To help encourage conversations and dialogue about PDF (Playtime, Downtime, Family Time), our topic/question for the dinner table is: What are you looking forward to and enjoying most about summer? Enjoying Summer (Summer 2020) (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
In the spirit of cultivating and fostering discourse, I encourage everyone to find/make time to read through the notes, resources, and posts that are within this reflection. Although they may read as ‘tangential and theoretical’, I firmly believe that the sharing of ideas, theory, and learning align with the core values of the Blake community. Please know that I am always happy and eager to process, listen, discuss, and share - my door (physical and remote) is always open - and I encourage everyone to do the same with one another.
When I sat down to update my blog with a mid-summer reflection, I looked back at ones I had written in past years. As one who loves to examine our traditions in the context of relevant learning, I found myself wanting to find a different quote than ones I have referenced in the past as a ‘starting point’. Although Thoreau’s words are not new to me (or to this blog), they hold a very different meaning (a deeper one, in fact) than in past years. With many of the phrases we are now all too familiar with to categorize our current reality (unprecedented, unique, unknown, surreal, ‘new normal’, ‘new abnormal’, etc.), this summer and the days/weeks/months leading into summer have felt for me like a winter.
With the increased time of solitude, reflection, ‘forced slowing down’, and feelings of bleakness (speaking from the ‘I’), I have felt as though we are in the midst of a long winter without the cold and snow. With all of these feelings on the forefront of my thinking and reality, while giving myself #permissiontofeel, the notion of maintaining summer - at least the notion of summer that I romanticize - feels more important than ever. July was certainly a busy month and I have enjoyed the time with our kids and family (they may feel like we need a break from each other!) and, although the work schedule has been intense, I have made a concerted effort to practice self-care with yoga, bike rides, reading/podcasts, and gardening. We enjoyed a lovely 4th of July weekend in the Berkshires and are hoping for some time on the Cape and to continue practicing #slowingitdown. Last year I shared this paragraph in my blog and I aim to carry them into my day-to-day reality for the month of August...
Summer is a wonderful time for many reasons, one of my favorites being the time that is ‘allowed, permitted, and/or encouraged’ for reflection and growth. As I think about our roles as educators and caring adults for our students and community, that is a mantra and goal for us throughout the year as well. We want our students, families, and selves to continually find the time to reflect and grow - and, in turn, learning will take place.
It does not go unnoticed for educators and school administrators to name and highlight the differences between the feelings of ‘August angst’ that we have in 2020 in comparison to past years. With so many unknowns the ‘August feels like a month full of Sundays’ phrase does not serve our feelings, emotions, and thoughts in quite the same way. Knowing that some of our questions about this fall will have answers soon (answers that we know may change), it is important to name and articulate the elements of our school and community that we all can lean on.
Last week I offered a time for our staff as an optional Zoom check-in to simply do just that - listen, check in, and provide a space for questions. I was once again affirmed (important to note that I was not surprised, but affirmed) by the care, commitment, and professionalism as students, well-being, families, and relationships were at the core of every sentiment. We will continue to check-in as we navigate these days together as a community. In my follow-up e-mail I shared (excerpted) the following - and I know I will continue to share them in the coming days/weeks/months as I believe and know that they will be the ‘posts’ and ‘guard rails’ that we can lean on for ourselves and one another (these messages are ones that will be conveyed to students and families alike)…
- This school year will certainly be different than any other - our mission, core values and beliefs, mantras, flexibility, and grace will guide our work and all of our decisions to best meet the needs of all of our students. I care deeply for every member of the Blake community and know that when we return (whatever it looks like), we will care for our students and one another
- When we return in the fall...we will meet students where they are at, we will meet one another where we are at, and we will all learn and move forward together
- Safety, Health, and Shared Responsibility will be guiding principles throughout this coming year (they have always been guiding principles, but they will be emphasized and articulated more than ever).
