Deferred but not deterred ...

I wish all of our decision making body could read this article. He cleary points out the importance of staying the course in middle level philosophy and the troubles with being successful. What really stuck out to me from a school sense were his comments on the staying power of traditional methods. His insight on "escaping from old habits" is one that certainly rings true in all middle schools, but especially so in high schools. This can be a real barrier to overcome when trying to get away from teacher isolation and open up classrooms for successful teaming.

I was thinking about the technology we've been using in class and had a good idea to bring back and old tradition for our school. When I was first hired we did morning announcement through our own tv station and broadcast it to all the classrooms. A few years later someone unplugged all of the wires and it has been out of service since. In fact, we don't even have the equipment anymore. With Skype though, each teacher could project their computer up onto the wall and we could all log on to the office for our morning announcements. I think I'm going to try and get that going for this coming year.

Looking at what is currently "in action"

After reading the last chapter in This We Believe In Action I tried to put it all into perspective as far as where my school stands. I realized that there is another piece to putting everything "in perspective" for some schools to consider. I do feel that my school, like many others, has been a little lax since our first implementation of true middle level philosophy, but our journey is really not to far from where where we need to be. There are some things that we need to improve upon. Some new initiatives and others we have in the works and just need to look in at them. On the other hand, there are many things that we are currently doing a fantastic job on and others that don't exist because we found a better way to do them. If you look at all of the characteristics, strategies and core practices it can seem like a mountain that must be scaled in order to find success, but in reality I bet many schools are close to, equal to, or even surpass my status of things we are doing well. I would bet, that many schools around us would see a brighter picture if they look at the good things they are doing as a starting point. See the positive ...

Just thought I would add this link from the Bangor Daily News this week ... I'm not sure if you've seen it but it's pretty interesting...

http://www.bangordailynews.com/detail/147838.html

Guidance

The recent chapter in TWBIA got me really thinking about how to properly advocate for my middle schoolers under our current program. We lost a .5 position in guidance a few years ago and hired someone who we share with another district. This doesn't create the best of situations for availability ... basically two days one week with us and three days the next. It feels like now we spend a lot of time trying to play catch up situations that sprouted while the guidance counselor was out. We're going to have to be very creative to figure out how we can get the guidance program to advocate for kids the way it could within our current schedule restrictions.

Curriculum

After listening to our voice memo today and how the waves of middle level philosophy have come and gone over the years I wonder what direction we are heading in now. In order to more completely meet the needs of academic standards we have already begun the process of a nationwide curriculum. It seems as though it won't be long until we have a national standardized test to go with it. This doesn't necessarily mean good news for middle level philosophy. In order to really get the push going again at any level we will need the decision making bodies to get on board and help make the road a little less bumpy. I wonder how the higher powers view our way of thinking and if they can support our own race to the top...

In action...

I was wondering from my reading in This We Believe In Action if the DVD is something I could bring back to my school in August and start the year. We all have a lot new things that will be going on in the fall and it could be very helpful for everyone to keep the developmental needs of our students in mind and even see some of the practices in action. It would just be too easy to focus too much on academics, miss the big picture, and not make the ground we are capable of making.