It’s the dawn of a new day in St. Louis, MO. During my morning walk, I reflect on four things before heading to school:
Not many opportunities converge with a singular force that breaks down the door for conversations like these have today. Perhaps the time is now. But for what? Today, our English class begins as we usually do, with students responding to two prompts as part of a predictable and supportive class routine component Community Building Reflection Questions that situates students in the content for the day while allowing them to practice reflection and writing. The questions for consideration today are:
In addition, I pose these questions that attempt to allow us to connect class material to the world in which we find ourselves:
After time for written reflection, we enter into an opening class conversation, practicing the following Ignatian Conversation Framework components:
The conversation unfolds and the resulting student reflections are why we talk about the plurality of experiences in America. How did we get to this place in English class, and what content choices did I make to advance the conversation in this direction? Below are some factors in a process for choosing to read The Autobiography of Malcolm X: Mission & Decision What is the mission of our school and how is my section of junior English class doing this year, at this time? This year, my junior English class is diverse and more mature than we were in August. We are a class set in the context of an increasingly diverse school where the presence of systemic DEI programming is taking place. Our school has both a foundation for, awareness of, and work in DEI. Though we are not perfect, we are working on our work. Students in my class grow to be critical thinkers who are respectful of one another. We come together every other day, and we talk about and understand that we each bring with us a variety of experiences and baggage based upon our gifts and our histories. As Alex Haley writes about Malcolm X, “All of our experiences fuse into our personality. Everything that ever happened to us is an ingredient” (153). We don’t all come from the same places, and we don’t all have the same advantages. However, our class is a developing as a community this year. Despite Covid-19 and the trauma it continues to inflict, our school schedule is predictable and supportive of continuous learning: we show up, we listen, we contribute to ongoing dialogue and learning, and we appreciate one another. The central focus that drives our class activity, reflection and conversation this year is the overarching theme of American voices and dreams. It is expansive, not restrictive. Early in the year, we read narratives of Indigenous peoples, and today we continue our studies of the plurality of perspectives. Frequently, students re-visit their own notions of American dreams, revising them in light of new knowledge and perspectives. Inevitably, we talk about the role of justice because we are a Jesuit high school striving to be ever mindful of and committed to justice in generous service (The Profile of the Graduate at Graduation). Additionally, in English class, we walk with the excluded (UAP). We try to put ourselves in the other’s shoes. It is in this context that we embark on The Autobiography of Malcolm X. External Influencers Who are our helpers? Who takes us off our path? Just like there are people and institutions that both positively and negatively affect Malcolm X, there are helpers and negative influencers in our own lives. We talk about those during class. As I began Malcolm X with our class, I put myself in the shoes of some who might be opposed to this book, raising my level of fear and awareness. Networking How do I network with helpers, along my path? We all need networks that help advance us. As part of our school’s Innovative Education initiative we started a few years ago, and in an attempt to alleviate fear and build awareness, I invite helpers into my world, as I network to build rapport and support for our book choice. I invite the assistant admissions director into our conversation by inviting her to read Malcolm X. She does. I invite the assistant diversity director into our class for a keynote address. I vet my introductory, context-setting student resource for the book with our director of diversity and inclusion. We talk. She gives me suggestions on fine-tuning student-reading prompts. She gives me affirmation. All of these networking opportunities increase conversation and allow me to move ahead with confidence, not in isolation. Such networking opportunities also reduce the psychological impact of negative external influencers. Setting the Context Why are beginnings important? Setting the foundation for any work is perhaps the most fundamental step to connected learning. I begin my unit on Malcolm X by asking myself, “How does this reading fit into the bigger picture of our class and in our world?” Having just read Miss Lonelyhearts (West) and The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald) – and considering all of the voices and experiences we have read thus far in the year – I consider American dreams and voices. How are they similar? How are they different? As a way of framing Malcolm X, I create a context-setting