- Your well-being is most important - please take care of yourself, your family, and one another. Let us (the 'royal us') know if we can be of any help/support.
- Please take/make time for yourself and your family - at night, mornings, weekends - this will be helpful for our students/families as well throughout this coming year.
- Relationships, relationships, relationships - that is the most important thing we do and will continue to be the most important thing we do. Everything else is secondary (important, but secondary).
One practice that I have maintained throughout this summer has been that of reflection, always striving to make connections between and amongst my inner and outer self, my beliefs and actions, and my personal and professional life - articulating the connections, naming the gaps, and working to bridge or allow the gaps, as appropriate. As part of my own learning and growth this summer, I have been reflecting via different means and continued my focus on a few areas (these certainly are not siloed areas and are overlapping and interwoven in many, many ways with implications across several domains)…
- Practicing true intentionality and deliberation with self-care
- Reading and listening
- Mindfulness and reflections on our theme of Curiosity for 20-21 - what are the connections? What does curiosity mean? What does it look like? How can we embed it into our culture?
- Diversifying my own learning
- Sustainable change - what does support look like? What is needed? How can I/we support students and staff?
Staff Reflections
One practice that truly helps me to enter this reflective and productive mindset each year is reading the responses from the prompts asked of the Blake staff as we enter summer...
- 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)
Race, Racism, and Social Justice
I have shared this sentiment with staff and our community and would feel remiss if I did not continue to keep them at the forefront of thought, reflection, and action...
...as one who identifies as a white, heterosexual male I have been given many privileges and I have a responsibility to engage and act on my beliefs - although I have felt and known this, I know more than ever that I have an ethical and moral obligation to not only talk, but act on my anti-racist beliefs and convictions. I must continue to 'hold up a mirror', acknowledge my implicit biases, examine them, and truly listen. It is important for me/us to start, continue, and push these conversations.
With a number of staff throughout the district, we have been meeting on a regular basis to discuss these important issues with Ibram X. Kendi’s book, How to Be an Anti-Racist as a focal and centering anchor. I encourage each of us (individually and collectively) to think about and articulate steps towards work around race, racism, and social justice. Action steps I am committed to (not a final list, by any means)...
- Making time (time/endeavor will vary, but committing to something) at every faculty meeting for discussions/work
- Talking to Admin Leadership Team
- 'Broken record' messaging
- Connecting with Parents/Families to open up dialogue/action outside the walls of Blake
Being Antiracist Is Work, Even for Ibram X. Kendi
by Donovan X. Ramsey in WSJ Magazine
“I think it’s easy for people to come to my work and not think that I had a tremendous amount of resistance and even struggle in order to be able to write the type of books and even talk about the type of issues that I feel are necessary to talk about,” Kendi muses. “Most of my career has been rejection. It has been a career of people telling me no.”
“You’re constantly assessing to make sure you’re expressing antiracist ideas, to constantly make sure you are supporting antiracist policy,” Kendi says. “And to be antiracist is to admit those times in which we’re being racist and to commit to, of course, changing.”
“It’s not the type of thing in which you can just say, I read a book, and so I’m an antiracist. There’s no such thing as someone becoming an antiracist,” he says. “We can only strive to be.”
Opinion | John Lewis: Together, You Can Redeem the Soul of Our Nation
Mr. Lewis, the civil rights leader who died on July 17, wrote this essay shortly before his death, to be published upon the day of his funeral.- in The New York Times
Like so many young people today, I was searching for a way out, or some might say a way in, and then I heard the voice of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on an old radio. He was talking about the philosophy and discipline of nonviolence. He said we are all complicit when we tolerate injustice. He said it is not enough to say it will get better by and by. He said each of us has a moral obligation to stand up, speak up and speak out. When you see something that is not right, you must say something. You must do something. Democracy is not a state. It is an act, and each generation must do its part to help build what we called the Beloved Community, a nation and world society at peace with itself.
