To help encourage conversations and dialogue about defining our interests for learning, our topic/question for the dinner table is: What would you like to learn about this year? Please see link to Google Form to share your responses: Defining Interests (Week of 9/18/16) (This is an anonymous Google Form)
I hope everyone was able to enjoy the beautiful weather Friday afternoon and Saturday - a lovely beginning to autumn, for sure - after our first five day week together in 16-17! We had a nice 'hometown' weekend, going to the kids' sports games, enjoying 'Celebrate Holliston' day, and then spending some time with friends and neighbors at our annual block party. On Sunday Maggie's softball team played Holliston (Medfield won), and it felt like my worlds were colliding! I was struck this weekend as to how quickly it feels as though all of the 'kids', including our own, have grown up. I know that is an 'overused' sentiment, but it sure rings true for me as of late.
At Friday night's Holliston football game, I caught up with a teacher who I had not talked to in a while and we were chatting about the abrupt change in pace and energy that we experience each year at the outset of school. I know this is true for educators and families alike, and we were remarking that it is hard to believe we have 'only' had 12 days of school so far! It is an interesting dynamic as we intellectually know we are still in the very beginning of the cycle of 16-17, yet feel as though we are in mid-stride form. Reflection is one of our core values at Blake and I believe it is helpful, when these juxtaposing feelings of pace and reality are experienced and realized, to take some time to step back to help frame our thinking and set the tone for our endeavors. We often talk about preparing our students, but we need to make sure we take that question further by asking, What does it mean to prepare our students? and, as Simon Sinek shared in his talk, to start with the 'Why'. The three posts below helped me to step back, reflect, and reframe my thinking for this year. I hope they may do the same for you and, if nothing else, read some perspectives and stretch your thinking a bit...
'Why We Teach Now': an Interview With Sonia Nieto
by Larry Ferlazzo (@Larryferlazzo) in Education Week Teacher
Dr. Sonia Nieto is Professor Emerita of Language, Literacy, and Culture at the College of Education at University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Her research and work is on multicultural education. The questions asked in the interview relate to her new book, Why We Teach Now, and she highlights the importance of shifting from a 'discourse of hopelessness' to 'a discourse of possibility'.
It's for these reasons that I refer to the teachers featured in "Why We Teach Now" as engaged in "a discourse of possibility." Whether they teach in cities or suburbs, large schools or small, early childhood or high school, they are filled with hope. But it is not a naïve hope, but instead a hope tempered by the reality of the situation in which they work and live. They're realists with a sense of purpose and commitment. They know that the system is often rigged against the most vulnerable and yet they have hope in their students and themselves to resist and change the situation.
This is why now is precisely the time we need good people to enter the profession. We need talented, committed teachers, teachers who will stand up for the goals of equal and high quality education that our nation has always articulated as defining public education...In spite of this checkered history, one that's still visible in some educational policies and practices, an equal and high quality education for every child regardless of social class, race, gender, or other differences is still a worthy goal. I believe that it's teachers and other educators committed to these ideals that will help us work towards this goal, not politicians or corporations or even policymakers.
Cultures of Perpetual Learning
by Will Richardson (@willrich45)
Richardson always stretches my thinking, and in this post he highlights a piece from the Harvard Business Review that highlights a change initiative at AT&T that puts the responsibility of professional learning on the learner. In this post Richardson encourages us to self-reflect and examine the extent to which we are fostering a 'culture of perpetual learning'.
The implications of this for education are many. Are we building cultures of “perpetual learning?” Is there an expectation (supported by the union, as in the case at AT&T) that professional learning is owned by the educator? Do educators in our systems see themselves as the CEOs of their own careers? And, maybe most importantly, are we working to help our students understand what it means to be the CEOs of their own learning?
They Don’t Have to Learn It From Us
by Chris Lehmann (@chrislehmann)
I read this post back in August and it really resonated with me, as both a parent and an educator. In thinking about what it is we want for our students and how we can best 'prepare' them, I find it to be an important read and one that we should come back to frequently.
As educators, when we have the chance to show kindness, we should. As educators, when we have the chance to make sure kids see that home and school can work together in a child’s best interest, we should. And as educators, when we have the chance to remind kids that it’s ok not to be perfect and that we all need help from time to time, we should. The world can be a cruel place where people treat one another poorly. Our students have the rest of their lives to learn that particular lesson. They don’t need to learn it from us.
I am excited about our year and the prospect of what is to come for our students and community, and I do recognize that this excitement and enthusiasm can accelerate my pace and the pace of those around me. I encourage you to help push me with these questions as well and remind me to slow down and ask 'why'. I welcome those conversations and discussions for how we can each contribute and reflect upon the roles we play towards our mission.
By allowing the debate to focus on what schools can do for us and not what we can do for schools, we create an argument that schools can only lose. -- John Hattie
I look forward to the work that lies ahead for all of us.
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Take care.
Nat Vaughn