To help encourage conversations and dialogue about discovering our own sources of motivation and interest, our topic/question of the week is: What is it about your favorite subject or favorite activity that you enjoy or like? Be specific. Discovering and Developing Oneself (Week of 3/3/19) (This is an anonymous Google Form)
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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 snowy, wintry weather provided a nice ‘structure of rest’ and down time for us this weekend. All events on Saturday were canceled so we enjoyed some sledding and simplicity - a rare experience in our family!
The week of school following a vacation always feels full and this one was no different. From both a personal and professional perspective, it was busy...starting with a Sunday night excursion with Katie to see Lyle Lovett and John Hiatt in Providence (stretching my comfort zone by going out on a Sunday evening!), attending the Challenge Success K-8 parent evening on Tuesday, Incoming 6th PIN, picking up our new car, Read Across America (visiting Memorial was one of the highlights!), and trying to fit in sleep, chores, etc.! Each week brings forth different schedules and I truly believe that it is all relative - no one’s schedule is necessarily busier than another’s - for me, how the busy affects me is entirely dependent on my own frame of thinking. When I am tuned into my own frame of thought (not always easy!), I am better able to identify and recognize my sources of fulfillment, stress, and direction.
In addition to the highlight of reading to Alison Guilbert’s Kindergarten class on Friday (Owen and Grayden picked out a bunch - Memoirs of a Goldfish, The Day the Crayons Quit, and The Day The Crayons Came Home), listening to some of our 8th graders share their thoughts about middle school at the Incoming 6th PIN was wonderful. We started doing this last year - asking four of our 8th graders to share their responses to a few prompts and answering questions from parents…
- What have you liked about middle school?
- What advice do you have for incoming 6th graders?
- Anything you wish you had known?
- Anything you wish your parents knew?
Last week I referenced a podcast I had listened to over vacation (Armchair Expert on Expert: Todd Rose) featuring Todd Rose, author of The End of Average and Dark Horse: Achieving Success Through the Pursuit of Fulfillment - an exploration of the role that personal fulfillment plays in the attainment of success. Since I first listened to it I find myself coming back to it as it touches on what feels like everything we talk about as a community - passions, education, finding interests, resilience, the role failure plays in learning, structures of school, and the list could go on and on. The notion of ‘fulfillment’ is one that sounds wonderful, but can also be lofty and almost untouchable (speaking for me and not necessarily others here). That said, Rose’s work has made me think about it more and more and it is this idea of actually articulating - not just recognizing - what brings fulfillment for each of us is important. The specificity of favorites and resonance will shed light on our own development and that is essential for our students as well.
Trying to tie these ‘somewhat tangential’ thoughts and reflections noted above (a relatively quiet weekend, a busy week comprised of personal and professional interests and responsibilities, highlights of the week, providing opportunities for students, and reflection about our practices and vision), I am sharing a few items that I hope you will find of interest and can help foster more dialogue and reflection - a quote from Todd Rose, an article referencing Rose’s work, and a sampling of responses from last week’s Topic/Question - recognizing that our own responses to questions help provide a window into our own growth and development)...
by Grace Tatter and Jill Anderson in Usable Knowledge (HGSE)
Tatter and Anderson’s brief post highlights Todd Rose’s work and within the post is a link to a different podcast Harvard EdCast: How Personalized Learning Can Lead to Success. Strategies for teachers bringing forth the ‘dark horse mindset’ into the classroom are noted - the premise that the focusing on personal fulfillment can and will serve as both a means and an end to success. I particularly love the term ‘equifinality’ - the idea that there are always multiple ways to get to the same end goal...
- Help your students figure out what makes them “tick” — it often can be applied in a variety of contexts.
- Let students practice autonomy.
- Focus on personal responsibility.
- Reward creative strategies.
Topic/Question (Week of 2/24/19): How can sharing and acknowledging your own weaknesses help you grow as a person and a learner?
- It is important to understand that we are not perfect. Recognition of a weakness combined with a growth mindset allows a person to continuously grow and learn new things.
- Sharing and acknowledging my weaknesses helps me to connect with others, open myself up to new learning and often different ways of thinking/framing my weaknesses. Sometimes weaknesses can be opportunities to grow and learn in ways not previously considered.
- a little bit of humble never hurts
- I am recognize my weakness in others.
- You become tough
- Certain people might have more insight into your struggle and they can help you.
- Acknowledging weaknesses is a way to become more comfortable with making mistakes, to identify potential areas for growth, and to create a sense of purpose and course for future professional development.
- You can practice the things you are not as good at, so you can get better.
- When you tell someone you trust on a weakness, they might help you develop that weakness into a strength.
As I look into my own mirror of reflection (the weekly practice of blogging certainly helps!), I find myself discovering more about myself as a learner. There is much that fulfills me in my work and it is hard to narrow it down to only a few. In the spirit of trying to model, though, I think it is the actual practice of reflection, sharing, and learning in a community that drives, motivates, inspires, and keeps me ‘ticking’. Our mission serves as the compass on (to borrow James Ryan’s words) our ‘imperfect journey’ towards ‘intersection of our aspirations and realities’...
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Enjoy the week and take care.
Nat