To encourage dialogue and reflection about the importance of vacation in the process of learning, our question for this week is: How can vacations help us learn? Looking Back to Step Forward (Week of 2/26/23) (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
Hopefully this update finds everyone doing well and that the week of vacation was a restful and restorative one. The volleyball games were a great way to send everyone off prior to the break - thanks to our wellness team for organizing an awesome day! It was nice to have Maggie home for the long weekend, and we all had an impromptu excursion to New York City for a few nights when we brought her back to school. It was really nice to explore the city a bit and take in some of the sights (an immersive exhibit of Monet’s gardens and One World Trade Observatory were highlights) together as a family. Katie and I still have a hard time believing that our kids are the ages that they are - one of those things where time passes slowly and quickly simultaneously! At the end of the week, we enjoyed the down time with some walks, yoga, and dinner with friends.
Over the last few years, I have taken this week to gather thoughts for my annual ‘reflective post from the previous calendar year’ (typically these are usually done at the end of December or early January, but I am allowing myself ‘extended time’!) as a way to look back in a concerted, structured manner - looking for connections and making room for growth. This year (and it may have struck me in past years as well), I find myself thinking more clearly about the need to outline and take steps for growth from this practice of reflection. This is very similar to our learning about and practices for assessment and feedback with students. The feedback/reflection only serves progress and growth when ‘next steps’ are outlined and taken. This helps to bridge ‘hope’ with ‘action’.
The structure of this shared reflection is one that I have carried forward from the past (some of the ‘shares’ are new and some are ‘repeats’), and the intent is that they can help guide, push, challenge, and nurture our efforts (namely - take action) for our students as a community of learners…
** Spoiler Alert - it’s been a reflective and cathartic process!!!
Grounding and Centering
Intentions for 2023
2022’s Posts and Podcasts of Influence
Posts to Frame our Work
Recent Thoughts/Responses from Our Community
Words of Inspiration
Grounding and Centering - Posts
Possible Futures: Toward a New Grammar of Schooling
by Jal Mehta (@jal_mehta) in Phi Delta Kappan
We are at a hinge moment in the history of our schools. A 120-year-old industrial structure is radically ill-equipped for the challenges posed by the COVID pandemic, much less what has been called the triple pandemic of COVID, racism and economic inequality, and fundamental threats to our democracy. We have been trying to carry on as usual, but it isn’t working.
Our present situation calls for flexibility, relationship-building, and deep engagement with the broader world, but our school systems are bureaucratic, transactional, and insular. The problem is not the people — teachers are working heroically, and students are persevering under highly adverse circumstances. The problem is that they are working within a structure that is working against them.
There is a better way. After nearly two decades of attempts to standardize schools, education leaders across the United States are coming to recognize the limits of Newtonian command-and-control models of school reform and becoming increasingly aware of the need to embrace a more complex, humane, and diverse future.
…we now have many models that show us what new and better forms of education can look like in practice, as youth development organizations, schools, and districts adopt more forward-looking visions of teaching and learning. No doubt, progress will be patchy, more evolution than revolution. But we can already glimpse what the future of schooling might look like.
What might be the foundational pillars of a new approach? I suggest three: 1) learners whose agency is respected, whose diversity is embraced, whose selves are deeply known, whose joy is cultivated, and whose holistic growth is the paramount concern; 2) learning that is purposeful, authentic, and connected to the broader human domains of which those learners are part; 3) learning communities that enable deep relationships, cultivate democratic values and dispositions, and model the kind of society and environment we want to create.
A system with more choice, agency, and flexibility needs an assessment system to match. We may be on our way…Assessments should be grounded in the process and performance of work in particular domains and should be used primarily as a tool for inquiry rather than a single summative judgment.
Every decision we make in schools implicitly or explicitly communicates a set of values. Right now, while we talk as if schools are places where students learn to think critically, collaborate, communicate, and so forth, in practice what they are learning is that schools are places that value individual advancement through grades and tests. We need to develop different kinds of communities, organized around different values, if schools are going to become the kinds of places we need them to become.
Schools are not just where we communicate academic content; they are where we raise our young people. Our current grammar of schooling inhibits much of what we want for those young people. Why not create a new structure that is consistent with our highest aspirations?
