Inspire to Innovate

As educators we hear two words all the time: inspire and innovate. Two words which separately are powerful, but used together provide a mission. Inspire to innovate.

Inspire has ten definitions, all of which capture different gradations of the same theme: influence. Influence to great thoughts, great acts, great relationships.

Innovate has only two: to introduce something new; make changes in anything established.

As always, we must be cognizant of the balance between innovation for innovation's sake and genuine, 21st century, necessary innovation. Teachers should be fueled by the mission of inspiring to innovate. The means by which we inspire is our craft, and the guidance we provide along the path of innovation will shine a light on that balance for the students.

In this time of exponential change at lightning speed, we need to accept that innovation will be a way to success in our students' world, and shape our influence in a way that sets a foundation for our students to be inspired to great and good acts, great and good thoughts, and great and good relationships.

Calvert's Honor Code, its mission, its philosophy aligns with this goal. Our academic rigor sets the parameters for the great acts, and our Honor Code provides the guidelines for making those great acts good.

Monday Ponderance: Make Yourself Stick

As we begin a new year we are leaving a decade full of change. The pace of that change was exponentially faster than any period in history. One of the defining characteristics of this period has been messaging: Text, IM, Facebook, My Space, Twitter, commercials, previews, OnDemand, Billboard, and on and on and on. All of these are (to borrow a term from Chip and Dan Heath in their book Made To Stick) made to stick - made to shape the way we think about things, ideas, the people and places around us, and ourselves.

As some of us prepare for high school and the rest of us prepare for the near future, one thing we can be certain about is that we will need to know how to create messages that will stick. Particularly, very soon we will be faced with decisions that will shape our ideas about ourselves, and others' ideas about who we are.

It is important that we shape that idea through the right choices.

Our Honor Code provides the content of that message: I am respectful, I am responsible, I am honest, I put forth maximum effort, and I reach out to others. In order to make that idea stick, think about the following methods (again, borrowing from the Heath brothers and their book, Made to Stick)

1. Pay attention and consider how you can be unexpected or distinct


2. Be able to understand yourself. Have a concrete idea of who you are and be able to communicate to others.


3. Believe in yourself and you will be credible to those you interact with.


4. Care about yourself and others to bring an emotional connection to your relationships. This might be the stickiest of all the methods.


5. Be able and willing to act on your ideas and values. Be responsible for your own story.

Happy New Year, happy new decade, and happy sticking.

Bricks and Mortar: Teachable Moments

The last piece of our Honor House at Calvert are the bricks and the mortar: teachable moments. Each day, our students make mistakes, push the envelope, say things they don't really understand (or things they do), treat each other poorly, and generally act like pre-adolescents act.

Hopefully, we who are working with these students are excited about the great gifts they bring to a school and our classrooms and, frankly, should enjoy being around them. As middle level educators we understand this age is not easy to deal with - there will be moments of frustration - but we see what kind of influence we have and take it very seriously.

Despite their outward appearance, these students are watching us closely - our reactions, body language, voice level and tone, collegial interactions, and overall demeanor are all under a micrscope. As such, we have a huge responsibility to model appropriate behavior and take every measure to "seize" moments when our students step out of the bounds of the Honor Code - big or small.

In her article, "Teachable Moments for Social Justice" (Independent School Magazine, Spring 2008), Mara Sapon-Shevin outlines a way for teachers to sieze opportunities for character education and social justice as they arise. Sapon-Shevin outlines four ways to seize these moments:

• Build up knowledge in order to "improve our sensitivity to the occurrence of the teaching occasion"


• Develop a "classroom community" that allows for productive responses


• Develop responses for both reactive and proactive situations


• Personally commit to maintaining a "democratic, inclusive school"

During our discussions on the Honor Code last year and the application to our students we used these ideas to develop a Toolbox for confronting sticky issues at Calvert. Within each realm described above we came up with a number of ideas of how to seize the moments in our classrooms at Calvert. That Toolbox can also be found to the left of this post under Useful Dean Links.

You can find some highlights below:

KNOWLEDGE

1. Know the kids - social issues, surroundings


2. Basic knowledge of world events - be prepared to answer tough questions


3. Use Diversity Director as resource

CLASSROOM COMMUNITY

1. Advisories - provide a safe atmosphere to discuss


2. Addressing it - quick is good, but know the answer and don't be afraid to bring in help


3. Strategize for confronting issues arising outside classroom but seeping into it


4. Take time to determine real issue - meanness vs. in/exclusion


5. Pose issues back as questions - restate the issue


6. Set ground rules for the classroom


7. Extrapolate an ethical question from each lesson to build trust in discussion

RESPONSES

First, make sure all responses are age appropriate. a reaction to a 5th grade is going to be different than a reaction to an 8th grader.