student resource, including reasons for reading autobiographies, prompts for consideration while reading this particular book, a reading schedule & guided conversation leaders, conversation leader components, important quotes to consider from the book, participation & presentation rubrics, and a personal narrative essay assignment. When creating student leadership opportunities called conversation leaders, I am thoughtful in configuring teams of leaders that are diverse in terms of ability and race/ethnicity. Each team guides the day’s conversation. Students become the center of learning. Predictability & Support What do meaningful class conversations look like each day? Each day, class design looks similar, to provide predictability, support, and comfort. We begin the same way each day: with two-minutes of silence, to reset and prepare for class. Second, students respond to reflection questions that are prompts for introductory conversations. Community Building Reflection Questions challenge students to recall take-aways and develop questions from the previous night’s reading. Because we are a community built on respect and because we employ the Ignatian Conversations framework, we continuously adhere to student-centered, open, honest, authentic conversations – where we practice listening and talking with one another, and where everyone has the chance to contribute. Sometimes comments and reflections are uncomfortable. Most times questions are unanswered. We get comfortable being uncomfortable, making mistakes, and learning from one another. Each day, assigned student leaders are conversation facilitators who earn points for developing the following ideas during class conversations:
Students who are not conversation facilitators understand their specific roles as active class participants. In fact, as the class continues, students use a participation rubric to self-assess (which they turn in to me toward the end of each class):
Two Conclusions: Engagement & Imagination How do we continue to engage students in learning and teach them to imagine a hopeful future? As we continue and conclude this unit, I am drawing two initial conclusions. One, I have greater awareness of and appreciation for how students enter in content. During this unit on Malcolm X, I notice a greater active engagement among all the African American students in my class, while at the same time there is a more reticent approach to our class among students who are not black. Perhaps I notice this because I am not only mindful of how this book might affect African American students but also how it might challenge the other students. Among African American students, there is increased general excitement around being in class, increased talkative participation about the book, and increased leadership in class discussions. Among some Caucasian students, there has been a luke-warm response to the book: some who I would have expected to be highly-engaged because they normally are eager to chime in with their reflections, sit quietly and are listening. Why do I find myself more cognizant of trying to manage my non-African American students through this unit? Trying to make sure, they are “okay.” Why have I not been aware of this type of class management when we read more traditional forms of literature during class? What does this awareness teach me about my own habits, behavior, baggage, and history? Second, students want to be inspired to imagine a world that is different and hopeful. Literature has the power to engage students to become critical thinkers if they see its relevance in their lives. A colleague who teaches in the social studies department stopped me briefly in the hall a week ago. He shared with me an exchange he overheard between two students before class one day. He noticed two African American students talking about The Autobiography of Malcolm X. During the discussion, it became clear to my colleague that one student was reading the book and one student was in another English section and had not been reading the book. The student from my class (who was reading the book) said to his friend, “You have to get this book. It’s good.” As the conversation between the two students continued, my colleague was surprised they were talking about a book from English class for a prolonged period of time and my colleague was surprised at the level of enthusiasm in this discussion, toward this particular book. Another student at our school whom I was working with during a Formation Friday event – a graduating senior who was likely to attend Morehouse College – pulled me aside after the event and asked for a copy of Malcolm X. He had heard we were reading it, and he wanted to read it as well. These students quickly became engaged in this book because it was relevant to their lives and presented them with an opportunity to imagine a hopeful future. My experience with Malcolm X raises broader questions for me to consider about my class, about our school, about my students, and about our world:
