To help encourage conversations and dialogue about the role that self-reflection plays in our growth as learners, our question for the week is: When thinking back on 2020, what have you learned about yourself and how have you grown as a learner? Looking Back to Look Forward (Week of 12/20/20) (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
I often find that the weekend before a vacation has a mixed set of pressure/emotions - a rush to get it all in, coupled with the excitement about the space to hopefully rest and breathe. Even with the chilly temperatures of Saturday morning, I hope that everyone was able to maybe get outside and enjoy the sun, snow, and wintery views.
Support and Care
What does that look like and how can we foster that connection with our students, one another, and ourselves? Health and care are foundational elements for any community, and one of my hopes is to stay connected and to keep dialogue open and active.
Intentional Reflection
Students will be receiving their Term 1 SBR packets in advisory this week and taking time to reflect on their learning. These end-of-term reflections hold immense value and I look forward to ‘listening’ to their thoughts. Asking questions is at the heart of listening - deeply listening - and the responses will help to hold myself accountable to our efforts. As simple as it may be, we need to continue to tap into the heads and hearts of our students - ‘Have we asked the students what they think?’
Cyclical Nature
We often talk about the ‘marriage’ of tradition and relevance (referencing the work of Tom Whitby) in schools. More so as of late, I have been witnessing and experiencing the ‘cyclical nature’ of thought, practices, and work. After Thanksgiving in a previous blog entry (Conscious Reflection), I shared a ‘discovery’ of an e-mail in the process of cleaning up my desk...
Our philosophies, beliefs, and practices of and for meaningful feedback, fostering/developing intrinsic motivation, authentic learning, and empowerment/agency are prime for this experience and time period. The impetus for engagement, choice, and support is critical. It will be critical that we build in systems of feedback and reflection for our students, staff, and families. I do not want us to miss out on what we are all learning right now (on many, many levels).
I had a similar experience this week - cleaning through some piles in my office, I came across notes from a presentation with Jamele Adams, Dean of Students at Brandeis. Jamele worked with us a couple of years ago and I hope to rekindle our connection in 2021. These are some of the notes that hold true (they held true then, hold true now, and I am sure will hold true forever)...
- ‘Is sacrifice hard or is it uncomfortable?’
- ‘We have responsibility when we gain information’
- ‘Now that I know this...what do I do with this?’
- ‘It’s as much about the world we want as the world that is...it’s as much about the people we are trying to be than the people we are’
- ‘We have to own the work that lies ahead’
Keep Learning and Moving Forward
This is what it’s all about - learning, growing, and moving forward. And I do believe that we (and I put myself in this category, for sure) as educators often make things more complicated than they need to be. As I look back at 2020 and ahead to 2021, I hope that the systems we are working to establish, and will continue to examine/establish, help to bring the complexity of learning into a honed vision for our students - one that helps provide meaningful feedback for all of our learners to reflect, learn, grow, and keep moving forward. And, yes - the same is true for all of us as educators and caring, invested learners at Blake. Throughout the spring and fall of 2020, I have enjoyed listening to HGSE’s Education Now webinars - ‘HGSE's Education Now webinars will look at the challenges of the moment, offering actionable insights that you can use today. We aim to give our audience strategies and ideas that will prompt hope, add fuel to the push for equity, and create the circumstances for transformation across education. Earlier in December the focus was on ‘curiosity and motivation’ - it felt as though it was designed for us at Blake with our theme of Curiosity for 2020-2021 and motivation being on the collective minds of our staff and families. Some notes are shared below - the webinar is worth viewing...
Curiosity and Motivation Amid the Pandemic
(28:05)
Elizabeth Bonawitz, Genevieve DeBose, Jal Mehta
This webinar aims to fortify you with some new ideas about how to refresh your approach and tap the intrinsic motivation of your students. How does curiosity work, and how can we spark it? How can we help young people develop and retain a love of learning and a connection to school — during these challenging times of distance and of unequal access to resources and support.
- Curiosity is a drive, like hunger or thirst; we need to drive our resources towards opportunities for learning
- Curiosity is present at birth, present in all children
- You can foster curiosity - highlight ambiguity; highlight gaps in understanding; bolster curiosity in the moment
- Foster question asking; foster question behaviors
- Every kid is motivated; what are different kids motivated to do and why?
- Motivation is rooted in connections (to peers, teachers, to content, to tasks, to life experiences)
- If kids can’t connect to their learning and those around them, they won’t learn
- Do you feel connected to your peers and to your content?