Ordinary people with extraordinary vision can redeem the soul of America by getting in what I call good trouble, necessary trouble.
Though I may not be here with you, I urge you to answer the highest calling of your heart and stand up for what you truly believe. In my life I have done all I can to demonstrate that the way of peace, the way of love and nonviolence is the more excellent way. Now it is your turn to let freedom ring. When historians pick up their pens to write the story of the 21st century, let them say that it was your generation who laid down the heavy burdens of hate at last and that peace finally triumphed over violence, aggression and war. So I say to you, walk with the wind, brothers and sisters, and let the spirit of peace and the power of everlasting love be your guide.
Patience Is a Dirty Word
by Ibram X. Kendi in The Atlantic
It is one thing to recognize racism. It is yet another thing to be anti-racist. Are Americans recognizing the colossus and fixing to run away from it out of fear of getting into trouble? Or are Americans readying, like Lewis, to get into trouble, “good trouble”?
But the gradualists of today admonish the gradualism of yesterday, condemning all those who opposed immediate emancipation, all those who told Lewis to tone down his speech in 1963. Reformists don’t age as well as revolutionaries. How could anyone say in 1829 that slavery should live another hour? How could anyone not have demanded a “scorched-earth policy” that burned “Jim Crow to the ground—nonviolently,” as Lewis was prevented from saying at the March on Washington?
A century from now, when almost all of us are dead, if we don’t act with urgency and boldness, I can only imagine what our descendants will be saying about us. How could we allow the evil of racial inequity to live another hour? How could we not support a scorched-earth policy to eliminate racial injustice? The revolutionaries of today will age well, as those revolutionaries of yesterday aged well.
To be anti-racist is to believe in the word now. Patience is a dirty word to those incarcerated by inequity. Patience is a nasty word to those with injustice kneeing down on their neck.
Some Recent Learning/Thoughts/Notes/Mindsets
Over the last five weeks I have ‘dove in’ and tried to soak up as much learning as has been offered - through podcasts, webinars, book discussions, job-alike meetings, resources made available from colleagues and social media networks. Below are some ‘learnings’, thoughts, and notes that have been percolating and bouncing around in my head - they range in topics (the first set is focused on 2020-2021 schooling and the second set are a few notes on race/racism - however, the notes apply to many (if not all) contexts of our work. I look forward to discussing, sharing, and engaging further with our community…
- Most defining characteristic of the new school year is uncertainty
- Variance is a guarantee
- Be clear on your mission and direction you want to go
- Only one generation of students have been educated during a pandemic
- Include our students and families
- Starting point needs to be relationships; connections between students and teachers are where we start
- Jal Mehta: It seems like a really good opportunity to build in student agency. Students have had to take more control of their learning when at home, and we should build on that when we come back. It also increases the likelihood they will do the work when at home.
- Talk to them. Rebuild the relationships. And then think about what the major things are for next year, and leave space to go into them in depth. Resist trying to stuff all of what they missed this year into next year.
- We are compiling a new body of knowledge as to what is effective for learning
- Deep, Powerful engaging instruction: Purpose (why we are doing this); Choice (control over what I am learning); Agency (goes with choice); Building a community where people are trusted, yet challenged
- Schools rely on invisible coercion (can’t happen in remote learning)
- Need to lean into our values; our values will get us through uncertainty
- Students: it was so hard to lose the social elements of schooling
- Make planning decisions through the lens of the least well-served students in your building
- Always have to have flexibility and grace
- Asynchronous options need to be available and ‘at the ready’
- Parents/families/communities need to be really involved
- Three ways to ‘engage’...
- Compel, Persuade, or You are Needed (Outward Bound)
- Let’s make people feel needed
- Borrow more ideas from competency-based learning and mastery-learning
- Provide lots of pathways to mastery
- Most important skill for teachers: Double down on our ability to build relationships; Practice our empathy; Care for most vulnerable learners
- Key Take-aways:
- Make planning decisions through the lens of the most disadvantaged population in your schools. That is how to establish equitable learning experiences for students.