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Grading English Essays in a Jesuit High School - What I Learned From My Students Last Sunday Morning2/27/2021 Amidst the aftermath of a snow that forced us to pivot to remote learning and interrupted schedules and within the context of an on-going pandemic that has caused our students and faculty to experience the inevitability that is unpredictability, today is a day for hope. I sat down this morning, after sufficient procrastination (disguised as creative incubation), to finally grade a set of student essays. Fun, right? What I walked away with is renewed sense of my students’ resilience and my why for teaching in a Jesuit high school. Through their actions and essays, my students animate the Ignatian charism that we model in school. This, too, is also an important reminder: when I look for positive things, I find positive things! Here is what my students are teaching me. Context: The Magis - Continuous Quality Improvement Today my students are better than they were in August. They have successfully pivoted in very difficult circumstances. They are resilient amidst the trauma they experience. They are becoming . . . more mindful readers, more thoughtful conversationalists, and better writers. For us all, it is progress . . . not perfection. But, as an English teacher, there are few things more fulfilling than to accompany and witness students working to or above their potentials, forming new habits, and improving by simply putting in the work to practice the skills they learn in the context of an environment that is accepting and safe. Context: Finding God in All Things In one essay, a student writes in reference in Walt Whitman, “This passage from Whitman’s writing reflects the Ignatian belief of recognizing God in everything . . . .” This student successfully links the course content (Transcendentalism) to specific mission-driven language and ways of knowing – an Ignatian worldview – with only subtle judges from me. Often, students make the most essential connections between content in the class to our overall school’s mission and philosophy – then practice the skills to communicate those connections. Context: Ignatian Indifference In one essay, a student writes, “Being non materialistic is a good transcendentalist quality. Being non materialist means that one isn’t concerned with material possessions. But to me it means not having any special ties to objects.” Wow! St. Ignatius’s First Principle & Foundation challenges us in this area: “We are to use the things of this world only to the extent that they help us to this end, and we ought to rid ourselves of the things of this world to the extent that they get in the way of this end. For this it is necessary to make ourselves indifferent to all created things as much as we are able” (First Principle & Foundation). This student is learning a lesson tied directly to the lessons that St. Ignatius learned (then teaches us). Experience, Self-Reflection & Gratitude Each day, we begin class with two minutes of silence. This is time to quiet ourselves, empty our minds, and pay attention to our breathing . . . all in the hopes of entering into English class open and prepared to learn. In his essay, one student is perhaps unconsciously using meta-cognition to reflect on his own experiences, which are similar to our two-minutes of silence when he writes, “Taking a deep breath is like taking in inspiration for something, and then it processes in the mind where it creates something new and original, just like air in the lungs.” When I read his lines, I actually practice what he is saying and I recall the habit of pause that we practice at the start of class. Another student reflects, “The pandemic has been humbling in the sense that nature is truly cleansing (us) from digital burdens today. I became aware of how thankful I was for just having a backyard to go into and forget about material things.” And another student reflects on his experience of the desire to be in solitude, in nature. “We talked through swamps, bamboo, along a lake and more, but one thing bugged me when I was there. I wanted to take my time and walk around the park slowly, so I could see everything and all my sister was doing was complaining . . .” When given the time and space, students desire to be contemplatives and they succeed at reflecting on their personal experiences, with an attitude of gratitude. Action: Thinking & Acting in New & Different Ways In response to my request for students to predict their essay grades, one student reflects, “B/A (I don’t know, I can do better).” When students are honest about themselves and their efforts, they are practicing a virtue far greater than any skill we learn in any English class. In an essay, one student writes about the most beautiful personal experience example. “We don’t always need new things when we can find old things for cheaper or even free that gets the job done and will help you. This takes me back to remembering my first bike. My first bike was something that helped more learn how to ride one. I had to ride this old bike that had been ridden multiple times before me. I didn’t want to ride it. It wasn’t perfect. It was old had been used a lot and had even passed from person to person. But it got the job done in teaching me how to ride a bike. Instead of getting a new bike for me, my parents just used an old one we already had to teach me how to ride a bike. The bike didn’t have to be new to get the job done . . .” The student is not only reflecting, but