To encourage dialogue and reflection about discovery within ourselves, our question for this week is: What have you discovered about yourself this year? Discovery Via Reflection (Week of 6/5/23) (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 many of the days and weeks do at this time of year, these past couple of weeks have seemed to go by pretty quickly!. The feelings of ‘trying to fit it all in’, while also working to embrace and enjoy the end of the school year may contribute to the ‘passing by’ feelings of time! Last weekend we spent time with family and friends, attending a memorial service for my brother-in-law’s mother and then a graduation party for high school seniors (twins) we have known since they were born. Many emotions were felt and a sense of community and shared care were present throughout. We also had a low-key Sunday, catching up and finishing the Ted Lasso series!
This time to reflect is critical and it is important to share our reflections as well. As we have done for the past few years, I will once again be asking all of our staff to individually and collectively #slowitdown, reflect, and answer the questions below as we end this school year. I ask these questions of myself as well and will find the time to reflect…
- What was meaningful this year? What made teaching worthwhile? What mattered?
- Describe a positive interaction or experience you had with a student during this academic year.
- Describe or explain an accomplishment you attained or something you are proud of taking place during this academic year.
- Describe a particular student or situation during the school year who or that you feel you could have handled in a way that would have resulted in a more positive learning experience.
- How have you 'lived' our mission statement in your work and growth this year?
- What is an area that you would like to grow professionally?
- What have you learned this year from a student?
- What messages do you want to leave for our students? What do you want them to remember? (A humbling but important and centering question)
- What are you looking forward to doing this summer?
Me to Me
by Angela Duckworth from Character Lab
…recent research suggests that emphasizing how students compare to the class average is unnecessary. Why? Because students already intuit this information and in fact are better at guessing how the whole class is doing than predicting their own performance.
What’s more, highlighting peer comparisons can sometimes be detrimental. When students feel like they can’t catch up, they can lose confidence and decrease effort.
Don’t emphasize comparisons with other people. My siblings and I grew up with a father who constantly compared us, unfavorably, to our brilliant Boston cousins. It did nothing to motivate us and everything to make us feel insecure.
Do encourage the young person in your life to strive for excellence. That doesn’t have to mean beating other people. It can be about beating themselves, setting what athletes call a personal record (PR)—where the comparison is not me-to-you, but rather me-to-me.
Discovery instills a sense of hope for me and the posts below are ones that came across my ‘feed’ throughout the week. Each one brought forth a new (or renewed) learning, and for different reasons, have resonated with me both personally and professionally. They also speak to ‘things I am thinking about’...
Make Learning a Lifelong Habit
by John Coleman in Harvard Business Review
Roosevelt was what we might call a “lifetime learner.” Learning became, for him, a mode of personal enjoyment and a path to professional success. It’s a habit many of us would like to emulate. The Economist recently argued that with all the disruptions in the modern economy, particularly technology, ongoing skill acquisition is critical to persistent professional relevance. Formal education levels are regularly linked to higher earnings and lower unemployment. And apart from its utility, learning is fun. It’s a joy to engage a new topic. Having an array of interesting topics at your disposal when speaking to colleagues or friends can boost your confidence. And it’s fulfilling to finally understand a difficult new subject.
…continuous and persistent learning isn’t merely a decision. It must become a habit. And as such, it requires careful cultivation.
We’re all born with a natural curiosity. We want to learn. But the demands of work and personal life often diminish our time and will to engage that natural curiosity. Developing specific learning habits — consciously established and conscientiously cultivated — can be a route to both continued professional relevance and deep personal happiness.
A Role for Every Staff Member in Promoting Student Mental Health
By Micere Keels in ASCD
As we elevate the importance of social-emotional learning, many aspects of student well-being that were once seen as being outside educators’ scope of work are now integral to teaching and learning.
It is critical that educators reduce the stress of working in schools with high levels of student need by creating strong staff collaboration protocols for receiving peer consultation on everything from lesson plans to behavioral challenges to ensure that they are never “going it alone.”
Take a moment to reflect on your level of peer collaboration and consider whether it is an area of your school that needs to be improved. Ask yourself and your colleagues the following questions and begin having discussions about creating a more collaborative school:
- Do I plan time in my day to get advice from other educators when I am struggling to meet the needs of specific students?
- Do I regularly talk with other staff members about work stress and challenges with students to help process and reduce the buildup of negative emotions?
- Do I regularly meet with other educators across the school to make sure that our classroom policies and behavior management plans are aligned?
One of the most important things to consider when implementing change is that it is about integration not replacement: identifying and keeping what is working, naming what is not working, thoughtfully discussing how evidence-based policies and strategies need to be adapted for your student population, and building the capacity of all staff to ensure that they learn the skills to successfully meet new expectations.
Success 2.0: The Psychology of Self-Doubt
(49 min) from Hidden Brain podcast
We all have times when we feel like a fraud. In the latest installment of our Success 2.0 series, we revisit a favorite 2021 conversation with psychologist Kevin Cokley. We'll explore the corrosive effects of self-doubt, and how we can turn that negative voice in our heads into an ally.
To Cope with Stress, Try Learning Something New
by Chen Zhang, Christopher G. Myers, and David M. Mayer in Harvard Business Review
So what else can employees do to temper the ill effects of stress? Our research suggests a third option: focusing on learning. This can mean picking up a new skill, gathering new information, or seeking out intellectual challenges.
In two recent research projects…we found evidence that engaging in learning activities can buffer workers from detrimental effects of stress including negative emotions, unethical behavior, and burnout.
…learning helps workers build valuable instrumental and psychological resources. Instrumentally, learning brings us new information and knowledge that can be useful for solving near-term stressful problems; it also equips us with new skills and capabilities to address or even prevent future stressors. Psychologically, taking time to reflect on what we know and learn new things helps us develop feelings of competence and self-efficacy (a sense of being capable of achieving goals and doing more). Learning also helps connect us to an underlying purpose of growth and development. This way, we can see ourselves as constantly improving and developing, rather than being stuck with fixed capabilities. These psychological resources enable us to build resilience in the face of stressors.
…engaging in learning as a central feature of your work life will help you build personal resources and equip you to be resilient and prepared in navigating future stress at work.
As always, I welcome conversations, connections, and questions and hope that the next week and a half allows time for some shared reflection.
Sampling of Responses from Last Week’s ‘Question of the Week’: In what ways can you contribute to our community?
- I think I help people in the school
- keeping the environment clean
- Helping clean for the environment and supporting the ill/sick
- I can contribute by being a good person.
- help people out
- Donate to shelters
- Be kind, listen, show empathy for those that seem to be having a hard time.
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Take care.
Nat