March 15, 2016
To help encourage conversations and dialogue about how we learn and share, this week's topic/question for the dinner table is: What story do you want to tell? Please see link to Google Form to share your responses: Telling Your Story (3/13/16) (This is an anonymous Google Form)
With Daylight Savings taking place this past weekend along with beautiful weather and warm temperatures, it feels quite promising that spring is here! I started off this past weekend with a run Friday afternoon after school and it was wonderful! With very few commitments for our family, we spent a great deal of time outside and also enjoyed seeing Zootopia with friends. Some much needed spring cleaning in our yard also took place.
Last Sunday Travis Taliaferro forwarded me a link to an article from The Washington Post (shared below),
Top 10 Skills Middle School Students Need to Thrive, and How Parents Can Help, that resonated with me on many levels. As we are looking to articulate and align our focal points on the skills we want students to develop during their time at Blake, it is critical that we think about these skills in a holistic manner. Much of our work together over the past year is in line with this post, as we define the content standards and learning skills that are being addressed across all disciplines and grade levels. Social emotional skills are important pieces in the 'puzzle' we are all continually 'building' with (not for) our students and the author, Fagell, engages parents in this learning as well. 'It takes a village' can certainly feel like an overused expression, but the sentiment is genuine and accurate. All week I found myself coming back to the article and am encouraged by the work that is taking place - from discussions at Site Council, incoming parent information nights, reviewing the data from the MetroWest Adolescent Health Survey, curriculum planning, and discussions with students, parents, and teachers. We do not have it all 'figured out', but I appreciate the willingness to be open and honest and to explore avenues to improve.
Our annual Site Council survey was shared with parents and students this past week (some students will be completing it early this week), and this tool will help keep us honest and gain insight as a community. I sincerely appreciate the voices and opinions expressed - as you know it is not always fun to receive the negative feedback, but it is important and helps us to examine our practices as we look to match/align 'intent and impact'. As stated in our mission, the 'willingness to adapt' will help all of us to continually seek opportunities to learn and revise how we get there. We are looking at this as a staff - exploring social media Twitter as a means of establishing connections with educators for professional development and trying a more personalized approach to professional development for our half-day in April with #EdcampBlake. We are hoping to do the same for parents, as we look to gain input as to how we can work together to be resources for one another. The posts I am sharing this week have a similar thread of 'sharing and learning' as key components for our work (recognizing and responding to the needs of our students, forming relationships, connections, and collaboration with families)...
If Ferris Bueller Was At Our School
by Jon Harper (@jonharper70bd) and Adam Welcome (@awelcome)
As a huge fan of Ferris Bueller (as a 'folk' hero during my formative years), when I saw the title of this post shared on Twitter, I had to check it out. The essence of this post is to make sure we are taking time, as the adults in the educational community (teachers, parents, and administrators), to think about and encourage different approaches to engage all students - i.e. Student Run EdCamps, Genius Hour, Makerspaces, Social Media Interns.
The competition for our students’ attention and energy is fierce. We are all well aware of the fact that the gaming industry spends exponentially more money on research and development than our education departments. While much of that is out of our control, we do know that when our students are with us, they are not always “with” us. They can be thinking about their own life, troubles at home, issues with friends, or how the curriculum they’re being taught isn’t engaging or exciting.
Providing kids with the opportunities to learn from each other, giving them exposure to social media so they can harness the power that’s in our world, allowing time during the day for kids to explore a passion while under the guidance of their teacher.
Sharing the Connections That Students Value
by Penny and James Sturtevant in Edutopia
In this post the Sturtevants share their thoughts on how educators connect with their students and become 'teachers of influence'. From each perspective (teacher and principal), the importance of forming relationships is clear and holds great value.
A great way for teachers to achieve this is to tell stories. . . about themselves! Educators should bring students into their world. Not literally, of course. I'm not proposing that you invite them to your house for dinner, but instead, allow them to live vicariously through some of your interesting experiences. Teachers need to allow students to get to know them. Isn’t that the way most relationships are forged?
You might think it odd to announce to your class what you prepared for dinner and display images for impact, but your students won't. They'll embrace it -- enthusiastically! Bond with students by sharing your life, and in the process, watch classroom management improve and learning blossom.
Size Doesn't Matter
by Beth Holland (@brholland)
Beth Holland's brief post highlights her thoughts about the impact her PLN (Personal Learning Network) has had on her learning and the benefits of 'organic' and 'connected' relationships. The implications are clear for students and teachers alike.
Top 10 Skills Middle School Students Need to Thrive, and How Parents Can Help
by Phyllis L. Fagell (@pfagell) in The Washington Post
Travis shared this post with me last week and the 8th grade team will be using it as a starting point for a discussion with both students and parents about the skills we want to foster. It is by no means the 'absolute' list
Offers her Top 10 Social Emotional skills for middle school students, with some guidance for how parents can help in a non-intrusive manner.
There is no manual to develop “soft” skills like perseverance and resilience. Just as I did, most kids learn through trial and error. As parents, our quest to protect our children can be at odds with their personal growth. It can feel counter-intuitive, but we mainly need to take a step back. I have come to believe that certain social emotional skills are particularly useful as kids navigate middle school and beyond.
Observing and listening to our students to foster relationships and tap into the interests of our students and (as parents) our children, will help us to better nurture the skills we want them to develop. We want the learning to be cohesive, meaningful, and organic. And we want to make sure we establishing and articulating the benchmarks that will help us to assess their progress. In essence we want our students to find, write, and establish their own 'story' for how they best learn - a story that will continue to evolve.
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Take care.
Nat Vaughn