To encourage dialogue and reflection about the connection and thread between/amongst our purpose, hopes, and practices, our question for this week is: What do you hope to accomplish in school over the next few weeks? Purpose, Hopes, and Practices (Week of 3/5/23) (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
The weather over the past week has definitely served as a reminder that winter is not over - that said, it has been lovely and restorative to have the sunlight shining at later hours during the day. That light certainly gives hope that spring is not too far away! Our weekend was a pretty quiet one - some basketball games for the boys, catching up (trying to catch up!) on some work, and some time to ‘just be’.
Attending MassCue this past Friday really helped me to ‘lose sight of the shore’, reflect, and think/plan for new horizons. I recognize that I have the privilege to do that and am thinking about the responsibility of bringing the learning back to Blake and our community. As I told Katie and a few colleagues on Friday afternoon, the day felt like a ‘vitamin boost’ of inspiration, collegiality, and learning. As a side note…wouldn’t that be a wonderful thing if all of our students described a day at Blake that way? I look forward to sharing ‘the learning’ in the coming days/weeks.
One of the highlights of the day was listening to Dr. Patrick Tutwiler’s (MA Secretary of Education) opening remarks to the attendees. I have long admired Dr. Tutwiler’s work and leadership and although his message was brief, it was clear, pertinent, and meaningful. This year’s theme for the spring conference was ‘Equity: What’s Next?’ and he spoke to the need to ask two more questions…What’s needed? What’s right? Those questions can serve as compass points in our work, along with his clear vision for education - ‘the importance of meaningful experiences on campus and in schools’.
Over the next two weeks we will be having our incoming information nights for families as we formally begin the process for planning and communication for the 23-24 academic year. I look forward to these nights as they are opportunities to engage with, partner with, and share with families the vision, hopes, and practices we have in place and are looking to implement as we look forward. In essence, the nights serve as a mechanism for all of us to ‘lose sight of the shore’ while also putting one step in front of the other. The ‘shares below’ speak to this framework of purpose/hopes/practices - a few screenshots of slides that will be shared with families, a post and podcast that connect to our work, and some responses from the recent question of the week. I hope that they all resonate on some level with all and would welcome the opportunity to process, listen, and share with others.
** Importance of Knowing and Starting with Why
by Jane R. Shore (@shorejaneshore)
Learning is everywhere. Making some incidental, or unplanned, learning opportunities explicit can honor and harness those moments when the unexpected provides a valuable lesson.
Research has found that incidental learning:
- can be more effective, for example if someone lacks confidence in their ability to learn, and consequently avoids intentional learning.
- can be more efficient, for example if someone would need to spend a lot of time and effort in order to learn something intentionally, but could learn the same thing easily and automatically through their daily routine.
- can be more enjoyable, for example, if someone doesn’t like making an effort to learn things actively, but does enjoy making progress.
Happiness 2.0: Cultivating Your Purpose | Hidden Brain
(50 min, 18 sec)
Having a sense of purpose can be a buffer against the challenges we all face at various stages of life. Purpose can also boost our health and longevity. In this favorite episode from 2021, Cornell University psychologist Anthony Burrow explains why purpose isn’t something to be found — it’s something we can develop from within.
EPISODE NOTES
Having a sense of purpose can be a buffer against the challenges we all face at various stages of life. Purpose can also boost our health and longevity. In this favorite episode from 2021, Cornell University psychologist Anthony Burrow explains why purpose isn’t something to be found — it’s something we can develop from within.
Some highlights from the transcript…
…purpose may not be as much about comprehending what's happened as it is about aspiring or intending to accomplish something that's ahead of you.
Purpose is not synonymous with what the world sees in front of you. It is entirely internally driven. The answer to the question, " What is your purpose?", Is not something you can crowdsource, it's not something that you can turn to others and say, "Hey, tell me from your profile view, which direction does it look like I'm heading in?" It's an internal quest. Not until you realize that, you begin to ask yourself the questions: "Who are you? What direction are you heading in? What is your purpose?", would it really show up and become salient or actionable to you.
…one of the benefits of feeling a sense of purpose is that it can help us remain even keel in moments of stress or challenge, and sometimes even uplifting experiences…purposeful individuals, or those that tend to score higher than their peers on measures of purpose in life, their stressful days kind of look like non-stressful days for the rest of us.
…sometimes purposeful people report more day-to-day stressors than their peers who report lower levels of purpose in life. But on days in which people tend to report stressors, having a sense of purpose seems to buffer or mitigate the ill intended consequences of stressors.
In his articulation of "A Dream," Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., invited us to imagine a world that was not yet present. I think that's a profound, yet again, a profound insight into a distinction between a goal that we can accomplish and a purpose that long after us, we can still be intending to move towards. The aspirational tone is so vivid, even in his reminder that he may not arrive there with us, but it was still worth the effort. It was still worth the pursuit, and reminding us that we are empowered to carry this forward.
Sampling of Responses from Last Week’s ‘Question of the Week’: How can vacations help us learn?
- It can help us regain clarity.
- It's important to take a step back in order to come back fresh and rejuvenated. Vacations can help us look at things from new perspectives when we come back with "fresh" eyes.
- Vacations offer time to change the routine which can breathe new energy into our ways of being and learning about ourselves and the world.
- It can help us relax and prepare our minds for learning.
- It allows our minds to take a break and slow down.
- It can let the brain take a break for more learning later.
- Vacations can help us learn what life is like when you don't have to wake up for school everyday.
- Because we can take a brain break
- Normal life can be repetitive, and sometimes boring, vacations let us escape normal life and go on an adventure we wouldn't have gone on any way.
- We get more sleep and become more relaxed/happy.
- It can give us a break from all of the stress of school.
- When you have a lot of stuff going on in school and it's been a couple months where you have been at school and doing work constantly it's good to have your mind take a break and relax for a little bit so you're not so stressed out.
- It lets us take a break, so that when we get back it’s like a little game trying to remember what we were learning before break.
- They give a break from school and can focus your mind on something else for a couple of weeks a year
- Vacations can let us take a break from all of the stress
- Mental health breaks are necessary in order to move forwards with a healthy mindset, ready to learn.
- Vacations, especially if it's a long vacation helps me focus more when coming back to school. It just lets my brain relax for a few days and not worry about homework and quizzes.
- Vacations allow us to take a break and come back with a new mindset.
- they give us a break from learning
March 1 marked the beginning of Women's History Month and I will continue my practice of sharing words throughout the month that hold meaning and push ‘the royal we’ to collectively examine our practices in the context of our vision, purpose, and hopes…
Please click here for Blake Updates.
Please click here for District Community Notices.
Take care.
Nat