To help encourage conversations and dialogue about curiosity, learning, and moving forward, our topic/question of the week is: What are you hoping to learn about in 2019? Moving Forward (Week of 1/6/19) (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.
With only three days back to school it sure feels as though we are back in the swing of things as we start 2019 together. With the rainy weather on Saturday, the boys and I had a pretty quiet day beyond their weekly town basketball games. Katie took Maggie and a few friends away to celebrate her upcoming 15th birthday - I know I say it every year, but it sure is amazing how quickly time goes by! I vividly remember 15 years ago - getting ‘the call’ from Katie, walking out of the sixth grade wing, and telling Keri Sperling that ‘it was time’ - boy was I scared! Katie and I feel so appreciative of and for the Blake and Medfield community and culture of care with our children and family over these years - truly.
At this week’s faculty meeting we will be taking some time to step back, reflect together, and ‘check in’ at the ‘almost midpoint’ of our school year. Blake is a busy and engaged place with lots of excellent work taking place on all levels (classroom, cluster, grade level, department, school - and all of these interwoven as well) and I believe it is important from time to time to talk about this web and share some ideas as well. As John Hattie’s research has shown (see below), ‘collective teacher efficacy’ has a positive impact ‘beyond the zone of desired effects’ on student learning - and, at the core of this work is both individual and collective professional development.
- The # 1 predictor of engagement is relevance
- The # 1 priority is adult development (‘adult development over child development’) - ‘we can’t ask people to do things we don’t do ourselves’
- The # 1 challenge we face is getting adults to see it as their inherent responsibility to do their own professional development
by Beth Holland (@brholland)
I always look forward to Beth’s annual posts (The Year of Agency - 2016, The Year of Agency Take 2 - 2017, It’s always darkest before the dawn… - 2018 (Focus on Hope)) as I appreciate her perspective - grounded in research and pedagogy with a focus on relevance and student-centered learning.
I am looking ahead to 2019 knowing that I not only survived the last few years, but that I also developed what may be the most valuable skill that I will need for the rest of my career: I learned how to learn.
In the industrial era, a person could develop a single skill and then be set for life. On the contrary, in a networked society that values innovation, the ability to solve unstructured problems, adaptability, and the capacity to construct new knowledge, the need for learning has re-emerged. Therefore, I think that 2019 may be the Year of Learning.
Though my schooling may be complete, I realize that I still have much to learn. After surviving the past few years, I am very confident about the gaps in my knowledge as well as my own ability to fill them. Given our current social, political, and economic climate, there is no telling what may come in the next twelve months. However, if we all consider this the Year of Learning, imagine what may be possible in our schools, our classrooms, and in our communities.
Topic/Question (Week of 1/6/19): Please complete this statement: For 2019, I am committed to these 1-2 resolutions...
- To read a pleasure reading book for at least 20 minutes each day / To recommit to good eating habits
- less social media...more happiness. Not making resolutions just making plans!!!
- I will compromise! :)
- Do 3 good things for people every day. Exercise in walking every day. Paint or draw every day.
- Get better grades, try hard
- I want to be more organize
- 1) To volunteer more 2) to check over all my work in math.
- Getting up earlier
- Getting my book published n becoming a more calm person
2018’s Influential Posts
These are not necessarily the ‘top posts’ - rather that are ones that have held meaning for me, our collective work, and our community of learners…
Is It the End of Math Homework?
by AJ Juliani (@ajjuliani)
Are We Getting Better at the Wrong Things?
by Katie Martin (@katiemartinedu)
Will Letter Grades Survive?
by Laura McKenna in Edutopia
Interactive Competence
by Esko Kilpi (@EskoKilpi)
We’re Trying To Do “The Wrong Thing Right” in Schools
by Will Richardson (@willrich45)
We’re in the Learning Business, Yet...
by Michael Bostwick (@M_Bostwick)
The Lost Art of Listening
by Eric Sheninger (@E_Sheninger)
5 Questions Every Kid Is Trying to Answer
by David Guerin (@DavidGuerin)
A Pernicious Myth: Basics Before Deeper Learning
by Jal Mehta (@jal_mehta) in Education Week
No Place for Social-Emotional Learning In Schools? Are You Sure?
by Peter DeWitt (@PeterMDeWitt) in Education Week
Do Educators Really Want Parents to Be Held Accountable?
by Peter DeWitt (@PeterMDeWitt) in Education Week
Courage Over Comfort: Rumbling with Shame, Accountability, and Failure at Work
by Brene Brown (@BreneBrown)
School Without Scoreboards
by Arthur Chiaravalli (@hhschiaravalli)
Wanted: Professional Learners
by Will Richardson (@willrich45)
Learning Is a Learned Behavior. Here’s How to Get Better at It
by Ulrich Boser in Harvard Business Review
Why Change School?
by Will Richardson (@willrich45)
From Final Exam to Defense of Learning
by Beth Holland (@brholland) in Education Week
Be Firm in Your Principles. Be Flexible in Your Practices
By David Guerin (@DavidGuerin)
Attaching Complexity With Confidence
by Jonathan Rochelle, Katherine Prince, and Tom Vander Ark in Getting Smart
To Raise Independent Kids, Treat Middle School Like a Dress Rehearsal for Life
by Braden Bell in The Washington Post
Why parents should try to be happy, even when their child isn’t
by KJ Dell’Antonia in The Washington Post
The Problem with, "Show Me the Research" Thinking
by Rick Wormeli (@rickwormeli2) in AMLE Magazine
The Most Important Skill at the Office Isn't Being Taught in School
in Entrepreneur
The Most Important Skill for the Future: Being Human
by Will Richardson (@willrich45)
How to Plan and Implement Continuous Improvement In Schools
by Katrina Schwartz (@KSchwart) in MindShift
As I reflect and look back with an eye to move forward (and with a nod towards traditions), I am ending this post with some quotations from last year’s end of-year post - they are ones that continue to offer perspective, inspiration, guidance, and hope...
We are going to make the path by walking it. - Colby Swettberg
We can't teach what we don't know. We can't lead where we won't go. - Malcolm X
If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn. - Charlie Parker
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Enjoy the week and take care.
Nat