- Consider hosting stakeholder design meetings, where students, parents, teachers, and administrators can list challenges, define values, and make decisions about new ways of working.
- Try to avoid squeezing all the things that weren’t learned in the spring. Identify the most critical curriculum and focus on that, while also allowing time for students to readjust to in-person time meaningful. Zero in on the parts of school that students love, where relationships can be sustained.
- Normal didn’t work for a lot of kids’; we should not revert back to normal
- 3 Questions: What do you value most from school? How could you start to imagine those things you value appearing in a new format? What can you leave behind - what don’t you need?
- If you’re not connecting or not succeeding, it’s because we haven’t figured it out for you
- Ask students: What needs to change for all of this to work better for you?
- Need to amplify student agency
- People still need to feel safe to be learn; can’t just be safe, it has to feel safe
- Many kids did not feel safe prior to the pandemic in school
- Need a strong internal locus of control as a teacher and strong locus of control as a citizen
- People still need to feel safe to be learn; can’t just be safe, it has to feel safe
- Many kids did not feel safe prior to the pandemic in school
- A lot of what we know about good teaching is cultivating the space for learning
- Be aware of the danger in ‘symbolic listening’
- Trust is built upon reciprocal actions
- Schools have an enormous well of ‘good will’ to draw on; 72% satisfaction response from the spring
- Starting over again is good for kids and adults; ‘I can try again’ - allow for that to work as you look ahead; opportunities to reset are really important; There may be some plans that don’t work as well - but if we let them run through, that’s ok
- Pandemic has revealed vast inequalities in our learning structures
- Schools should be places to spark joy!
- Doing fewer things more deeply creates the simplicity
- How do we use student interests to guide our work?
- Kids who are already anxious and frustrated and traumatized by the spring experience should not be welcomed back by a list of what they are behind on or lacking.
- ‘You might be awake, but are you ready?’ (Analogy to waking up in the morning, but are you ready for school?)
- How we view things is critical
- Empathy gap in race (Covid-19)
- Use Design Thinking Process — start with empathy
- Empathy: The Most Important Back-to-School Supply (Home Tavangar)
- Racial Literacy provides opportunities to iterate
- Empathy allows us to iterate
- Whiteness is always present, but sometimes it’s hard to see
- Seeing racial difference is not racist
I ‘discovered’ podcasts in the summer of 2019 and wondered where I had been hiding to have just come across this incredible resource! The challenge for me (just like with books, posts, shows, etc.) is that information abounds and there simply is not enough time. Here are a few podcasts that I have enjoyed - they have pushed, challenged, enlightened, and entertained me (often all at once)...
1619 Podcast - The New York Times
In August of 1619, a ship carrying more than 20 enslaved Africans arrived in the English colony of Virginia. America was not yet America, but this was the moment it began. No aspect of the country that would be formed here has been untouched by the 250 years of slavery that followed. On the 400th anniversary of this fateful moment, it is time to tell the story. “1619” is a New York Times audio series hosted by Nikole Hannah-Jones. You can find more information about it at nytimes.com/1619podcast.
Unlocking Us with Brené Brown on Apple Podcasts
I’ve spent over 20 years studying the emotions and experiences that bring meaning and purpose to our lives, and if there’s one thing I’ve learned it’s this: We are hardwired for connection, and connecting requires courage, vulnerability, and conversation. I want this to be a podcast that’s real, unpolished, honest, and reflects both the magic and the messiness of what it means to be human. Episodes will include conversations with the people who are teaching me, challenging me, confusing me, or maybe even ticking me off a little. I'll also have direct conversations with you about what I’m learning from new research, and we'll do some episodes dedicated to answering your questions. We don’t have to do life alone. We were never meant to.