- Kids are very different; they respond in lots of different ways
- School has been a one-size-fits-all proposition - that has not gone well
- Lessen testing, where possible
- What should we be focusing on now?
- When a child thinks the teacher does not have a good understanding of their abilities, it will limit their abilities to try out new learning
- It’s critical that we develop rapport for social-emotional and cognitive supports
- Create space and time to let students tell us what is working and what is not
- ‘Shadow a student’
- Mary Helen Immordino Yang. “it is literally neurobiologically impossible to think deeply about things that you don’t care about.”
- Jal David Mehta - ‘You can't get achievement without engagement. And students can't do meaningful work that requires substantial work unless they are engaged.’
- Jal Mehta - ‘There is a lot of parallelism between what we are hoping to do with adults and what we want to do for kids. Adults also need relationships, support, and agency.’
- We are doing really good work right now
- Pivot Points - what is feasible?
- Remember one’s own genius
- Less is more (only keep the things that spark joy)
- It’s never great to rush off to the next thing
- Let it grow and flow; if it’s really important there will be another chance; otherwise, let it go
- Check in with students and ask for feedback
Sampling of Responses from Last Week’s ‘Question of the Week’: What strategies help you to be a better listener?
- Sometimes it's hard to just listen without sharing my own experiences. I'm trying hard to be a better active listener.
- Putting distractions away
- I’ve always been a pretty good listener. But one thing that helps me, is making sure that I don’t sit too far away from the teacher. Which has of course, gotten a lot harder with contact tracing and assigned seats.
- I need to slow down to listen well. My favorite listener is my father-in-law. He really takes an interest when I speak to him.
- Making eye contact with the speaker and reminding myself to listen rather than wait to speak.
- As I listen, I consider how logical a statement is and keep in mind that the speaker has their own reason for an opinion.
- Repeating things I hear
- Some strategies that help me become a better listener is listening to instructions since I am a visual listener.
- Take notes and keep repeating
- Not talking while someone else is talking.
- To block out any other thoughts.
- I am a better listener when I can be at the place, where the person I'm listening to is in front of me, and I have something to keep me moving, like a fidget or something like that. Or else I zone out and don't end up listening.
- To be quiet and calm
- Something that might make me be a better listener is if we watch more videos about our topic.
- Something that really helps me to be a better listener is to look at the person who is talking.
- Whenever someone is talking to me, I always try to picture what they are saying so I can be more focused instead of my mind drifting off. I also always make sure to look at the speaker, so they know they have my attention. Also, whenever someone is talking I never interrupt them, only nod if they are speaking or speak if they are done talking.
- For me I am a better listener when I am in a comfortable space and environment.
Why Asking the Teacher Isn’t Always the Best Course of Action
By Peter DeWitt (@PeterMDewitt) in Education Week
DeWitt, as I have shared before, is a ‘must follow’ - and this post helps us to ‘hold up a mirror’ and look at the systems and practices we have in place. We must continue to challenge ourselves to move beyond and forward so that students see themselves as the primary drivers of their own learning.
The reality is that one of the biggest concerns we should have about school during COVID has been the fact that so much of the conversation about learning is focused on what the teacher controls. There is a picture that has consistently been painted that parents and students are sitting at home waiting for the teacher to tell them what they should learn next, and that is an unhealthy dynamic to keep promoting.
Students need to learn what to do when they don’t know what to do, and they also need to realize that asking the teacher is not always the best course of action. The best course of action students can take is understanding the resources they have around them and how to use those resources to guide their own learning.
The reality is that all students are learning on their own right now. The sad part is that what they are choosing to learn on their own is not always what is valued in school, because of our continuing conversation around state and national assessments and what will be on the test. One of the biggest learning lessons I thought we would have during COVID is that what students choose to learn on their own is just as important as what they learn in school, and how both home learning and learning in school can intersect.
The best teaching we can do is to partner with students and help them maintain or create an understanding of what to do when they don’t know what to do. The cognitive conflict we go through when we are stuck creates a challenging moment that if we learn how to get through successfully can lead to growth in our own self-efficacy. We shouldn’t stop talking about COVID learning loss, but we should certainly partner that conversation with how students can better control their own learning, especially when they are stuck.
