To help encourage conversations and dialogue about the impact relationships have on learning and how we can foster connections, our topic/question of the week is: What helps to establish strong relationships between students and teachers? It's About The People (Week of 2/10/19) (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.
We had a pretty quiet weekend - Katie had her first weekend of a yoga teacher training course, and there were only a few ‘commitments’. The down time was lovely - playing ping pong, hanging out, and taking a few walks. My Saturday morning run was beautiful, but the wind and cool temps made me long for the weather we had at the start of the week! Sunday evening we had a nice time celebrating (albeit, a few days late) Katie’s birthday, centering ourselves before the cuckoo ‘week before vacation’ begins.
My hope (and from conversations and responses via our feedback from staff, I know this is a shared hope) is that we take this learning, move forward, and act upon it in a cohesive manner. Like the work with our students, this is easier said than done, but I look forward to our path along the way. At the end of the afternoon’s work, Nathaniel and I touched base and talked a bit about the challenges that currently exist and lie ahead. Our culture at Blake is a strong one and I think the relationships we have within our community (student-staff, staff-staff, staff-parent, parent-student, etc.) will sustain us. Our culture is not a perfect culture and we certainly have our areas for growth and improvement. That said, the relationships and shared beliefs we have are the levers that allow progress to take place.
Time is always ‘the challenge’ (time for collaboration, time for planning, time for listening, time for reflection, etc.), and this week will naturally be a busy one - aren’t they all?!? To help with my own reflection, and maybe others as well, I am sharing some notes/ideas/mindsets that have stayed with me since our afternoon (credit given to others who shared their notes with me, too!)…
- People hate grades, but people also hate it when we don’t give grades
- Focus on the process, not the product
- Everyone thinks we know how to assess yet many of us are unhappy with our product
- Partial Merit rather than Partial Credit
- Partially Correct rather than Partially Incorrect
- Grading Myths…
- Quantitative grades are more subjective
- Grades motivate students to learn
- Quantitative grades are more subjective
- General movement to go gradeless - but what’s the alternative?
- How can we come up with a system that does what we need?
- Perfection is easy to define; imperfection is hard
- ‘I want you to tell me the one thing I need to focus on…’
- Progress Maps lead to Progress Profiles
- Not coming to a definition of fair - coming to an understanding of did the students learn…
- What else do you know about this subject? (A key question to ask)
- Not coming to a definition of fair - coming to an understanding of did the students learn…
- A lot of what we do prevents students from taking action, but then we put things in place that don’t allow them to take action
- One of the horrifying secrets of assessment - there is a huge margin of error
- Knowing is a state of being - you know/understand so that allows you to do something
- Focus on the action the students need to take to get there - not what they produce
- Feedback should provide an indication of progress and whether that is where they should be etc - provides an area to focus on to encourage growth
The post Association for Middle Level Education along with a sampling of responses to last week’s topic/question are highlighted below, and the strategies within will help all of us to stay focused on one of our fundamental goals - to foster and make connections with our students and one another...
Topic/Question (Week of 2/3/19): What helps you stay focused on your goals and dreams?
- Making sure they are refined and important enough that they will continuously be important for me to follow. Also writing them down and making clear plans for how I will pursue them.
- an ongoing to-do list, writing things down for reminders
- Helping others achieve their dreams.
- Thinking about them.
- When others support me and when they say I can’t do it.
- Believing
- small steps or maneuver in the new direction slowly. Practice, repeat, practice.
- Remembering why I make goals and have dreams.
- A schedule and ambition
- Support, encouragement and help from others keeps me focused on my goals and dreams. Also, always knowing that no matter what, there is always another minute, hour, day. Time is precious, never take it for granted.
- Music
- To keep going no matter what
- I have a journal that logs my goals and "bucket list" whenever I am feeling discouraged I look back at my notes to motivate myself to keep at the end result.
Curriculum is Not the Answer
by Peter Crable in AMLE
Crable’s post speaks directly to the heart of what I believe we strive for every day at Blake - strong relationships and a true belief that every student can learn. As the sub-title of this post reads, ‘It’s about the people who bring learning to life’.
Curriculum, in its ideal state, should define the learning and pedagogical priorities of a school...Additionally, curriculum should reflect the pedagogical preferences of a teacher, school, or district.
...I concluded that curriculum is not the answer...teaching is still a teaching business...The quality of the individual that the students see every day makes a greater difference in student engagement than the content they learn. Students will learn about dramatically less intrinsically interesting subjects if they believe in the adult in their classroom and know that the adult in their classroom believes in them.
As schools continue to look for ways to engage students as 21st century learners, by all means, examine curriculum and get the best of what's available. Don't forget, however, that curriculum alone will not magically improve a school. The deft hands of an expert are needed to mold that curriculum to the needs of the students in their classroom.
Throughout this month I want to continue highlighting some words in honor of Black History Month. Kelly C. shared these words from Maya Angelou and Angie Thomas, author of The Hate U Give, and they really resonated - the importance of sharing one’s voice/thoughts, speaking one’s truth, and taking action…
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Enjoy the week and take care.
Nat