Class Disrupted
The coronavirus pandemic disrupted education across the U.S. and changed our assumptions about what it means to go to school. When kids return to the classroom, things won’t be the same. Diane Tavenner and Michael Horn answer questions from parents and talk with educators and leading thinkers about how we can approach teaching and learning differently to better meet the needs of all students.
Have You Heard Podcast – Have You Heard
Join journalist Jennifer Berkshire and education historian Jack Schneider as they explore education policy and politics, one hot-button topic at a time.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Hi, I’m Dax Shepard, and I love talking to people. I am endlessly fascinated by the messiness of being human, and I find people who are vulnerable and honest about their struggles and shortcomings to be incredibly sexy. I invite you to join me as I explore other people’s stories. We will celebrate, above all, the challenges and setbacks that ultimately lead to growth and betterment.
What qualifies me for such an endeavor? More than a decade of sobriety, a degree in Anthropology and four years of improv training. I will attempt to discover human “truths” without any laboratory work, clinical trials or data collection. I will be, in the great tradition of 16th-century scientists, an Armchair Expert.
Code Switch
What's CODE SWITCH? It's the fearless conversations about race that you've been waiting for! Hosted by journalists of color, our podcast tackles the subject of race head-on. We explore how it impacts every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, sports and everything in between. This podcast makes ALL OF US part of the conversation — because we're all part of the story.
What's the Big Idea? on Apple Podcasts
We're a podcast about big ideas in progressive education. Tune in to listen and think, then respond on Twitter or Instagram @BigIdeaEd
The Happiness Lab with Dr. Laurie Santos on Apple Podcasts
You might think you know what it takes to lead a happier life… more money, a better job, or Instagram-worthy vacations. You’re dead wrong. Yale professor Dr. Laurie Santos has studied the science of happiness and found that many of us do the exact opposite of what will truly make our lives better. Based on the psychology course she teaches at Yale--the most popular class in the university’s 300-year history--Laurie will take you through the latest scientific research and share some surprising and inspiring stories that will change the way you think about happiness.
TeachLab with Justin Reich - Podcast
TeachLab is a podcast that investigates the art and craft of teaching. There are 3.5 million K-12 teachers in America, and we want to explore how they can become even better at what they do. Hosted by Justin Reich, MIT Professor and director of the MIT Teaching Systems Lab.
Getting Smart
Welcome to the Getting Smart Podcast. Episodes cover a variety of education topics in K-12, HigherEd and lifelong learning. Listen in as our team shares interviews with today's top educators, learning organizations, and thought leaders discussing the future of teaching and learning.
Flying Coach With Steve Kerr and Pete Carroll on Apple Podcasts
Steve Kerr and Pete Carroll discuss their respective coaching and leadership experiences, how they run their teams, where the NBA and NFL overlap and differ, and the formative influences in their careers.
Let's K12 Better
Mom Of All Capes
How should we prepare kids for life in the 21st century? We're sharing insights, asking experts, exploring new ideas, and actively pursuing an improved K12 experience for the kids, the parents, and their educators. Join us!#LetsK12Better
Some Posts That Resonate
The posts below resonate with me as I/we look ahead to tomorrow and what awaits our students, staff, and families. As with the connections I referenced above, the personal/professional overlaps are clear - it is important to listen, grow, and push one another.
How Might Change Be Driven by Coherence?
by Will Richardson (@willrich45)
In our best world, all of our actions center the greater, or public good. We share a vision for a just, equitable, thriving society, and we contribute our ideas and our work in service to that. We are a community. We are truly neighbors who care for and support each other’s aspirations because we know achieving them will serve us all, not just the individual.
In our current world, however, most of our actions serve the private good. We seek to “win” at the expense of others. We value the tangible things upon which we can measure our success. We put ourselves in the center of the story, and we feel impacted only by what we see in front of us.