Reactive

1. Restate the statement as a question


2. Code words to let them know you don't like it


3. Conversation about acceptable situations

Proactive

1. Advisory time to expand definition of diversity


2. Come back to Code word and discuss what caused it to prevent a reoccurence


3. Rules in classroom cover a large amount of the things that come up


4. Give them the tools to maintain beliefs and opinions, while still providing content on quiz/paper/etc.


5. Find a list of famous people for particular situations: various religions, learning disabilities, diversity, etc.


6. Role play and case studies


7. Guest speakers

MODELING A DEMOCRATIC, INCLUSIVE COMMUNITY

1. Important to be human: we make mistakes and own up; acknowledge it - students want fairness and justice


2. Put yourself out there, share personal experiences


3. Bring it to students to talk and listen to their ideas - validate their insightfulness


4. Model respect and team building

Monday Ponderance: Exams - Pressure, Preparation, and Reflection

Where We Are: Pressure

Let’s be honest: right now you are all feeling pressure. You’re worried about your exams coming this week and it makes you uncomfortable. I wanted today’s Monday Ponderance to address this feeling, and hopefully, shine a light towards the end of the “exam week” tunnel.

I’ve found a few quotes from various people which address your feelings of pressure, what you can do about it, and what you can look forward to when the tests are over.

“Pressure is a word that is misused in our vocabulary. When you start thinking of pressure, it's because you've started to think of failure.”

Tommy Lasorda, MLB manager

“When we long for life without difficulties, remind us that oaks grow strong in contrary winds and diamonds are made under pressure”

Peter Marshall, TV Host

In summary: You feel pressure - own it. So what can we do with it? Use it to your advantage and channel it into preparation.

What We Can Do: Prepare

“No man ever reached to excellence in any one art or profession without having passed through the slow and painful process of study and preparation”

Horace, Roman Poet

“Success depends upon previous preparation, and without such preparation there is sure to be failure.”

Confucius, Ancient Chinese philosopher and political theorist

You seek success on your exams. Success does not come without hard work and maximum effort. Channel the pressure into preparation – proper preparation – and the results you seek will come and when they do, think about what you’ve done – celebrate and reflect.

What We Look Forward To: Reflection

“Education begins the gentleman, but reading, good company and reflection must finish him.”

John Locke, English philosopher and famous political theorist

“Follow effective action with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action.”

Peter F. Drucker, American Educator

Reflection on your actions, your feelings, and reactions will be key. Make mental and written notes about what worked this time around, what didn’t, and why. Isolate the positive, shed the negative, and move on.

Good luck.

Reflecting on Outreach at Calvert

On Wednesday, December 9, the middle school fall outreach programs culminated with an outreach fair. Ten outreach groups created a variety of multi-media presentations to inform their peers about what they were doing in their outreach groups. Students were able to discuss with their classmates,

o The outreach partner they were helping
o The goal of the group
o Pictures of the group at work
o Quotes from students or people they worked with
o Any next steps to come out of their project.

At the end of the fair the students left feeling excited about what they had accomplished and energized to reach out during the holiday season. I wish I could include the names of the students who were working each of the tables and talking outreach amongst themselves, but policy dictates against it. Instead here is a list of the outreach projects and the faculty members who led them.

1. RPP/Keswick: Sra. Sachar, Mme. Bofil-Polsky, and Mr. Hardesty presented samples of their correspondence with the residents, as well as pictures of their visit in November.

2. Calvert in Action Ambassadors: Ms. Webster and Ms. Wareheim presented a PowerPoint on the responsibilities of a CIA ambassador and even began recruiting future representatives!

3. Student Government Association: Our SGA officers and representatives presented a slide show on the accomplishments of the SGA including the November menu, helping the 5th grade in their elections, and the Paul’s Place Mitten Mountain.

4. Library Outreach: Ms. Stone presented a multi-media project promoting library use and it benefits.

5. Book Bonanza: Mrs. Babb presented examples of the children’s books their group had made for Hampstead Hill Elementary School.

6. Empty Bowls: Ms. Kamp and Mr. Rossi presented their bowls and a video describing their purpose in helping visitors to Beans & Bread and Sarah’s Place.

7. Tree Planting: Mr. Ewen filled in the details to a slide show about the trees they planted for the Herring Run Watershed.

8. Komen Race for the Cure: Mrs. Nessler, Mrs. Lears, and Ms. Summers presented a summary of the money raised for cancer research and pictures of the actual race attended by a number of Calvert students, faculty, and families.

9. Placement: Ms. Yapsuga and the 8th graders presented the nuts and bolts of Placement at Calvert and the students held some mock interviews for the 5th, 6th, and 7th graders.

10. Outreach Preview: Students were able to watch a presentation previewing the upcoming outreach opportunities beginning in January.

Monday Ponderance: Perfection

I chose this ponderance from Coach John Wooden because our students tend to get very anxious and stressed about perfection this time of year. We will have exams next week in the middle school and we work during this week to enourage our students to prepare well. I think Coach Wooden summarizes the real lesson in perfection - that the act of pursuing is key, not attaining it.

Perfection is what you are striving for, but perfection is an
impossibility. However, striving for perfection is not an impossibility. Do the best you can under the conditions that exist. That is what counts.

Our teams at UCLA had four perfect seasons, but we never played a perfect game, never played as well as we could. That's perfection. We didn't reach perfection, but we constantly strove toward it.

I believe there is nothing wrong with the other fellow being better than you are if you've prepared and are functioning in the way you tried to prepare. That's all you can do.

But there is something wrong if you've failed to measure up to your ability because you haven't prepared.