To encourage dialogue and reflection about the process of reconsidering and changing, our question for the week is: Share a practice, opinion, or belief that you have recently adjusted, reconsidered or changed. What made you adjust or change? Reconsidering (Week of 3/3/24) (This is an anonymous Google Form)
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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 first week back after vacation is always an adjustment (as some of the 8th graders said to me at the end of last week, ‘I’m so glad it’s Friday!’) and it was definitely hard for me to get back in the swing of the routines in the first few days. The 7th grade dance on Friday night was a fun scene - special thanks to Jillian Shaw, Kristin Buley, Kelly Campbell, Maura Batts, Matt Marenghi, and Ann Marie Fratolillo for chaperoning. And, a special thanks to Tania Manuel for ‘saving the day’ with tech support to make sure our DJ had music!
As these thoughts were circling about in my head, the juxtaposition (not sure if that’s the right word!) of moving into my day-to-day ‘real world’ of family/work responsibilities challenges me to see if I can truly carry the perspective forward. March is the time of year at school where we begin the process of straddling two school years, working on end-of-year while also prepping for the next one. I have to keep reminding myself, and lean on others for the reminders too, to slow it down and take one step at a time.
Over the next two weeks we will hold our incoming nights and these evenings serve as opportunities to carry forth that ‘renewed perspective’ with some questions…
- What’s important to us?
- How do we partner with families?
- What are our current practices/structures?
- What should be reconsidered?
- Why?
These questions are not a comprehensive list, but they are ones I am (re)committing to keep asking myself and our community. In particular, the question of ‘reconsidering’ is so critical for us in schools, systems and institutions that are so grounded in tradition - ‘we’ve always done it that way’.
With all of these reflections percolating about, the shares below are ones that reflect this process of reconsideration, reflection, and perspective. The first post by Alex Kajitani is one that I have referenced a great deal as of late - in order for us to really thrive as an organization/community, the key is in our relationships and interactions with each other as adults - and I believe this is critical in the asking of these questions. The other shares are ones that touch on this process of rethinking and diving a bit deeper, with the posts reflecting Adam Grant’s book, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know.
The #1 Factor That Determines a Toxic or Thriving School Culture (Opinion)
by Alex Kajitani in Education Week
Here’s what I’ve concluded: the number one factor that determines whether a school culture is toxic or thrives is how staff members deal with their own conflicts as they arise.
It’s Up To US.
When it comes to the success of an individual classroom, nothing is more important than the relationship between the teacher and the students. When it comes to the success of an entire school, nothing is more important than the relationship of the adults in the building.
Conflicts happen when human beings work together. How we deal with those conflicts is where we have the power to truly shape our school’s culture.
Did You Hear the One About the Skills Gap?
(40 min) from Have You Heard
For decades we’ve been told that there is an urgent looming skills gap, and that unless our education system churns out more STEM grads, economic disaster looms. But what if it’s not true? In a provocative new book, Neil Kraus argues that this story is at the heart of what he calls the fantasy economy, a wrongheaded view of the labor market that has fueled decades of education reform. And we hear from Tim Schwab, author of an explosive new book about Bill Gates, whose deep pockets have helped to spin the fantasy economy narrative.
“Your Ideas Are Not Your Identity”: Adam Grant on How to Get Better at Changing Your Mind
by Evan Nesterak in Behavioral Scientist
Changing your mind, more often than not, requires you to grapple with your own identity. Admitting that you were wrong feels personal. We have to face the fact that we’ve been walking around the world all this time believing in something that isn’t true.
It’s the idea of flexibility and how to achieve it that I found most compelling in Think Again. As I read the book, I couldn’t help but reflect on the times I’d clung to an opinion past it’s expiration date or imagine what I might have learned from a debate, had I asked a question instead of hurling a rebuttal.
If somebody sees an idea, or an opportunity, or forms an opinion that is different from mine, I should say, This is an interesting opportunity to learn something from someone who sees things differently from me, and I wonder if they know something I don’t.
Daniel Kahneman said something to the effect of, No one enjoys being wrong, but I do enjoy having been wrong, because it means I am now less wrong than I was before.
I do not want to have both-sides conversations anymore. Whenever somebody says, here’s the other side, my first question is, Can you tell me what the third angle and the fourth look like?
Is That The Best Solution? ‘Think Again’ Says Adam Grant
by Dr. Ruth Gotian in Forbes
The book offers several strategies to become more flexible with our opinions and consider our thoughts and feelings as a rough draft:
- Surround yourself with people who will challenge your opinion, not just support it. This new circle of influence will remove any blinders you have in your thought process.
- Base your identity on your values, not your opinions. This practice leaves you open to considering the most effective way to achieve them.
- Consider how your beliefs might change based on your culture, religion, age, or ethnicity.
A Conversation with Adam Grant on Why We Need to Think Again, About Everything.
by Dr. Vikas Shah MBE DL in Thought Economics
Where things become problematic is when we start to get attached to ideas that have never made sense or are no longer true. It’s also problematic when you’re dealing with an audience who are resistant to ideas that you’re putting forward. When those conditions are present, we need to rethink our instinct to preach, prosecute or politic and instead think more like scientists.
I think about a scientist as somebody who has the humility and curiosity to know what they don’t know and to doubt some of their existing conventions as they try to discover new information. The scientist mindset says, I will not let my ideas become an ideology. In this mode of thinking, when I start to form an opinion, I should treat it as a hypothesis before doing some observations or experiments to test it. I should be just as excited to find out I was wrong as to prove I am right.
The problem is that we call people who change their mind flip-floppers and act like they have no integrity. We need to be more nuanced about how we define integrity. For me, it’s not about sticking to opinions, but about sticking to values.
Thinking again doesn’t always mean you have to change your mind, but it means that you are open to re-examining and reconsidering your thoughts and beliefs. At the end of the day, if you decide that your first instincts and beliefs were correct? I don’t think that’s a bad thing at all.
Sampling of Responses from Last Week’s ‘Question of the Week’: What is something you are working on improving? Share one step you can take towards that improvement.
- I am working on developing new curriculum. I will create two new lessons this week.
- I am working on improving my ability to stay present. Writing things down regularly helps to keep track of what comes up, and at the same time not become flooded.
- I have been improving in math
- I am working on improving my art grade.
- I want to work to be more productive and I will start by remembering to get my homework done early so I have the whole rest of the day ahead of me.
- I'm trying to go to bed earlier so that I am not as tired in the morning. I am making an effort to not look at any screens, TV or phone, once I start getting ready for bed.
- I am working on improving my willingness to let people change. I am doing this by letting people decide with no comments rather than me saying what I want them to think.
- Social studies
- I want to write more. Currently, I am writing more.
- I am working on improving my note-taking skills. One step I can take is to focus on writing neater.
- My reading
- English - studying vocab
- I want to improve more on completing my homework more consistently.
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 highlight individuals who have encouraged, pushed, and influenced others to reconsider, change, and adapt…