Processes and Principles for Public Schools Navigating Uncertainty and Adapting to Change
By Eric Tucker, Ashley Deal, Raelynn OLeary and Sarah Pactor in Getting Smart
This post is one that provides an overview of how one school shifted their model in a holistic manner - the process and lessons learned (shared below) are worthy of reflection and integration into our norms and practices as an educational community. As they note, it is a ‘story of inclusive design’ - We hope that by sharing our approach to inclusive design—what we did and what we learned—other education leaders will find inspiration to learn and adapt personally and professionally in a time when we are all being called to navigate uncertainty and adapt to change.
Experts from around the world are encouraging schools to prioritize safe, in-person options for families through the coming winter months. Food and housing insecurity, childcare needs, workplace instability, mental health and wellbeing concerns, the limitations of fully virtual options for some students, and the need for essential services inform these recommendations. Educators are being asked to lead through a period that lacks easy answers, where technical solutions are insufficient. How can schools better navigate this uncertainty, and come together to adapt and respond to the dark winter that has fallen?
It may be unusual to share our backstory, but we do this because it highlights one of the key principles of our project: To create solutions that work for all, we need to understand the real-life challenges people are experiencing, including our own as education leaders and designers. This helps us build the empathy we need to find solutions that work.
Our process involved five steps:
1. Constrain the space and focus the challenge.
2. Bring a variety of viewpoints to the table.
3. Create and share scenarios.
4. Focus on preparation over planning.
5. Prioritize the needs of the most vulnerable.
What We Learned
- This was a new situation, but we still had the same core goals
- Social and emotional needs form the foundation of learning
- Considering collective impacts is as important as focusing on specific challenges
- Balancing empathy for frustrations with hope for opportunities cultivates creativity
Listen and Connect: How Parents Can Support Teens’ Mental Health Right Now
By Deborah Farmer Kris in MindShift
The mental and emotional well-being of our students is the most important foundation for learning, and this post shares the work of adolescent psychologist Katie Hurley, author of A Year Of Positive Thinking For Teens. At the heart of her strategies are ‘listening and connecting’...“It sounds really simple, but the thing that teenagers are craving the most is connection and listening because this is hard for everyone,” she said.
Take Your Own Emotional Temperature
“Whether it is taking that daily walk or doing an online yoga class or some sort of exercise to get the endorphins going, we have to think about our own coping strategies,” says Hurley. She also strongly recommends meditation apps because mindfulness is a proven way to reduce the acute stress response. “When we use it, it works.”
Check-In Without Interviewing
What we need to do more of is just listening and asking, ‘How are you doing? How are you feeling?’"
Meet Them Where They Are
As Harvard psychologist Nancy Hill once noted, “Parenting teens is like hugging a cactus. Even as the ‘warm fuzzies’ are not often reciprocated, teens still need them, still need to know they are loved unconditionally.” According to a study she authored, parental warmth amplifies all other parenting strategies, even when teens distance themselves from parents.
Listen Your Way Through Their Problems
The best thing parents and caregivers can give teens right now is the undivided attention of listening, empathizing and compassion, says Hurley. When teens do share their worries, resist the urge to either minimize them or solve the problem for them.
Drowning Doesn’t Build Resilience
According to research, “children who do well despite serious hardship have had at least one stable and committed relationship with a supportive adult.” In other words, in tough times, a parent or caregiver’s very presence can be a protective factor.
Practice Zooming Out & Finding Purpose
As humans, we tend to zoom in to hyperfocus on what we think is important. For parents of teens, that often includes grades, test scores and the college process. But what if those aren’t the right places to focus our lenses right now? Hurley says, “We have to hit pause, zoom out and say, ‘What other things can our kids learn during this time?’
Look for Small Pieces of Happiness
...we can acknowledge all the ways teens are coping and growing and giving and express our awe at how well they are doing in an unnerving time. Recently, Hurley found herself saying to her own kids, “‘I think you guys are remarkable. This has been a really difficult time. And it hasn't always been easy for you, but you're weathering the storm with us, and you're doing what you need to do. And you're coming to us when it's too hard. And you're asking to play a game or walk the dog together if you need to connect.’ Those things are important and we have to call those out.”
At the end of each calendar year I look forward to setting aside some time for ‘end-of-the year’ reflection - thinking about both personal and collective learning, growth, challenges, and successes. Over vacation I will intentionally set aside time to reflect on ‘influential posts’, resolutions, and implications for myself and our learning community at Blake. The images and words below are ones that I hope will center us, guide us, challenge us, and lead us on our ‘imperfect journey’ with the hopes of ‘getting it all done’...
As always, let me know of any questions/concerns.
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Take care.
Nat
#willfulhope #willfulaction #longasIcanseethelight