To help encourage conversations and dialogue about the ways we learn from one another, our topic/question for the dinner table is: What have you learned this year from a student? Learning From Students (Week of 6/11/17) (This is an anonymous Google Form)
I have to say that it was lovely to drive home last Friday afternoon and enjoy a beautiful, 'summer like' evening - the sun was shining and the air was lovely! Although the rainy, cool weather certainly was 'helpful' during the school day for students and staff alike, it sure is nice to have a taste of summer - hoping everyone has been able to enjoy it! We had a great couple of days - low key Friday evening (including Dairy Queen Blizzards for dessert!) and then a special outing with Katie's father, our nephew, and the kids on Saturday as we attended batting practice at Fenway on the field before watching the Red Sox-Tigers game. It is very hard to believe that we are in the last full week of the school year!
With the end of the year getting closer by what it feels like an increasingly faster pace than ever before, I think it is appropriate and essential to take a step back and make an effort to 'slow it down'. At last week's faculty meeting, I have been making more of a concerted effort to practice 'mindful moments' and simply take a few minutes of silence to simply sit and be quiet. As one who operates at an accelerated clip, it has really proven helpful to simply be in stillness and quiet. I encourage you to join me in this practice (and it indeed takes practice!) and to continue modeling it for our students and one another. I have also carved some time for intentional thought around our 'guiding lights' at Blake, as they center our work and help to do just that - guide our efforts...
Our Guiding Lights at Blake
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.
Maintaining our students at the forefront of our thinking, we should continue to keep ourselves and each other honest and accountable for helping facilitate growth and progress towards our core values, essential question, and mission. In practicing my favorite 4R (reflection), at our end-of-year staff luncheon next Tuesday I will continue the tradition of asking everyone to answer the following questions...
- 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?
These questions provide a sense of closure to our year together as a community, while also opening up a window or path to the future. I will be answering them as well, and I encourage all members of our greater community to read through them and see how they may or may not apply, as we are all learners and contribute to the education of our students. I could certainly go on and on about these 'guiding lights' and questions of reflection, but my intent is simple: Let's be sure that we are keeping them alive in our work, up to the last day so that we can finish strong. Two other questions may assist this reflective practice:
- What have you learned this year from a student? (Topic/Question for this week)
- What messages do you want to leave for our students? What do you want them to remember? (A humbling but important and centering question)
Forget Guide on the Side…Students Need a Guide on the Ride
by AJ Juliani (@ajjuliani)
Juliani is an avid blogger and I highly recommend 'following' him. I love his 'call to action' to view our students as classes as stories to tell, and pushing educators to be along for the ride of learning with our students, rather than a guide on the side.
You may have missed it along the way, but your class has a story. You might have been caught up in the everyday grind, or overwhelmed, or possibly just enjoying the moment…but your class and your school has a story.
As educators, we are called to this back and forth process of teaching and learning. We push and challenge, and then support and guide. It’s easy to get lost in the grind. It’s why so many teachers get burnt out…and why so many students complain about school. However, if we think about each school year as a journey — one that will not only come to an end, but also lead to new journeys — then our mindset changes from dealing with the grind, to crafting the best story possible.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone through a school year and had my students guide me and call me to action. In fact, the best stories are when I’m joining them on the adventure. When we are embarking together and learning by each other’s side. We may be learning different lessons along the way, but the journey is shared.
Conversations Instead of Grades
by Catlin Tucker (@catlin_tucker)
Tucker models reflection and a student-centered approach towards assessment and feedback. I could not agree more with her assertion that it is through conversations, and not grades, that learning and growth will take place. I hope we will continue to move towards this direction as a school community, building upon the progress that has been made with standards based reporting, meaningful feedback, digital portfolios, and (potentially) student-led conferences.
I wanted feedback and assessment to be an ongoing conversation. Too often students complete work at home in isolation. Then the teacher collects that work, takes it home, and grades it in isolation. This traditional workflow does not encourage face-to-face conversations about where each student is at in terms of his/her journey towards mastery.
As I conclude this year and reflect on what worked and what didn’t, I believe spending less time grading and more time having conversations with students about their progress has been one of the most rewarding shifts for me. Next year, I am determined to move assessment back into the classroom where it belongs!
Here Are Three Tips for Finishing the School Year Strong
by Alex Mammina in Education Week Teacher
This is a quick read, synthesizing responses to the question posed in the Twittersphere: The school year is almost over. How are you ending it in your classroom? They are simple: Stay positive, Keep learning, Have fun.
A strong finish to the year at Blake with our students and one another is in progress - I know it.
I look forward to the work that lies ahead for all of us.
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Take care.
Nat