also coming to a new way of thinking and acting in the world. Another student writes his truth, “I had to show self-reliance when both my parents and my sister had COVID-19. For these two weeks, I had to step up for myself and do things on my own that I am not used to doing. I had to cook dinner for myself, clean the house and disinfect everything myself, do my own laundry, and go get groceries.” Finally, one student reflects about his music class, “The last time I thought differently or originally was when I mixed two songs that sounded really good together and no one else through of it before. It felt weird coming up with a new ideas that no one had thought of. I felt proud of myself for discovering something new and forming a new way of thinking.” When students get real by connecting their personal experiences, ideas, believes, truths, and contexts with what we study and life outside our classrooms, they are authentic and true to themselves, all the while showing they know the material by internalizing it and making it real and relevant to their lives. Self-Evaluation One practice I employ with students after they write and revise essays is to challenge them to reflect on the essay requirements and rubric, then “slap a grade” on their final essay that they turn in – predicting their grades. As we get further and further into the year, their essay grade predications become more and more accurate. Students accurately self-evaluate – when their self-assessments align with the guides and expectations we talk about and are in rubrics – and the class comes closer and closer into alignment in expectations, skills, & content. Last night I participated in a Zoom book club, where we where I referenced a specific quote that my students show me every day and that continues to be focus for me as a teacher: “We will always be students . . . we remain teachable and open to new opportunities, and we open our minds to accept and our hearts to understand” (Bill P.) When January arrived after a short holiday break, we were back at it. On a typical year, I feel rejuvenated and eager to return to school. This year has been different. Plagued by a bunch of responsibilities at the start of the semester, and suffering in the sludge created by the impact of trauma living through almost a year of COVID-related challenges on my family, my friends, my school community, and me, I arrived at school more easily irritated, exhausted, anxious, and overwhelmed. Over the past month I have been striving toward the practice self-care. Here are some reflections and questions based upon my personal experiences: Mentors & Helpers There are people in my life who I reach out to when I am tired. Those people listen to me, challenge me, and help me focus on generativity, as well as rest and self-care. Over the past few weeks, I have spent time Zooming, talking on the phone, and texting mentors – both new and old. Sometimes I talk with professional at work in my building and outside my building, sometimes I talk with personal mentors in my car in the parking lot or in my driveway. Typically, after I talk with my mentors, I walk away with a few reminders about how to care for myself and others around me. I realize in these times it is important to maintain contact with my helpers. Who are your mentors and helpers? How do you reach out to for help? Time for Silence Over the past few weeks, I have re-engaged in Centering Prayer (Keating) and have connected with others who use this care tool. I am fortunate enough to work at a school where we have a free-standing chapel on our campus. In the mornings, I have been wandering over to the chapel, setting my phone timer for 20 minutes, and sitting comfortably with my eyes closed, in the quiet. As I sit, I recite my sacred word, consent. This recitation reminds me that I have made a conscious effort to surrender for 20 minutes. As I sit, I focus on belly breathing in through my nose (con) and exhaling from my mouth (sent). This quiet time of focused breathing and listening is an emptying moment, where I choose to remove myself from my routine and be in the presence of a higher power, listening and watching as thoughts come and go. When and how do you take time away for silence? Behaviors & Nutrition My January began with an intentional focus on behaviors around what I am eating and how this affects how I care for myself. How do I respond to stress and anxiety? Why do I respond with food? How do my eating patterns reflect helpful and harmful behaviors? What patterns of behavior are helpful and harmful? The answers to these questions are challenging for me, but I know that I do not address them in isolation. I can be teachable when I reach out for help from those who know more than I do. Do you engage in helpful or harmful behavior to alleviate stress and anxiety? How do you focus on self-care through choices? Exercise For two years, I have taken to the streets. Early in the mornings during the school year, I walk my neighborhood. I walk through the late summer, fall, winter, and spring. I notice the changing weather and light, and I feel a connection not only to nature and the beauty of changing seasons but also with those who walk at the same time as I do. I am practicing a solidarity. For decades, I have