To encourage dialogue and reflection about the ways that we all evolve and learn, our question for this week is: What do you need from others to help you learn? Allowing Ourselves to Learn (Week of 3/6/22) (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 sure is hard to believe (and, I am sure I say this following every vacation) that we have only been back to school for a little over a week! We enjoyed a relatively quiet and low-key weekend with only a few things for the kids - I feel as though it is ‘the lull before the storm’ of spring busyness, full schedules, and activities. The weekend felt like it started early for me (in a very good way, it forced me to take a break!) on Friday afternoon, as I caught up with a dear friend on zoom for a wonderful visit - it had been far too long and was a tangible reminder about the importance of connection.
- Students can be doing well, and they can be struggling
- We can have programs that have successful components, and we need to adapt them
- Students can be confident and insecure
- We can have strengths and weaknesses
I could go on and on, and I could bring plenty of ‘first person’ experiences to the examples. And, I am sure that we all could do the same. It is important that we make room for ‘the shades of gray’ as we develop our programs, practices, and systems at all levels. And, at the same time, we have to look at the side effects of these systems as well - the positive trade-offs as well as the negative trade-offs. Both can be true.
That is something that I continue to witness and experience every day - more shades of gray, and more examples of ‘yes and’ or ‘both can be true’. And, as I have found that as I allow that mindset to be integrated into my day-to-day practices, the propensity to learn and adapt increases. And, it leads me to reflect upon the systems and practices that would foster this for all of our learners at Blake and in our community (including ourselves as educators and our families).
The two posts below were all published in the last three weeks, and I continue to find myself coming back to them and sharing with others. At the root, they espouse and clearly articulate the need to truly listen and understand how learning/educational environments must evolve. Oftentimes, the worry about integrating and adapting from the ‘norm’ will alter our successful programs in school - i.e. if we take time for Social-Emotional Learning lessons, will we still find success? In writing this, I fully recognize that I am oversimplifying a complex dynamic and this is not simple - my intent is to share that ‘both can be true’. Our vision and overall mission needs to guide our work - and, they will provide the space for learning and growth to be realized. These posts (although they may be loosely connected to Rablin’s tweet) do ‘hold up a mirror’ to the systems and reality of school - and, they certainly touch on the current and future needs of our students…
College may look different for your pandemic-era kid. That's OK
by Ellen H. McDonnell in WBUR
As a parent, I am not generally prone to anxiety. I know that worrying too much about children’s success makes parents controlling, and being too concerned about their happiness makes us overly permissive — neither of which is good for them. I actually wrote a book about it. But the past two years have presented unprecedented challenges to my patients and their parents … and, to me.
When students struggle in school with learning disabilities, psychologists make two categories of recommendations to support them: remediation and accommodation. Remediation involves changes to the curriculum to teach them the skills they are lacking or lagging in. It implies corrective action, a sort of going back. But while the omnicron variant may be less lethal, it proves beyond a doubt that there is no going back to pre-pandemic times. This generation will not experience college as we once knew it to be.
I think our teens need and deserve ongoing accommodation. Accommodation involves changes to the environment to better suit and support a student’s needs at that time, making the right-here-and-now a better fit for the person in front of us. We adults have to get comfortable with the idea that accommodation does not mean “less than.” At its best ideal, it is a move toward equity, a true leveling of the playing field. That’s something the college application process needed well before the pandemic. What if we could see this time as an opportunity for corrective action toward a new and better normal?
Parents have to accept that our children’s lives are simply not the same as they would have been without living formative years in a global pandemic. There are lost opportunities and experiences to grieve. But as with any loss or challenge, there could also be new space for positive change, a chance for our kids to take a path they never would have otherwise, and find success and happiness there.
When my patients come to me with struggles, indecision or having made a flat-out wrong choice, I remind them that they already have the tools they need. There may have been delays and speed bumps on their path through adolescence, but they have been uniquely prepared for this moment in time just by living through it. It’s the adults’ job to help make the accommodations toward a better new normal. And it’s the parents’ job to reign in the worries and anxieties for our children’s future.
If we’re honest with ourselves, we don’t know any more or less about what it holds for them than we ever did.
Feelings of belonging at school are important for student success—and mental health
by Kat McKim in Fortune
When students have a strong community and sense of belonging at school, a whole host of benefits follow, including greater academic motivation and better mental health outcomes. The opposite is also true: Low feelings of school belonging are tied to higher rates of violence, absenteeism, and depression.
Unfortunately, though American schools aren’t necessarily ignoring the issue of student community and belonging, they also aren’t universally doing it well.
“The most surprising thing I have found in my research is just how little action or response has taken place concerning school belonging,” Allen said in an email. “Though schools value and prioritize school belonging, there are very few [evidence-based methods] that intentionally set out to foster it.”
