To help encourage dialogue and reflection about the ways we are sustained and held through challenging times, our question of the week is: What keeps you going and moving forward when you are challenged, down or having a difficult time? What Sustains Us (Week of 5/16/21) (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 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 beautiful weather on Friday afternoon/evening was a wonderful backdrop for Owen’s baseball game to start this past weekend! His ‘almost summer ball’ game, coupled with Grayden having a few friends over for a COVID-safe fire pit that same night provided a boost of energy and light that felt much needed for us! The rest of the weekend was a mixture of games, trip to Boston for Katie and Maggie, gardening, some relaxing, and the ever-present game of ‘catching up’ on our list of ‘things to do’.
Back in early November I shared sentiments of feeling ineffective and, if I’m being honest, inadequate (Practicing Hope and Curiosity). The excerpt below captures the feelings at the time...
The beginning of this past week felt challenging for me. As has been shared by many of us since March, it feels as though we have been riding a roller coaster of emotions with an underlying current of unease at all times. And, for some reason or another (or just a combination of reasons), my emotions hit a low (or a peak, depending on how it is viewed) on Monday. Trying to take a balcony view from a distance, it probably speaks to the timing of the year, the changing of the seasons, the heightened stress, and simply just the feelings I felt by being tired and overwhelmed. And, while I am sharing openly, I will admit that I have been feeling ineffective - it’s raw and hard.
Why am I sharing this openly? I promise that my intent is not to seek pity, compassion, or to bring others down. Rather, as I have conveyed before, I think it is important to acknowledge feelings, process them, and stay attuned to my (and our) personal and collective well-being. While I have always held that viewpoint, it has become increasingly more important for our students and school community to actively keep and ‘live’ that perspective. I keep coming back to these words that I have shared the last couple of weeks…
'This pandemic is not about how productive we can be. It’s about getting to the other side emotionally intact.’
- Lisa Damour
So, what do we do with these feelings and emotions? I wish I had a clear and defined answer that could apply to all situations and all individuals. But, that just isn’t the truth. I can share, though, that listening to myself and having others listen helped a great deal. And, I know for sure that we can do that for our students, families, and one another. I also know that ‘leaning in’ with a curious lens allowed some hope to be acknowledged and realized.
This week I have been reflecting a lot about these feelings of struggle, self-doubt, and frustration - trying to think about how to allow them to be validated, while also keeping progress, innovation, and growth in place. As these challenges are encountered, questions start to bubble up...What is it that can ‘sustain’ me (or us, if we are ok with projecting/generalizing my feelings)? What sustains our students when they become frustrated? What sustains our families when they have these feelings? What sustains our community? What sustains our systems? Are our systems sustainable?
Building off of last week’s reflection (What Matters Most), connections can be made to naming and articulating the ‘things’ that matter most in our lives. I believe (and know) that they are what sustains us and can start to shed light on a path forward. And, this is important for our students. As I think about my own experiences (both in my distant past and very recent past), I continue to see that mission, vision, values, and beliefs are critical. Yes, they may feel theoretical and difficult to realize in the moment; however, they are the constants that we can ‘hang our hat on’. If they are clear and known, they will serve as the ‘guiding lights’ to help navigate the specifics - as, the specifics will be ever-changing.
So...what are the things that I have found to sustain me - now and in the past? Several come to mind…
- Values and mantras - ‘Lean Towards Yes’; Community; Beliefs about and in ALL learners; the need and willingness to innovate and adapt to the ever-changing world
- Leaning on others - working through difficulties in an open and transparent manner - thinking about mentors (John D’Auria continues to be a source of inspiration, guidance, and humility), teachers, and family
- Open/Honest dialogue and vulnerability
- Our students - What is it that they need? What will inspire them? How do we help them?
- Learning - Learning sustains me/us as it provides hope and will always be there - it may seem obvious, but we can always learn and must be current in our learning
- Listening and ‘Diving In’ - Curiosity is at the heart of this process
- #willfulhope, #willfulaction - for and with our students
- Reflection - the practice of reflection will help to steer me back to the values and the cycle of learning is renewed
I am genuinely curious to hear and listen to others’ thoughts - do these resonate? Why or why not? In the spirit and practice of reflection, the ‘shares’ this week help to represent in a different format the ‘realization/actualization’ of some of the things that have sustained me and will hopefully continue to sustain me - providing hope and a sense of direction/guidance...