Making Time to Reflect
by Rachelle Dené Poth in Getting Smart
Although the start of any school year can come with its challenges for getting back into a routine, there are so many wonderful things about teaching. The new year is a time for deciding to try different methods and tools that will benefit our students and transform learning. And the most important area that teachers need to focus on at the start and throughout the year is on building relationships. To do so, we have to be intentional about evaluating our teaching practice. How have we grown this year? What are some areas that we need to work on? How can we be better tomorrow?
The practice of reflection is essential for us as educators and it is important that we help our students develop their own reflective practices. John Dewey stated, “We do not learn from experience… we learn from reflecting on experience.” Reflection needs to be a common practice in our classrooms.
Some of the questions I ask myself are:
What am I doing differently this year?
How did I start this school year with students?
Did I dive right into teaching the content or did I spend time getting to know students and providing opportunities for them to build relationships?
Am I teaching in the exact same way that I did last year? Using the same materials, and providing the same resources, or have I changed things and now I can see a difference and an impact on student learning?
As you reflect, you may feel as though you haven’t done enough, that you forgot about a certain activity that you had done in the past, or didn’t try a tool that had been on your list, but that’s okay. It’s good to always take time to refocus and consider the “why” behind the choices that we make.
It’s hard to find time during the school day, and the work continues into the evenings and the weekends, but we have to be intentional about taking a break when we need to. Be open to the opportunities that come up, especially if that means that they will positively impact what we are providing for our students. To bring our best selves into our classrooms each day, we must regularly evaluate our teaching practice and use this reflective process to grow professionally and personally.
- #slowingitdown with intentional time for self-reflection, mindfulness, and growth
- Defining ‘personal time’ and ‘professional time’ (an uphill climb for me)
- 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)
- Intentionally strive to integrate practices of belonging, inclusion, equity, and diversity into all facets of life and work
- Explore musical interests (playing and listening)
- 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
My Annual Resolutions/Intentions
- 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, parents, 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'
2022’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)...
Showing Up with Empathy
by Chase Mielke in ASCD
Now is the Time to Build a New Field in Education
by Lindsy Ogawa in Getting Smart
Tired of Achievement
by Sherri Spelic (@edifiedlistener)
College may look different for your pandemic-era kid. That's OK
by Ellen H. McDonnell in WBUR
Feelings of belonging at school are important for student success—and mental health
by Kat McKim in Fortune
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
Why We Can Feel More Optimistic About Learning
by Michael Fullan in Education Week
Ditch Success for Significance: Impactful Learning
by Will Richardson (@willrich45)
Towards A Creative Future: Rethinking Schools For The 21st Century
by Nick Morrison in Forbes
We Have a Creativity Problem
by Matt Richtel in The New York Times
The Research on Life-Changing Teaching
by Youki Terada and Stephen Merrill in Edutopia
‘We Have Essentially Turned a Blind Eye to Our Own Children for Decades’
by Judith Warner in The Washington Post
Future-Proofing Students
by Michele Borba in ASCD
Writing a New Narrative for a New System
by Benjamin Freud in Education Reimagined
Had Enough Disruption Yet?
by Brad Latzke (@BradLatzke)
How to Quit Intensive Parenting
by Elliot Haspel in The Atlantic
'Empathy Is the Secret Source of Connection'—Brené Brown and Doug Conant on Leadership in the Pandemic Era
by Amy Federman in Conant Leadership
The Way We Talk About Assessment Matters
by Kevin Kuehn in ASCD
It's Time to Cancel the Word 'Rigor'
by Jordynn Jack and Viji Sathy in The Chronicle
Child psychologist: The No. 1 skill that sets mentally strong kids apart from ‘those who give up’—and how parents can teach it
by Michelle Corba in CNBC News
The #1 Factor That Determines a Toxic or Thriving School Culture (Opinion)
by Alex Kajitani in Education Week
From Zero Sum to Positive Sum
by Michael Horn in Education Next
Carol Ann Tomlinson: My Dream for This Extraordinary School Year
by Carol Ann Tomlinson in Education Week
Do Schools Really Stifle Creativity?
by Brad Latzke
Radical Dreaming for Education Now
by Jamila Dugan in Ed Leadership (ASCD)
Educator as Futurist: Moving beyond “Preparing for the future” to “Shaping the future” | by Laura McBain | Stanford d.school | Medium
by Laura McBain and Lisa Kay Solomon - Published in Stanford d.School
Only out-of-the-box solutions will tackle the root cause of what ails schools - Christensen Institute
by Michael B. Horn from The Christensen Institute
Is School a Competition?
