To encourage dialogue and reflection about teams, contributions, and learning, our question for the week is: What needs to be ‘in place’ for you to contribute and find success on a team? (team/group in the classroom/school, sports team, team at work, etc.) Conditions for Teams (Week of 10/1/23) (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
As we turn the pages of the calendar from September to October, I hope that everyone has been able to get outside for some Vitamin D this week after another rainy couple of days at the end of last week! Katie and I attended the Celebration of Life for Hunter Williams on Saturday afternoon - it was a beautiful and meaningful tribute and testament to his life. At the risk of sounding trite, it really served as a true reminder about what is important. Everyone received a tumbler with an image of a sloth on it (Hunter’s favorite animal) and the words ‘Slow Down Celebrate Life’. That is a mantra worth living.
Our students know that our number one priority is safety when it comes to school and learning, and we echoed that sentiment at the information night presentations for families. In many ways I am glad that the students hear it as a ‘broken record’ message - ‘Safety is our top priority…we come to school to learn…if we are not feeling safe, we can not access learning’. I can attest to this as well in the contexts of my work, and I think anyone would be hard pressed to disagree. With that in mind, and even though this premise is ingrained in my own thoughts, I continue to be reminded (as evidenced for me during the workshop last week) of the importance of digging a little deeper (maybe a lot deeper?) into the specifics…
- What do we mean by psychological safety?
- How important is accountability?
- How do we know when our team members feel safe?
- Does psychological safety differ for the different team members?
- Are there universal conditions for effective teams?
- How do these concepts translate to the classroom for our students?
Many more questions come to mind and I look forward to our continued work as a leadership team throughout the year. I will be sure to share/process as we make progress and integrate some of these practices into our day-to-day routines and structures. I am curious to hear the thoughts of others and hope that this will prompt some meaningful conversations and dialogue amongst our staff. Below are a few shares (TED talks, article, and image) from Edmondson’s work…
by Amy Edmondson in Harvard Business School
…every time we withhold our thoughts, we rob ourselves and our colleagues of small moments of learning. This stifles innovation in our teams and companies.
Today's organizations face more uncertainty than ever. To address new and evolving challenges, they need candor, speed, and creativity to make progress. They need employees to bring their full selves—with all their skills, knowledge, and insights—to the challenges ahead
…most work is not performed by individuals working alone. Achieving performance in knowledge-intensive work relies on integrating the ideas and expertise of multiple people, which requires a willingness to speak candidly.
To be genuinely inclusive, the work environment must be psychologically safe for everyone—including people in historically marginalized or underrepresented groups. Organizations and teams that work on improving psychological safety for everyone will tend to become more inclusive as a result.
Building a psychologically safe workplace | Amy Edmondson | TEDxHGSE
(11:26)
The Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at Harvard Business School is well known for her work on teams.
Amy Edmondson: How to turn a group of strangers into a team | TED Talk
(12:58)
Business school professor Amy Edmondson studies "teaming," where people come together quickly (and often temporarily) to solve new, urgent or unusual problems. Recalling stories of teamwork on the fly, such as the incredible rescue of 33 miners trapped half a mile underground in Chile in 2010, Edmondson shares the elements needed to turn a group of strangers into a quick-thinking team that can nimbly respond to challenges.
As always, I welcome dialogue, questions, reactions, and thoughts - and I hope we can continue to take these frameworks and both ‘reflect and act’ by taking steps to realize implications for our students. Please hold me accountable as well - it’s important.
Sampling of Responses from Last Week’s ‘Question of the Week’: Share one or two positive ‘things’ that have happened since the beginning of school.
- My son has spent time with a number of different friends and friend "groups," which tells me he has found his way socially. He's also come home excited to talk about the 7th grade social studies curriculum, and how much he's enjoying class discussions about Ancient Greece.
- 6th grade field trip to Hale Reservation!
- I really enjoyed my child’s English teacher’s parent night presentation. HIs presentation was very thoughtful. After listening, I had a good snapshot of the class, but even more, how much he enjoyed his subject area and his command of the curriculum.
- I do hope that the following is shared with Blake faculty members 😊 My son is in 6th grade. He came home the other day and proudly shared how one of his teachers positively commented on his writing abilities. Since then, he has demonstrated so much pride and confidence in his writing. All it takes is one person/positive comment to give a student a boost of confidence and know that their work is being seen and appreciated. Thank you to the teacher who made that one small remark which had one huge positive impact 😊
- Made accommodations at home for executive functioning to help empower my daughter to get ready for school. The visuals for the routines on the wall have helped her to become a master at getting ready on her own, which is a wonderful development this year! The kids have all transitioned into their new classrooms smoother than butter! They are super happy, performing well so far, and feeling confident about being a year more mature and a grade level above the last. I love that they are thriving so well in Medfield!
- Medfield Day and birthdays
- Hale field trip and getting helped when i got lost
- Hale field trip
- Hale field trip was so much fun.
- I did good on a math test, I've turned in all of my homework
- I have gotten all 4s
- I have made a new friend, had lots of fun and get have lunch with the whole grade!
- Made new friends
- People made sure I didn't get lost during the first few days of school.
- I have done really well in my weak subjects and I have made new friends.
- Food has been good
- I made new friends and joined cross country
- I’ve learned so much and I get to see my friends each day!!
- I have had a good experience with all teachers
- I am in classes with my friends
- I have met so many new people and learned so many new things.
- I love the band curriculum
- A positive thing that has happened was that I found many of my friends were in my classes.
- People have helped me around the school, people greet me
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Take care.
Nat