31 min) from Dead Ideas in Teaching and Learning
How AI Could Spark Fundamental Shifts in Education
(52 min) from EdSurge Podcast
The psychology of self-persuasion with Elliot Aronson
(45 min) from WorkLife with Adam Grant
Matthew McConaughey: What Does Success Really Mean?
(50 min) from House Calls with Dr. Vivek Murthy
Podcast Episodes
Best Of: Who Wins — and Who Loses — in the A.I. Revolution?
(1 hr 12 min) from The Ezra Klein Show Podcast
NEURODIVERSITY: Why No Two Brains Are Alike
(1 hr 11 min) from The Next Big Idea Podcast
The Rise and Fall of the Teaching Profession
(44 minutes) from Have You Heard
Happiness 2.0: Cultivating Your Purpose | Hidden Brain
(50 min, 18 sec)
How to Use Inquiry to Spark Breakthrough Ideas with the Author of A More Beautiful Question & The Book of Beautiful Questions with Warren Berger
(48 minutes) from the Partnering Leadership podcast
Educating in a World of Artificial Intelligence
(20 min) from The Harvard EdCast
Vivek Murthy — To Be a Healer
(57 min) from the On Being with Krista Tippett Podcast
Rick Wormeli Emphasizes Student Feedback
(25 min) from Learner-Centered Spaces Podcast
Battling Toxic Achievement Culture with Jennifer Wallace
from The Puberty Podcast (45 minutes)
CHANGE: How to Excel When Everything Is in Flux
from The Next Big Idea podcast (1 hr, 2 min)
Building School 2.0 with Chris Lehmann
from New View EDU podcast (43 min)
Revisionist History Unlocking Hidden Potential with Adam Grant
from Revisionist History podcast (54 minutes)
This is What Happens When Everyone Gets an "A" (with Monte Syrie)
from The Learner-Centered Collaborative Podcast (49 minutes)
Is It Time to Rethink the Traditional Grading System?
from the EdSurge Podcast (50 minutes)
Higher Education's Resistance to Change
from The Harvard EdCast podcast (30 Minutes)
The art of rough drafts with George Saunders
from WorkLife with Adam Grant podcast (37 minutes)
How to Unlock the Power of Deeper Connections with David Brooks
From The One You Feed podcast (1 hr, 5 minutes)
ACHIEVEMENT CULTURE: What It’s Doing to Our Kids—and to Us
from The Next Big Idea podcast (1 hr 12 min)
Two Posts to Frame Our Reflections, Learnings, and Action
The two posts below are ones that I have previously shared - they serve as a mechanism to center me, challenge my own thinking, reflect, and to frame/map a vision that I hope we can all embrace for ALL of our learners. For those who do not know Beth, she used to work for EdTechTeacher and provided professional development for a number of years to the Blake/Medfield staff. She certainly is a gifted writer and a researcher/educator to the core with a keen eye for 'speaking truth' and providing context. They both look backwards with a foundation of curiosity, imagination, and discovery - encouraging us to look forwards and act in a productive, progressive, creative, and honest fashion.
Willing to Be Disturbed
by Margaret Wheatley
This piece is an excerpt from Wheatley’s book, Turning to One Another: Simple Conversations to Restore Hope to the Future, and the phrase ‘willing to be disturbed’ is one that helps to open up conversations. This mantra will help us to listen to one another and examine our own practices - a key component of a learning community. There is much about this excerpt that I love, but the creativity element really speaks to me today.
As we work together to restore hope to the future, we need to include a new and strange ally—our willingness to be disturbed. Our willingness to have our beliefs and ideas challenged by what others think. No one person or perspective can give us the answers we need to the problems of today. Paradoxically, we can only find those answers by admitting we don’t know. We have to be willing to let go of our certainty and expect ourselves to be confused for a time.
It is very difficult to give up our certainties—our positions, our beliefs, our explanations. These help define us; they lie at the heart of our personal identity. Yet I believe we will succeed in changing this world only if we can think and work together in new ways. Curiosity is what we need. We don’t have to let go of what we believe, but we do need to be curious about what someone else believes. We do need to acknowledge that their way of interpreting the world might be essential to our survival.
Sometimes we hesitate to listen for differences because we don’t want to change. We’re comfortable with our lives, and if we listened to anyone who raised questions, we’d have to get engaged in changing things. If we don’t listen, things can stay as they are and we won’t have to expend any energy. But most of us do see things in our life or in the world that we would like to be different. If that’s true, we have to listen more, not less. And we have to be willing to move into the very uncomfortable place of uncertainty.
We can’t be creative if we refuse to be confused. Change always starts with confusion; cherished interpretations must dissolve to make way for the new. Of course it’s scary to give up what we know, but the abyss is where newness lives. Great ideas and inventions miraculously appear in the space of not knowing. If we can move through the fear and enter the abyss, we are rewarded greatly. We rediscover we’re creative.
We Were Warned
by Beth Holland
Beth typically writes an 'end of year post' with predictions for the next calendar year. I touched base with her at the end of 2020 and she told me she was thinking about writing one. After the events on 1/6, she wrote this post and shared it with me back in mid-January of 2021. I echo the sentiments and hope that we do not 'sleep through this wake-up call' that we have all experienced. It speaks to a lot of the conversations we have have had - also provides context for the need to push against 'the norms' that Beth notes have unfortunately become so embedded into the 'culture of schools'.
'Instead of evolving into a system that valued and honored ALL students, American public education largely institutionalized structures intended to sort and rank individuals so that existing power structures remained fully entrenched.'
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. Although he wrote this post in 2016, the meaning is as pertinent as ever.
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?
Sampling of Responses from Last Week’s ‘Question of the Week’: Share a piece of advice you have received that has been helpful. Why was it helpful?
- If you do what is easy your life will be hard if you do what is hard...your life will be easy.
- Some people share a story about one of their experiences. Without telling me what to do, they give me a greater context.
- One piece of advice that I received that has been helpful was to always put my best effort into my work that was helpful for me because it helped me become a better student and overall person
- You don’t have to be like the rest of the world
- There is no such thing as impossible, it simply means I’m Possible. This helped me when I felt like I couldn’t do anything.
- My mom told me to make my bed. This is helpful because making your bed is a good habit
- "You can help others, but don't forget to help yourself" It was helpful because it gave good advice.
Words of Inspiration - Fostering Hope and Action
The words below speak for themselves as drivers for hope and action that we can instill for ourselves, our students, and our communities…
We are going to make the path by walking it. - Colby Swettberg
If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn. - Charlie Parker
With February and #BlackHistoryMonth coming to an end this week, I am once again sharing these words from James Baldwin as relevant compass points for our learning community, as well as the community that extends beyond our school - embracing a willingness to reflect, acknowledge, and face our current challenges and realities; being open to changes for improvement; and, most important - acting on the lessons learned for real, sustainable change.
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Take care.
Nat