Learning and Listening
Sir Ken Robinson’s A Call to Unite
(15:59)
This past week I found Ken’s last ‘talk’ to help center my own thinking - as I shared with both our cohort of new teachers in the district and our staff at the end of our PD session on Friday, Ken ‘speaks the truth and always ends with a sense of hope’...
- Humanity has created conditions that are hostile to our best interests
- Most mass systems of education came into being on basis of industrialism
- I think the planet will be fine → we may not be fine (humans have been around for less than a minute to midnight at 31st of December if it is a year in history)
- Industrial Farming → focus on output - more is better; surplus is created
- Sustainable Farming → emphasis is on the soil and life will flourish; not the case with chemicals where focus is on the plant and not the soil
- We need to think differently with our relationships
- Replicated these same mistakes in our social systems, including education
- Emphasis has been on output - grad rates, test scores, — this is not sustainable
- We flourish under certain conditions; we need to cultivate the soil; we need to focus when the culture is right; recognize individuality and depth; creating a mixed culture in schools - science, technology, arts
- We wither under certain conditions
- Successful schools focus on culture - everything else will fall into place: compassion, collaboration, empathy, value of individuals, necessity of our social lives thriving on joint participation
- We have learned this in our pandemic
- Isolation has been hard - creative work, collaboration, music, painting, unite us - we need to connect and see each other in our own settings
- We need to press ‘reset’ on our systems
- Big difference between learning, education, and school
- How we do schools is wrong - algorithms of standardization and factory life
- We can reignite creative passions
- Parallel between education and environmental movement: work together, keep collaboration going; real social change comes from ground up through grass roots
- Real power is with the people — share ideas, collaborate, see future possibilities, joint support from compassionate collaboration
- Two projects: goboundless.org; hellogenius.com
- We are deeply creative creatures
- We have boundless capacities for innovation, imagination, and creativity
- Works of art, theory, philosophy
- Our cultures define us in many ways
- We need to reimagine our future and a new kind of normal
- It takes bravery and imagination (we have plenty of that in store)
Listening to kids is the most important intervention we can do
These words are from Cornelius Minor and were expressed during the intervention we watched this week as a staff, EL Live: Interview with Cornelius Minor (26:22). The words themselves are not uncomfortable at all - what created some discomfort (speaking from ‘the I’ and being honest with myself) is when I held up the mirror, asking how often I/we take the time to do this. And by ‘this’, I mean intentionally using ‘listening’ as an intervention. This is certainly something that is on my mind - challenging my thoughts/action while also inspiring thoughts/action.
Vodicka wrote this post below in September, 2020 and is written towards parents in the hopes of engaging their schools towards productive and student-centered learning. Although some of the messages within are time-specific (shifting from remote learning to hybrid or in-person learning), the 3 guiding questions and overarching themes are relevant at all times - and, we must be asking ourselves the same ones.
Three questions every parent should be asking their school right now
by Devin Vodicka
Question #1: What outcomes are you prioritizing for my student?
Question #2: How are you designing school to achieve these outcomes?
Question #3: How will you know if your plan is working, and make course corrections if not?
This is a different way of thinking about measuring success, and will be imperfect, especially at first. So another part of the answer you should be listening for is a commitment to learning, and improving over time. In other words, you should see evidence that your school leaders and educators model the outcomes we have discussed throughout.
This last point brings us full circle. The most basic ask you should have of your educators and school leaders is that they are modeling these outcomes themselves, demonstrating their commitment to lifelong learning, creating space for others to have agency in their education, collaborating effectively with others, and showing the capacity to solve real world problems in a way that moves us forward to a better system for everyone.
Sampling of Responses from Last Week’s ‘Question of the Week’: What matters most to you in your life? Why?
- My family because I love them.
- My family. My family always comes first - if my mom calls me out of nowhere and asks for something I immediately do it. The same goes for the rest of my family. I'm always praying for the best of my family.
- People...making people happy. Life can be really tough without happiness and humor in life.
- My Family, without them, I wouldn’t survive
- My family, my possessions, other things that are important that I can’t think of at this moment.
- Family, we are fortunate as teachers to interact and teach so many kids in the Medfield community. These relationships change each year, but family is a steady presence that grounds all we do.
- My family matters most to me because they are always there for me through everything.
- Family. They make everything more fun, and I am most relaxed around my family!
- Trust. This is because you are able to rely on people, and have stronger bonds with friends and family.
- People.. making people happy
At the heart of these shares and reflections this week are the things I believe will sustain all of us as learners - students, teachers, families, and our community. Our mission and guiding lights are important and I hope will continue to serve as the ‘guide posts’ to sustain us as a community...
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Take care.
Nat