In our future world, neither of those will sustain. In order for our species to survive and thrive, we must act for the global good. It’s not so much about allegiance to our cities or towns or nations as it is the collective of humans on the planet. This moment is telling us that how we act impacts all others and the world itself. It should just be a reminder, but for some it feels like a brand new lesson.
...the way we think about change needs to be driven by the idea of “coherence” as in “the quality of forming a unified whole.”
Change conversations can no longer be focused on how we might live differently in our schools but how we might live differently as schools in the world. We must start with a commitment to shared values that contribute to the global good, and we must fiercely inquire about and interrogate the gaps between those values and our practice...If we want to become helpful instead of helpless, if we truly want to live lives that nourish the global good, we must first be coherent in our motivations and our actions, not just with one another, but with the world.
Marie Kondo the Curriculum
by Jal Mehta and Shanna Peeples
...spending time with these two questions works as a kind of Swiss Army knife for cutting to the essential heart of the learning experiences we want for our students: What do you want your students to love? How can your students use what you’re teaching them to understand the world and respond to its problems?
We also should think about the implicit messages we are sending. If, when students return to school in the fall, our primary message is that they are behind and need to do double doses of eat-your-broccoli type schooling, then they will rightly intuit that we don’t care much about them in the present and see them only as vessels into which we deposit knowledge that we think is important. If, instead, we welcome them back as whole human beings, as people who have had a life-defining experience and survived it with resilience and verve, and invite them to inquire with us about topics of mutual interest, we are much more likely to sustain their energy and attention.
To put it another way, everything in our curriculum has a purpose—or had a purpose when it was first introduced—but not everything in our curriculum needs to stay. Much like yesterday’s wardrobe or old souvenirs, things that were once important are now obstacles to living our best life. We can let these go with gratitude for their marking of how we have grown in our practice, while creating space on our educational shelves for what we need today.
How to Plan When You Don’t Know What to Plan For
by Katie Hicks and Sarah Schroeder in Edutopia
Build a Communication Plan
Organize Content
Constantly Evaluate Your Toolbox
Plan Activities to Build Relationships in Any Space
Design Discovery Activities for Key Technology Tools
Create Routines that are Consistent Across All Spaces
With so much uncertainty about what next year looks like, it’s easy to be overwhelmed. Start with the pieces you have control over.
Three Lessons for Teachers from Grant Wiggins
by Jay McTighe in ASCD
(Jay McTighe's tweet about this post - 'While the new school year promises to be anything but normal, there are certain enduring qualities of great teachers and teaching that can be applied in virtual and blended environments. Here are three valuable reminders from Grant Wiggins. Please share!')
Lesson #1 - Always Keep the End in Mind
Lesson #2- Feedback is Key to Successful Learning and Performance
Lesson #3 - Have Empathy for the Learner
What if Kindness Is the New Normal? A Call to Re-Imagine the Purpose of Education in the Post-COVID World
by Vishal Talreja and Sucheta Bhat in WISE
As we start preparing ourselves for the post-pandemic world, our invitation is to use this pause to re-imagine how schools and learning ecosystems can be truly transformative for all children.
For example, what if learning ecosystems decide to:
- Spend the first three months when children come back to school only on re-integrating them into the post COVID-19 world, while deprioritizing academic subjects.
- Have no examinations across the board for one year.
- Invest in targeted trauma-healing of teachers, resulting in schools becoming more trauma responsive.
- Support school leaders to re-imagine the school calendar to integrate life-skills and SEL as core components to prepare children for future uncertainty.
- Change the metric of success of our education systems from academic and economic outcomes to well-being and thriving of all students, communities, and the planet.
I Was a Screen–Time Expert. Then the Coronavirus Happened.
by Anya Kamanetz in The New York Times
Before the pandemic, I was a parenting expert. It was a cushy gig...Now, like Socrates, I know better. I know that I know nothing.
