Week 2: your story matters!

Lifted from middleschool2015-2016.blogspot.com

6. Your story matters. Consider the past, the present, and the future.

This we believe (NMSA, 2010).

*A shared vision developed by all stakeholders guides every decision. Shared Vision

Over the course of this journey, I realize how difficult it is for teachers to maintain their vision. Teaching takes a lot of physical and mental energy and sometimes we forget our calling, our purpose. We spend hours planning, implementing, assessing, and communicating with children, teammates, and parents. In addition, each year, schools are engaging in new technologies, new teaming configurations, new instructional designs, new initiatives, new grants and district tasks, that are often school-wide. How is it then, we can gain new knowledge about emerging strategies and practices, while meeting the needs of our students, planning authentic lessons and units, creating our own professional development plans, and finding ways to take care of ourselves and our families? I believe our passion and hope is not lost when we take time to reflect on what we are doing, on what has been done in the past, and to use our knowledge of the present to dream more about what we will do in the future.

More than 60 years ago, Dr. William Alexander, fondly known as the father of the middle school movement, addressed educators at “the 1963 Cornell Conference, …He prepared a speech proposing a new school called the middle school. His address, The Junior High School: A Changing View… provided a comprehensive rationale and program guidelines for the establishment of developmentally responsive middle schools” (Smith & McEwin, 2011, pgs 4-5). In 1973, the National Middle School Association was formed; and in 2011 outreach expanded to serve an international body of educators who serve students ages 10-15, currently known as the Association for Middle Level Education (AMLE). Our focus continues to address the need for developmentally responsive middle schools.