To help encourage conversations and dialogue about ways that we can step back and recharge to access learning, our topic/question for the dinner table is: What do you do to ‘recharge your batteries’ when you feel tired, overwhelmed, or need a break? Recharging for Learning (Week of 9/8/19) (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.
The pace and routines of the school day/week ‘kick in’ quickly and I was struck this past week how it felt as though we had been in school for a month! With very few formal things on our calendar this past weekend, we were thrilled to just slow down, breathe, and do our best to catch up. One of my goals is to intentionally build in this time, both during the week and weekends, to do just that - it’s an uphill climb for me, but it sure is important!
Four Mega Trends Reshaping Global Learning
by Tom Vander Ark (@tvanderark) in Forbes
Imagine school as a series of community-connected projects and skill sprints that develop leadership, collaboration and problem solving skills. Imagine a web of supports that help you make the kind of contribution you’re capable of making...The combination of new goals, active learning strategies, competency-based progressions and integrated services is boosting learner success.
Four Mega Trends:
New Goals
Active Learning
Competency
Integrated Supports
Four Emerging Trends in Education
by Tom Vander Ark (@tvanderark) in Forbes
Imagine going to school in a museum and studying real artifacts. Imagine a sustained relationship with an advisor who helps you figure out what you’re good at and care about, and where you can make a difference. Imagine high school students designing practical solutions to community problems.
Four Emerging Trends:
Contribution (why)
Immersive Learning
Success Skills
Thoughtful Guidance
Four Trends Influencing Education
by Tom Vander Ark (@tvanderark) in Forbes
These four trends—inclusion, lifelong learning, quantified self and mindfulness—are becoming ubiquitous in the media and becoming part of the culture. Many schools are trying to understand what they mean for practices and reporting.
Four Trends:
Inclusion and Equity
Lifelong Learning
Quantified Life
Mindfulness
What's Next In Learning? Four Future Trends
by Tom Vander Ark (@tvanderark) in Forbes
Imagine a platform that enabled you to access local and national opportunities from your smartphone or computer, a place where you can pursue your interests with mentors and peers, building new skills and habits wherever you are, whenever you want...The future of learning will include leaner, more responsive systems supporting the formation of growth communities with the expanded ability to reward contributors in a social economy.
Four Future Trends:
Responsive
Lean
Social Economy
Growth Communities
Topic/Question (Week of 9/1/19): What are you hoping to learn this year?
- I'm hoping to learn more effective methods of accommodating different learning styles.
- I am looking forward to learning unique and interesting things about each of my students. Learning doesn't go far without connections. The effort to connect is what I want to focus on this year.
- Learn to replace the word ‘but’ as often as possible with the word ‘and’
- Learn that when someone seems to need support, for example someone being bullied, that I let them know I know how it feels, because empathy is far more equitable than is sympathy
- I am hoping to learn how to effectively roll out SBR for the entire year.
- More in-depth ancient history.
- Hoping to learn more about the Medfield School System. Impressed with what I have learned so far
- I am hoping to learn a practical and effective way to report out interim reports and report cards using SBR.
- I want to learn how to speak French.
- I am hoping to learn square root and memorize pi
- I'm hoping to learn how to embrace organization
- History
- more about what the other academic classes are doing
- I am hoping to to learn more about Ancient Greece and Rome in our ancient civilizations unit. I also am hoping to get better at mandarin and hopefully be able to speak more fluently.
- Continue to learn negative numbers
- New interest cool stuff
- How to manage realistic classroom behaviors. Seek help and ideas from Blake staff and art faculty.
- Geography
- Whatever I can
- How to become the best person I can be. (And memorizing my multiplication tables)
- I am hoping to learn to like social studies and English.
I look forward to the work that lies ahead for all of us.
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Take care.
Nat