by Dr. Matt Doyle, Executive Director of iCERP, and Jennifer Peirson, iCERP Action Council Lead in Education Week
The World Seems Complicated. Perhaps It's Time to Be More Human (Opinion)
by Sean Slade and Sean Slade & Alyssa Gallagher in Education Week
Rethinking Resilience: Does the Concept of Pushing Through Actually Hinder Growth?
by Lade Akande in NAIS Online
Rise of the Full-Stack Learning Organization
by Lisa Kay Solomon in Medium
Podcasts
The Psychology of Self-Doubt
(50:20)
From the Hidden Brain Podcast
We all have times when we feel like a fraud. Psychologist Kevin Cokley studies the corrosive effects of self-doubt, and how we can turn that negative voice in our heads into an ally.
A Slight Change of Plans - Adam Grant Thinks Again
(38 min)
Psychologist and author Adam Grant talks with Maya about the science of changing peoples’ minds, including our own. Adam also takes some of his own advice and rethinks some of his ideas.
Why We'll Never Be the Same Again (and Why It's Time to Talk About It) - Brené Brown
(55:33)
From the Dare to Lead Podcast
This is one of the most important conversations that we’ve ever had on the Dare to Lead podcast. I’m talking with Scott Sonenshein, a researcher, organizational psychologist, and New York Times best-selling author, about the pandemic, the racial reckoning, and work—specifically, what it means for people going to the office for the first time, or staying hybrid, or working from home. We will never be the same again after what we’ve experienced over the past couple of years, and it’s time we talk about how we’re going to rebuild moving forward.
Meritocracy and selective college admissions
(41:57)
From the Class Disrupted Podcast
Diane and Michael work to dispel the myths around selective college admissions, dissect whether they are in fact meritocratic, and architect what they see as a better path forward.
Ungrading with Susan Blum
(50 minutes)
From the What’s the Big Idea? Podcast
In which Dan examines the behemoth that is traditional grading--you know, the A-F and 0-100 scales, and GPAs. Dan is joined by Susan Blum (@SusanDebraBlum) who has done a ton of thinking, speaking, and writing about how teachers can move away from this crude, harmful practice and towards something called ungrading. Susan edited and contributed to Ungrading: Why Rating Students Undermines Learning (and What to Do Instead). She talks with Dan about why grading is not at all about learning, how it's baked into our educational system and expectations, and what teachers can start doing now to ungrade.
Breaking Up with Perfectionism
(41 minutes)
from the WorkLife with Adam Grant Podcast
Perfectionism is on the rise–and not just in job interviews when people claim it’s their greatest weakness. But the desire to be flawless is not always productive—or healthy. As a recovering perfectionist, Adam dives into how he managed to abandon the quest for 10s while holding onto his drive for excellence.
Why teenagers make risky decisions
Part 2 of the TED Radio Hour episode Life Stages Of The Brain
Teenagers often make risky choices that appear absurd in the eyes of their parents. But neuroscientist Adriana Galván says these decisions are critical for adolescent brain development.
Equality or Equity?
(28 minutes) from The Harvard EdCast Podcast
Jeffrey Duncan-Andrade discusses why schools need to be equity-focused and how equality hasn't produced the results needed.
Why Aren’t There More Innovative Schools?
(25 minutes) from Class Disrupted Podcast
Diane Tavenner shares with Michael Horn her excitement about a school visit she did recently in South Carolina to the Anderson Institute of Technology—which raises the question of why aren’t there more schools like what Diane saw?
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’: How can asking questions help address challenges and solve problems?
- It helps to be solution oriented, rather than placing blame or focusing solely on the problem.
- Asking questions automatically places the asker in a position that recognizes that they do not have all the answers and requires a collective effort to overcome the challenge or problem.
- If you had unlimited resources, what would help? This helps you to work backwards from what you want to happen to what you need to make it happen.
- They can help you
- It can help because you or someone else can help identify what the problem is.
- Questions can open new doors, to find a solution or address a challenge
- If you never ask something you won't know the answer and if you do ask you will have a higher chance of succeeding in the task.
- You'd get a better understanding of something
- Breaking boundaries that were holding people back
- Questions can help introduce new viewpoints.
- When you ask questions you can find out a lot more about people
- It can help you understand more.
Words of Inspiration - Fostering Discovery, Hope, and Action
The words below speak for themselves and are ones I hope 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