To help encourage conversations, reflection, and dialogue about our learning over the past year, our question of the week is: Please complete this sentence - Over the last year one thing I have learned is... Over the Last Year... (Week of 3/14/21) (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
This weekend and the last few days have been emotional ones for me, and I am sure the same is true for many others. As we approached and passed the one-year anniversary of the school shut-down, thoughts and memories have been coming in and out of my mind. I have truly enjoyed reading reflections, op-eds, and posts that have taken ‘a look back’ and I know there will be many more to come. As a staff we have been taking time to do the same and we will continue to look back in an effort to also look forward for our students, ourselves, and our community. I also recognize that the coming days and months will mark other anniversaries of the pandemic, so the reflections will be living and evolving. In the spirit of this reflective time, I took a look back at some of the communication, resources, and information that was shared back in March, 2020 - it has been a cathartic experience for me and may do the same for others. Margaret Wheatley’s words help to frame this ‘journal/collection’...
from The Clay Center for Young Healthy Minds
Christi Barney shared this post with me a couple days after schools shut down - many similar ones were being shared at that time and I found this one to be particularly helpful - and, it sill resonates for educators, families, care providers, and parents/guardians.
E-mail to Blake Staff - 3/12/20…
Good morning -
With full awareness and understanding that there are many questions, concerns, and 'unknowns' for everyone, I wanted to write a quick note acknowledging our current reality. We are meeting as an Admin team this morning and updates will be shared as they are known. If Covid-19 comes up in your classes, please take the time to talk to students, listen, and dispel rumors/myths. Please also listen/observe for biased comments regarding the 'cause' of the pandemic. Being present for one another as a community is critical and I truly appreciate the collective care for our students and one another. I have shared the words and post below several times - they are pertinent, relevant, and true...
Listening is such a simple act. It requires us to be present, and that takes practice, but don't have to do anything else. We don't have to advise, or coach, or sound wise. We just have to be willing to sit there and listen. - Margaret J. Wheatley
Presence
Our days are busy, stressful and oftentimes we go home feeling as if we could’ve accomplished more. But at the end of the day we must ask ourselves one important question. "Do the people that we serve want to be in our presence? If the answer is yes, then we can accomplish most anything. If the answer is no. Well then we have work to do. Starting tomorrow.”
E-mail to Blake families - 3/17/20 (excerpted)
As a follow up to Dr. Marsden’s e-mail to all families, I am writing with Blake-specific information, reminders, and a few follow-up items. It is rare to find myself at a loss for words, but I am feeling that way right now as we are all adapting and norming to our current reality that feels as though it is changing ‘by the minute’. First and foremost, you (you, your children, our students, your families, our staff, your/our loved ones, and our collective community) are all very present on my mind and your health, safety, and well-being are the top priority. Our collective focus and message (to students, families, and staff) is on taking care of one another and ourselves - so, please do just that and let us know if there is anything we can do for support. There are lots of unanswered questions, but I do know we will adapt, support one another, and continue to be present. As Jeff conveyed in his e-mail to all staff yesterday, ‘Our work will look very different during the days and weeks to come, but our goal of doing our best to support kids remains the same. To be clear, this should not be seen as replacing the traditional school day...it just can't be done.’ Equity and support for all of our students and families are at the forefront of our thinking, decisions, and actions for students, families, and one another - expressing care, perspective, and an understanding of what is truly most important. Our Guiding Lights, mission, and core values will serve as our collective compass points - as Colby Swettberg shared with us, ‘We will make the path by walking it’.
I sincerely care a great deal about this community (students, staff, and families) and my (now virtual) door is always open. I fully recognize that I do not have the answers, but I can do my best to listen, process, brainstorm, and offer support.
Message shared by James Ryan (President of UVA) to students via Twitter on 3/15/20 - it expressed many of the feelings that we had - it was ‘spot on’, true, compassionate, affirming, and human...
Good evening/morning -
I hope this note finds everyone well - I wanted to send a note with some updates to everyone, knowing that some PD, collaboration, and meetings will be taking place throughout the day tomorrow (Friday, 3/27). As I shared with some (maybe many?) of you already, the Star Wars jokes of 'May the Fourth Be With You' were definitely conveyed by relatives last night! Lots of questions remain, but I know we will work together to continue a culture of care and support for our students, our families, and one another. It is important for all of us to remember that our 'new reality' is ever changing for students, staff, and families and that supports that may have been in place are evolving and changing (financial, emotional, physical, etc.) - we will continue to lean on one another and each other and will be 'the ones to lean on' for students/families as well.
