To help encourage conversations and dialogue about the idea of 'telling one's story', our topic/question for the dinner table is: What is the story that you want to tell this year? Telling Your Story (Week of 1/8/17) (This is an anonymous Google Form)
With the first big storm of this winter this past weekend (and the biggest we have had in two years) and coming off of our first few days of 2017, I hope that everyone was able to relax a bit, stay warm, and find enjoyment. Relying on both Jason Heim and Jillian Shaw's Twitter updates (@jasonjheim and @jillianeshaw) for up-to-date reports on the weather, our weekend consisted of some sports and celebrating Maggie's 13th birthday on Saturday - I still remember leaving my classroom 13 years ago, having received the phone call from Katie that 'it was all happening!' On Sunday we had more sports for the kids amidst some family time before we embrace the 5-day week ahead.
Driving home from Owen's basketball game last Thursday evening, we took advantage of our quiet time together (it is amazing how hard it is to find some quiet time with the 'fullness' of our days - car rides provide a captive audience!) to just chat and catch up. Our chat did not take a linear path, as we talked a little bit about a lot (music, sports, first couple days back, current highs and lows, worries - both his and mine!, and food to list some of the topics). As we got a little bit closer to home he asked me what the books I were reading were about, as he had noticed one about 'gardening' around the house. Currently I am in the process of reading three books (The Gardener and the Carpenter: What the New Science of Child Development Tells Us About the Relationship Between Parents and Children by Alison Gopnik, The Road to Character by David Brooks, The New School: How the Information Age Will Save American Education From Itself by Glenn Harlan Reynolds), but it was Gopnik's book that caught his attention. He and I then had a wonderful 'exploratory' chat about the metaphor of gardening and carpentry, and the idea of embracing the 'beautiful and unpredictable' nature of growth and learning in the same vein of gardening. This talk with Owen invigorated me and made very tangible in my head how reading feeds me and all of us, as is so wonderfully and artfully articulated by Will Schwalbe in a late November post in the Wall Street Journal, The Need to Read -- 'So I’m on a search—and have been, I now realize, all my life—to find books to help me make sense of the world, to help me become a better person, to help me get my head around the big questions that I have and answer some of the small ones while I’m at it.'
As I am reading each week I always have in the back of my head the 'filing system' of posts that resonate along with thoughts about meanings and connections for my own learning and the learning of others. This reading and sharing 'feeds me' and helps me to shape the thinking and vision, both personally and professionally, that drives my work and efforts. Below I am sharing one post that has held great meaning for me and it is one that I look forward to exploring a bit as a staff at our faculty meeting this week...
Every School Should Tell Its Story
by Heather Wolpert-Gawron in Edutopia
As noted above I have asked everyone to read this for our staff meeting on Monday, and the message/intent of Wolpert-Gawron's post will be ones that I look forward to guiding the work and vision for our students and community.
A district can have a vision, a mission statement, and sometimes a slogan. Often these concepts are layered together, but basically these are elevator speeches that help an organization pitch their plans and support their goals. What we all really need, however, is a story.
There’s a power in collecting and curating those stories that help define our school site and our students. I say curate because some of these stories are already being drafted, revised, and rewritten even as we speak. Some tales are already happening in the classrooms and schools. School and district leaders just need to recognize that the books are there to be opened.
The fact is that every person—every teacher and every student—has their own narrative, and their narrative has a place within the overarching story of a school. Sometimes we just need to help students tap into theirs and to encourage them to believe that theirs is not already fully written, that they can have a hand in writing their story if they just pick up the quill.
This post begs a few questions - What is my story? What is your story? What are the stories of our students? And, collectively, what is our story? A few years ago I began sharing at the outset of each calendar year the resolutions and intentions that I establish (or re-establish) for the next 12 months. Some are renewed each year, and others are new - the hope is that as a whole they will both center and stretch my energy, thinking, and learning. The intent of my 'public sharing' is to open up a dialogue and also invite others to both share and hold me accountable - gently pushing, stretching the proverbial rubber band of growth, and maintaining the foot on the accelerator at an appropriate speed...
Resolutions/Intentions for the 2017 school year...
- Expand my learning network both within the Blake/Medfield community and beyond 02052 and share this network with others
- Push myself to stretch, take risks, and learn
- Be open to the ideology of those who do not share my thinking and better understand those views (ask questions and be genuinely curious for feedback)
- Increase my understanding of the 'change process'
- Explore ideas of 'student voice' (20% time, Advisory, Student focus groups, to list a few)
- Find time to take a 'mindful walk' and 'mindfully read' each day
- Be a mirror for others and ask others to do the same for me
- Articulate and focus on the 'good problems'
- Foster leadership at all levels (students, staff, parents, and community), balancing ownership with healthy delegation and growth for others
- Explore ways to publish and share the work of our students, staff, and school (carrying forth the 'networking intention' from 2015) as we tell our stories
- Stay the course and keep the 'big picture' in mind at all times
- 'Lean towards yes' and maintain the mission of our mantra, 'a willingness to adapt'
These resolutions and intentions will hopefully help me to articulate my own story, and in turn, help to shape my personal and professional endeavors. As Wolpert-Gawron states at the end, I think it is important to share these stories and eagerly welcome this process of discovery and story-telling with all of you this calendar year.
Don't be afraid to tell your story. Your voice is important and your story is unique. - Meredith Lavitt
I look forward to the work that lies ahead for all of us.
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Take care.
Nat