Parenting expert? Please. I took only 12-week maternity leaves, and for the second baby, I had both the nanny’s help and the big girl in pre-K five days a week. I finished my parenting book about screen-time on that maternity leave, which was kind of like writing up lab results before the experiment was finished.
I want to take this moment to apologize to anyone who faced similar constraints before the pandemic and felt judged or shamed by my, or anyone’s, implication that they weren’t good parents because they weren’t successfully enforcing a “healthy balance” with screens, either for themselves or their children. That was a fat honking wad of privilege speaking. But on reflection, some of the ideas and principles I used to intone so confidently have actually shown their mettle in new ways in this new world. I offer them to you now, humbly. I speak softly and do not carry a mic.
Connect with other people
Go slow
Reduce and repair, don’t eliminate
Focus on feelings, not on screens
The State of Play
By Jessica Grose in The New York Times
… even in the most difficult times, our kids are capable of boundless joy, and that their fertile imaginations provide solace when our grown-up world falls short.
Eight Tips To Slow Down Summer
by Kris Felicello (@kfelicello)
This post by Felicello is one I have shared in the past - it offers 8 tips for how we, educators and families alike, can slow down the pace and our heads in an effort to enjoy, relax, regroup, and refresh for the coming school year: Create a Summer Bucket List; Create a New Habit; Read; Reconnect; Day Trip; Play the Notice Game; Learn Something; Do Something New.
If you are not in the education field, you may begrudge teachers for what you see as a two month glimpse into retired life, but, for us in the field, we know when you do it right, you often leave it all on the field so to speak and need time to reinvent yourself for the challenge that the next school year and next group of students will bring. No matter how much you love teaching or being an administrator, no matter how much you love kids, the challenge of changing lives, and/or of inspiring the next generation of leaders, you would be hard pressed to find an educator who doesn’t wish they could slow down the clock to make summer last just a little bit longer.
We have settled into the summer mode, the relaxation and good vibes of summer and its inevitable end is far enough away that the negative nellies are not yet signaling its impending doom. It is not too late, you have the opportunity to slow down your summer, to make the most of it. From one educator to another–I know how hard you work; I know how you lay yourself on the line each and every day. You deserve a long summer that will get you ready to do battle and fight the good fight for our kids come September.
Holding on to Summer…
As we await more information regarding the start of the upcoming school year, I will keep reminding myself that it is important to hold onto these summer days, afternoons, and nights. As a family, we hope to find time for some trips to the cape, Blueberry Hill Farm, some more Farm Pond swims, gardening, yoga, and cooking. Most important, though, I want to be present and take it one day at a time. I am sharing some quotes that I share each summer that help me to #slowitdown, #leantowardsyes, and practice #willfulhope - I hope they can do the same for others (although it is a different kind of summer and I recognize the privilege I have to ‘entertain’ these quotes, the sentiments are ones that are important and worthy of reflection)...
Summer is the annual permission slip to be lazy. To do nothing and have it count for something. To lie in the grass and count the stars. To sit on a branch and study the clouds. -- Regina Brett
Good friends, good books, and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life. -- Mark Twain
Summer afternoon-summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language. -- Henry James
Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer's day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time. -- John Lubbock
Aaah, summer - that long anticipated stretch of lazy, lingering days, free of responsibility and rife with possibility. It's a time to hunt for insects, master handstands, practice swimming strokes, conquer trees, explore nooks and crannies, and make new friends. -- Darell Hammond
As I share each year at this 'midpoint of summer', I hope everyone enjoys a relaxed, restful, reflective, and fun second half of summer, full of both 'everything and nothing’ at the same time. Stay tuned for the 'Opening Letter' to all Blake families in mid-August. And, as Kris Felicello shared at the end of the post referenced above...
There is no reason a late August day can’t be just as much summer as a late June one. Don’t start the countdown; just enjoy each day for what it is.
#willfulhope
I look forward to the work that lies ahead for all of us.
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Enjoy these summer days, stay safe, and take care.
Nat