I would be remiss by not sharing my deep appreciation for our staff and want to reiterate what I have said to Blake families and can't say it enough...
- You (you, your children, our students, your families, our staff, your/our loved ones, and our collective community) are all very present on our minds and your health, safety, and well-being are the top priority.
- Our collective focus and message (to students, families, and staff) is on taking care of one another and ourselves - so, please do just that and let us know if there is anything we can do for support.
I have shared this with Department Chairs/Teamworks this morning - there has been a weekly Modern Learners chat with educators across the country and it has given me a great perspective and sense of connection. Here are some notes I took from last night (you may see them again in the Natworthy/blog) and hear them as well - but, they speak to this rare and pivotal time in education right now. With full understanding of the pandemic and scary reasons for this 'remote learning', this is a time in education to capture, be creative, and move forward. Here are a few notes...
- We need to build in reflection for students/families - this is a pivotal and critical
- If there ever was a window of opportunity, it is now
- What have we learned about learning? What is our new normal going to look like?
- Asynchronous learning is really ideal for agency and empowerment
- What do you want to do differently now that we can?
- This a time that begs us to engage our communities in explorations re: the purpose of education; we should acknowledge the ways school folks have stepped up to engage in addressing the needs for feeding kids and confronting issues relating to our most vulnerable students and families
- Question to consider: How do we not let the need for comfort/normal allow us to “do school” as we always have? Will we revert back to 'normal' when we return?
E-mails/Blog Posts
Checking In With Blake Families (3/20/20)
Practicing Self-Care (3/25/20)
Finding Joy and Having Fun (4/1/20)
Flipgrids from Blake Staff to Students in Late March/Early April
Message to Blake Students/Families - 3/23/20
(Prompt: We are checking in and saying hi - we are thinking of all of our Blake students and families and wishing them well!)
Message to Blake Students/Families - 3/27/20
(Prompt: For our message this week to all Blakers, please say hi and share your favorite (or one of your favorite) foods/meals!)
Message to Blake Students/Families - 4/3/20
(Prompt: Hey Blakers - share what you liked to do for fun and to find joy as a kid and also share what you like to do now for fun and to find joy! I look forward to hearing how the Blake community makes fun/joy as part of our learning!)
Some Articles/Posts shared in March of 2020
School as Fiction
by Will Richardson (@willrich45)
I Refuse to Run a Coronavirus Home School
by Jennie Weiner in The New York Times
How to Cultivate More Self-Compassion
by Allison Abrams in Psychology Today
Brené Brown on vulnerability and courage - 60 Minutes
It's Time to Keep School Alive When We Shut the Doors
by Ewan McIntosh (@ewanmcintosh)
Where's the Silver Lining for Education?
by Tom Whitby (@tomwhitby)
That Discomfort You're Feeling Is Grief
by Scott Berinato in Harvard Business Review
Teaching Without Compulsory School
by Chris Lehmann (@chrislehmann)
Quotes shared in late March/Early April
- Make sure to have a good belly laugh before 10am each day.
- When talking with people learning our language, (from a different country), say very little and simplify what you say.
- Be positive!
- Problems are guidelines not stop signs
- The best thing to be is Kind.
- Be kind to everyone cause you don’t know what there going through.
- Be kind to everyone
- That mistakes are proof that you are trying, nobody is perfect, so stop trying to be perfect, just do your best.
- “let your smile change the world, do not let the world change you”
- If you are early you are on time, if you are on time you are late, if you are late, you are forgotten.
- No off days and if you push through rough days now, you will have a lifetime of happiness in the future
In keeping with the practice of highlighting words each week in honor of Women's History Month, these two quotes are ones that I find inspiring and encouraging to keep ‘fighting the good fight’ by sharing the learning and striving for the adaptation of systems for all of our learners...
As always, let me know of any questions/concerns.
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Take care.
Nat
#willfulhope #willfulaction #longasIcanseethelight