“How can we expect teachers to focus on positive student relationships when they simply don’t have enough time during the school day to deliver the curriculum?” Allen said via email. “How can we expect them to hold this as a priority when they are purchasing supplies out of their wages or working several jobs to survive? If we consider the important role of teachers for school belonging, and then we consider the context in which teachers work, we can see that as a society, we have some work to do.”
No, college students aren’t obsessed with free speech. Here’s what they do worry about.
by Wendy Fischman and Howard Gardner in The Boston Globe
FOR AT LEAST A CENTURY, higher education in the United States has been a source of national pride — and admired around much of the world. But recently, large segments of the American public have indicated a sense of dissatisfaction with it. Indeed, many have gone so far as to assert it is not in the national interest. This could stem from the costs of college, a belief that higher education is tilted politically to the left, or skepticism that non-vocational education is a waste of time and money. Regardless, if there were ever a time for a careful study of higher education in the United States, it is now.
Contrary to what one might gather from the press, the vast majority of students are not preoccupied with political correctness, free speech issues, or even costs. What they are worried about, however, are their GPAs and resumes. They struggle with mental health challenges and widespread feelings that they don’t belong and of alienation from peers, the academic agenda, or the ethos of their institution. While there remains much to admire about our higher education system, the sector has lost its way and stands in considerable peril. And our sobering conclusion was reached well before the COVID-19 pandemic, which has proved disruptive for all institutions, most especially for the less affluent ones. This is not to say the college experience is a lost cause. Indeed, at its best, it presents a unique opportunity to learn, explore, prepare for the future — and even transform oneself. But if higher education is to be successful in the 21st century, it needs to be sharply reframed.
Among students, the most common explanation about why mental health is the most important problem on campus was academic rigor — the “pressure” of academics. But what exactly is that pressure? Is it about learning difficult content? Or preparing for exams or writing papers? Or building a favorable transcript to get a job or get into graduate school?
Their most frequent explanation focused on achieving external measures of success — securing a high grade-point average, or “doing well” on an exam. “I know a lot of kids who ... get super stressed out over grades and they get really anxious about it,” one first-year student told us. “Intense people make like, ‘You have to have a good GPA, you have to have A’s and stuff.’”
Friendship issues were also a source of stress — making new ones, as well as managing difficult dynamics. Some specifically linked feelings of loneliness with mental health issues.
IT IS ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE to speak about higher education — or education at all — without addressing diversity. Indeed, the majority of people in our study used the word without prompting. While some focused on diversity of thoughts and ideas, others considered its importance in terms of the wide range of academic disciplines, or highlighted demographic differences.
Imagine a situation where students believe that they are welcome, that they belong, that they understand the fundamental educational goal of college, are not having to serve many competing masters, and don’t feel pressed to get only straight A’s. Under those favorable circumstances, students’ mental health stresses will be reduced, and they will be better prepared for the rewards that college can uniquely provide — the opportunities to explore, and, possibly, to be transformed.
Sampling of Responses from Last Week’s ‘Question of the Week’: Why are vacations important?
- Vacations are important so kids can have a break to be with family and have a chance to get away from the stress of tests and quizzes so they come back with an open mind.
- It’s important to have a break and just distress and relax
- quality family time away from stresses of everyday life
- They remind us why we work.
- Vacations are important since you get time to rest your mind and body. You also actually get the amount of sleep needed for your age group.
- To give your mind a break and focus on your mental health
- To give your mind a break
- Vacations are important for an opportunity to rest and recharge.
- To give our brain practice shifting gears.
- To have some time to do something else you want and to “recharge” for more school afterwards
- They help you relax and spend more time with the people you love
- To give your mind a break
- To get a break
- I think that vacations are important because it gives students an opportunity to reset their minds and come back with a fresh start.
- For students and teachers to take a break and relax
- To get a break from school and everything and just relax.
- They are important because it's good to take a break and refresh.
- Vacations are important because they help you relax.
- Vacations are important because they give you time to catch up, have fun, sleep, read, travel and relax!
- it gives us a chance to wind down
- To give your mind a break
- To give kids a break from school
- Vacations are important because they give us time to rest, reflect, and recharge.
- It can clear your mind and relieve stress
- Family time
- Because it gives us a time to relax
- They are important to me because otherwise I feel overworked.
- They are important because they are breaks from normal everyday routines.
Listening to our students, coupled with a willingness to adapt and make room for authentic learning, will hopefully keep us on track towards our mission. March 1 marked the beginning of Women's History Month and I will continue my practice of sharing words throughout the month that hold meaning and push ‘the royal we’ to collectively look in the mirror, examine our practices, and allow learning and growth to take place.
As always, let me know of any questions/concerns.
Please click here for Blake Updates.
Please click here for District Community Notices.
Take care.
Nat