To encourage dialogue and reflection about reflection by asking questions, including ‘big picture’ questions, our question of the week is: If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go? And, why? Questioning for Reflection (Week of 5/22/22) (This is an anonymous Google Form)
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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
We had a relatively busy couple of days this past weekend - Maggie’s prom was on Friday evening (beautiful afternoon for pictures and the send-off!) and then back to Blake for the 8th grade dance, sports ‘shuffling’ for the boys on Saturday, and watching the Celtics (I hate the late games! - many have heard me complain about it!), and then the Senior Car parade took place for Maggie’s class - whew! I want to extend a special thanks to all of the staff members who chaperoned the dance, helping to provide a safe and fun night for our students: Jillian Shaw, Marcia Berkowitz, Seth Hellerstein, Ann Marie Fratolillo, Matt Marenghi, Elise Malone, Kaitlyn O’Connor, Mary Ellen DuBois, and Mary Salamone. Thank you as well to everyone for all of the support for the night!
A big part of this reflective process for me has been the way that questions (both small and big) come to mind. In the spirit of trying to create the space for looking back, staying present, and looking forward, the post below (written in 2017) is one that I try to come back to as the questions within serve as mechanisms for deeper reflection, growth, and learning…
Questions to Ask Yourself as the School Year Winds Down (Opinion)
by Justin Minkel in Education Week
Think of a school year as a human life. It has a birth, messy and hopeful and new. It has a death, too. That last day will soon come when the individual personalities who make up our class will never be together as a class again. In between, a lot happens: new abilities acquired in fits and starts, a midlife crisis or two when it all feels hard and hopeless, and some peace near the end with all that was accomplished and all that wasn’t.
When the school year is suddenly counted in days rather than months, we begin to take stock of our triumphs and failures. These precious few weeks, close enough to the end to feel a sense of urgency and introspection, but with enough time to act on any epiphanies that come, are a perfect time for reflection.
Shanna Peeples, the 2015 National Teacher of the Year, recommends that everyone in our profession find 10 minutes a night to jot down a few thoughts on these questions: What do I do well in my classroom? What do I need to work on? What do I want to do next?
…the real reflection on what kind of teacher I have been this year is deeply personal and very specific. It has to do with my own test of conscience about how closely my actions have aligned with my beliefs about children and teaching. Evidence of the gap between philosophy and reality in my classroom tends to come “from the mouths of babes"—from what my students tell and show me every day.
The month of May sometimes feels like a stumbling stagger toward the finish line. It can also be a time to reflect. Before the rush of the school year recedes into a hazy memory, give yourself 15 minutes to ponder these five questions…
- What have you taught? This means a lot more than the bulleted content outlined in the standards. What have you taught the children in your care this year, by your words or example, about how to be a human being in the world?
- What have you learned? What do you know now that you didn’t in August about children, teaching, and yourself?
- What have you done well? Teachers tend to be hard on ourselves. Don’t gloss over your strengths and successes, large or small.
- What do you need to work on? Not a single teacher in the entire world has had a flawless school year, so don’t beat yourself up for the ways you may have fallen short. But think about what you can change or learn to better meet your students’ many needs. Seek out resources on teaching English-language learners. Resolve to speak more kindly to the children in your class, even when you’re frustrated. We still have a little time left to make those changes.
- What impact did you have beyond your own classroom? Teacher leadership doesn’t have to happen on a grand scale to be significant. If you led a professional development session at your school, gave your grade-level team an idea for a project, or gave a new teacher a little reassurance and wisdom right when she needed it most, your influence extended beyond your own students.
We live our lives in a straight line. The years accumulate one by one; each new school year begins and ends. Time keeps flowing in its single direction, carrying us onward. But for those of us who teach, time is also circular. We end the ritual of another school year, reach the summer and rest our spirits, then begin the cycle again.
Whether we stagnate or become better every year has everything to do with taking the time to reflect, then finding the courage and tenacity to change. The mercy of the annual cycle built into teaching is that we get another chance each year to do right by our students, with the benefit of an additional year’s expertise and wisdom under our belt.
Sampling of Responses from Last Week’s ‘Question of the Week’: What skills do you see as your strengths? What skills would you like to improve?
- Organization; participation
- I think I am good at seeing abstract patterns and explaining them. I would like to become better at drawing.
- I am good at listening to people's opinions. I can always work on my memory!
- I see listening as a strength. I would like to improve my attention to detail.
- I see one of my strengths as organization, and one thing I can work on is details.
- Strengths: Organization and planning / Skills to improve: creative and engaging activities
- My ability to persevere through tough assignments.
- My strength is my ability to focus on my work and get things done. My weakness is knowing when I really know something and when I need to study more
- I would like to improve my thinking about how I am improving.
- I am creative but I need more self confidence
- I like to organize and stay calm and help people when they need it
As always, let me know of any questions/concerns.
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Take care.
Nat