To encourage dialogue and reflection about the ways we are and get inspired, our question(s) for this week are: Where do you find inspiration? What inspires you? Finding Inspiration and Maintaining Hope (Week of 3/19/23) (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 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
March is flying by - does anyone else feel that way?!? Our weekend was a really quiet one, and it felt like a gift as we all enjoyed some time to relax and enjoy the down time. That down time feels rare and hard to find/build in these days, and although it’s hard for me to slow down, I’m learning to embrace it. Maggie headed back to school on Sunday morning and we did a little work in the garden as hopefully spring is on the way!
Throughout the conference, I felt encouraged, inspired, and grounded - enjoying the dialogue with other attendees, taking notes, sending texts/screenshots to some colleagues, and simply ‘taking it all in’. It served as a real reminder about what we know about school - the foundational elements of what fosters learning are grounded in connectedness, being/feeling seen, and relevance to our lives are critical for learning and growth. One main thread throughout the day was the importance of hope, inspiration, and courage as both catalysts and ‘sustainers’ for students and teachers.
As I continue to process and let the experience ‘sink in’, I am sharing some of my notes from the day below. I welcome any/all opportunities to share, process, and discuss with others. And, with our ‘ever-evolving world’ and influx of learning opportunities, last week’s question and responses will be important to reference and think about as we continue to ‘walk the path’ together.
Some Notes/Ideas from Connections Conference
** Hoping to process/share more - and hoping to ‘dive in’ - please let me know if you are interested, curious, disagree, or want to just chat!
Jose Vilson - ‘The Justice Within’
(Keynote Address)
- There are students in here who have the power to influence adults
- Social justice doesn’t just show up
- Adults can be best allies for those who want to shake things up
- Maybe I don’t know where to start, but I know where I want to go
- There’s a difference between education and schooling
- Lesson: There are two languages. The spoken one can be mastered, the inherited one is selectively granted
- Lesson: We can plan and envision all we want, but our power lies in how we unearth our purpose in the world around us
- My students were going to help me teach and help me teach well
- Who’s doing the fixing? (Fixed Mindsets)
- Sometimes we need to ‘elevate the awkward’
- ‘It’s their learning, not our learning’
- There are many questions to ask...
- Being Seen Matters
- When we adjust for the marginalized, everyone benefits
- Our pedagogy does not always draw others in…I’m going to pull all of our students in (that’s what shared humanity actually looks like)
- ‘Maybe I’m the problem’
- We don’t teach math; we teach students math
- Maybe the students can’t read the way you want, but they can read you
- Our system wasn’t designed for all of us
- ‘Thank you for being the class you are’
- ‘The urgency of now’
- Love - it’s about how you show up for them every day…
‘Courageous Teachers for Troubled Times’
- We have missed the boat as adults
- This is the domain of morality (education)
- School-Family-Community Engagement is critical
- Unhealthy teachers can’t be morally courageous
- Every Classroom, Every Child
- Question - not ‘what is moral courage?’ But ‘when is moral courage?’
- His response to this sentiment ’School’s tough and should be tough - it’s where kids need to hear hard lessons’...I want no part of it
- Who was a moral mentor to you?
- Speak from I and tell a story
- ‘You can’t say you can’t play’ (Vivian Gussin Paley)
- Two questions - ‘Is it fair? Can it work?’
- Ordinary moral courage…Shouldn’t school be a place where we are a little bit kinder?
- What does ordinary courage look like?
- Connecting ‘ordinary moral conduct’ with ‘extraordinary moral commitment’
- Gandhi - ‘The means is the end in the making’
- ‘We haven’t gone to the artists enough’
- ‘Table talk twitter’… What is challenging about middle school?; What is great about middle school?; What can we do to create positive change in our middle schools?; What non-inclusive experiences have you seen, heard, or had in middle school?
- How do we make this work meaningful for middle schoolers?
- How do we continue the work?
- Remember how much we have to offer/give is because/due of/to our diversity
- Traveling and extending ‘our circles’ of exposure is critical
- Our diversity makes us stronger
- There is no one person in this room who represents what the default human being is in this world any better than anyone else does
- This is why we need to treat each other with respect
- We are all on the same team; on every team, there are positions
- My life has as just as much value as anyone else
- Lasting impressions matter
- People need the opportunity to grow and evolve
- Social Media’s impact has been and will continue to be significant
- When we get together and harmonize, that is magical
- Be cosmopolitan…Prepare to have your eyes opened…Remember to combat things with love…Stand up for yourself
- Your reality is a true reality…Whoever you are…be happy to be that…be ok with being that
- We are all the result of everything we’ve messed up…We are a product of us…Continue to build on our connections
- Continued exposure in different ways.
- I keep telling myself that change is hard but it will settle down and that I am adjustable.
- stepping into the people who intrduced the ideas shoes
- Time
- the wanting to
- It helps me to step back and take a break.
- What helps me adjust to changes and new ideas is accepting that they can be beneficial.
- A person who can guide me through the new changes.
Continuing the practice of highlighting words each week in honor of Women's History Month, the words below from bell hooks and Maria Montessori speak to inspiration, hope, and learning…
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Take care.
Nat