managed chronic back pain and joint inflammation. These conditions are exacerbated when I am anxious and stressed. For the last month I have been engaged in starting a new routine of stretching and strength conditioning, which in the longer term I hope will increase my flexibility while strengthening my core. This new routine has been physically and mentally challenging, because it has caused some pain that I work through with professionals. Each session is an opportunity to learn something new, where others help me change what is not working. This physical exercise has been an opportunity to network outside my COVID bubble and push me in new ways, with support. What role does physical exercise play in your COVID world? Meaningful Conversations Living in a school community that is highly protocoled and structured as a direct result of COVID has caused me to feel isolated at times. One new routine I have developed is to take a lap around the school building from 8:30-9:00 each morning, before classes, communicating with colleagues and friends. My, “Have a great day today!” declaration has opened the door to smiles, brief encounters, side conversations, and human connection that I would not otherwise have had. Connection with others is a counter-cultural relief from exhaustion. It also affords me the opportunity to practice listening, and it affords others the opportunity to talk about how they are feeling in the moment, as we begin a new day. What countercultural habits can you develop that foster connection with others? Kindness In my approach to our days, it has been overwhelming to continue to wade through the difficulties presented by COVID and other socio-political situations. I have been reminded by mentors to be kind to myself and others. At the same time, I have been gently reminded to “right-size” my role – realizing reasonable people disagree about many things in the world. I am reasonable (of course), but so are others around me. We are all doing the best we can with what we have. Each day is an opportunity to presuppose positive intent among those around me, while I notice and comment about all of the good things happening. How do you practice kindness toward yourself and others, approaching situations and people with positive intent? The Next Right Thing Often times my mind wanders as I think about all that I have not done or need to attend to. A mentor suggested this consideration: What’s the next right thing to do? When I focus on the next right thing, the world is not so overwhelming. Often at the start of my day, I take out an index card and write a list of priorities for my day. This action allows me to declutter the array of responsibilities, to be present to what is right in front of me. What strategies do you employ to be present to what’s right in front of you today? Art & Creativity My office at school is home to art and artifacts that remind me of who I am and how I am connected to what really matters. At a quick glance, I see family photos, prayer cards with the faces of deceased Jesuits who I knew and admired, and art from formers students. I see coffee mugs, and paintings depicting people, things, and causes I care about. I recently hung a painting that I often look at for inspiration. A few days ago, I said to a colleague, “I am most at home when I return to creative images, ideas, and outside the box thinking.” This weekend, my family and I visited the St. Louis Art Museum, to see a local exhibit on German art from 1800-present (painting above is Christ & The Sinner, Beckmann, 1917). It afforded us the opportunity to escape. Such visuals and creativity ground me and provide me with not only a connection to the world and humanity, but also the challenge to see and act in new and different ways. How do you fill your world with visual affirmation or creative energy? Yes to Connectivity A few days ago our communications director sent an email to all of the alumni in our school who teach and work here, asking us to gather after school for a photograph, to help support an article which would appear in an upcoming school publication. Without thinking of it, I said, “yes.” While I sat with others who had helped build and nurture our school throughout the years, I found myself extraordinarily grounded in and in communion with others. The simple act of “yes” and engagement with others for an ordinary task – cultivating connectivity – is nurturing. These are self-care and restful strategies I am trying to integrate into my life, being mindful of progress not perfection. Recently I read The 7 Types of Rest that Every Person Needs (Dalton-Smith) that was a great affirmation of my actions. Below is a checklist I developed after reading that article. How many do you check off on a regular basis? _ Sleep and napping _ Yoga _ Stretching _ Massage _ Physical exercise _ Short breaks every two hours _ Journaling about nagging thoughts and responsibilities _ Break from phone and TV _ Break from computer screens and background noise _ Closing eyes for a break _ Unplugging from electronics at end of day _ Getting outside to appreciate nature _ Opportunities to enjoy art _ Markers up where you teach or sit that are inspirational _ Confiding in another person about what’s really happening in your life _ Being authentic during a conversation _ Engaging in meaningful relationships that revive, not exhaust _ Surrounding yourself with supportive and positive people _ Turning on your camera during remote meetings, to connect in _ Praying or meditating It’s January 2021. Friends, colleagues, & family . . . many already exposed to COVID-19. We suffer, knowing many who are sick, some dying. A few peers still work remotely. Nearly all of us seem overwhelmed and overworked. Stressed out. There is a malaise as we trudge, seeking predictability and support – not only in school but also in our lives outside of school. This is how we are starting the new semester as educators creeping toward almost one year of radical change and adaptation. As I walked by our classrooms on the Thursday morning after the attack on our Capitol, I remained puzzled about the conundrum of seeing some of our students’ laptops adorned with right-leaning bumper stickers as we actively advocate for deepening our relationships with God, accompanying youth, walking with the marginalized, and caring for our common home. Where is there an occasion for a conversation and action? I wondered about the effectiveness of civics lessons in our history classes and the impact of digital literacy among our students. I felt heavy as the weight of the pandemic continues to bear down on us all – and as we predicted from reading reliable science news since March of 2020. I now know many who are suffering and who have died because of COVID-19. Sickness and death are an even closer reality today. With so many uncontrollable forces pushing us to be isolated from one another, where is consolation? Interestingly enough, I found hope in a brief conversation among tired and stressed new Ignatian educators during our monthly New Ignatian Educator MS Teams meeting last week, when I posed this context-setting question: What was particularly Ignatian about our first semester? These following mission-driven components of our community surfaced, which gives me a feeling of consolation (and challenge us all) as we move into unknown future: Cannonball Immersed in the work of the world, Ignatius’s cannonball moment led to the occasion for his conversion – with the Grace of God. Toward his conversion, Ignatius used gifts and circumstances right in front of him – that helped form him. How does our contemporary rudder – the Jesuit Universal Apostolic Preferences – provide the foundation for my own daily conversion during this pandemic, increased racism, and violent political unrest? How do the Preferences center my work at school and even my way of proceeding away from school? How do I continue to read the signs of the times, listen to my inner voice about my actions and feelings, and humble myself – to continue this work or move in new directions? Positive Intent In the Presupposition in the beginning of the Spiritual Exercises, St. Ignatius basically instructs retreatants to assume good intentions. Where there are two ways to interpret the words of another, one bad and one good, we should assume good intent (Jesuit Prayer Team, JC). We continue to experience COVID and resulting trauma, increasing hate in our country, a deepening political chasm, and social unrest. What is right in front of me today, at this very moment? How will I approach perspectives, opinions, decisions, situations, and people by assuming good intent? How will I practice: being slow to speak; attentive listening; truth-seeking; humility, respect, and thoughtfulness; and patience? How can I more closely imitate Ignatius and Jesus? When is it important to opt out – to re-direct time, talent, and treasure in new and different directions? “Ever since Manresa, the pilgrim had the habit when he ate with anyone not to speak at the table except to answer briefly; but he listened to what was said and noted some things which he took as an occasion to speak about God; and when the meal was finished, he did so.” (Powers of Imaging: Ignatius de Loyola - Antonio de Nicholas). Indifference Ignatius’s First Principle & Foundation challenges us: we do not necessarily want health rather than sickness . . . a long rather than a short life, and so in all the rest, so that we ultimately desire and choose only what is most conducive for us to the end for which God created us (First Principle & Foundation). If everything is gift – everything – how is today an occasion for me to practice spiritual freedom and openness? How do I lightly embrace or let things go? What is my response to a change of plans? How do I approach a shift in expectations or an increase or decrease in responsibilities? How do I continue care, while burdened with exhaustion? With what spirit do I continue to pivot, while navigating in unchartered territory, for the Greater Glory and to continue to build God’s kingdom? How is God inviting me – in everything today – to collaborate with God to build a more just and gentle world? (O’Brien, SJ). Whole Person We teach all kinds of students, who come to us with unique baggage and history. We, too, have baggage and history. We learn from one another. Together we grow and heal, through Grace. Right now, our primary focus is a hyper-awareness of each person in our community and beyond. Our students want to be in school – perhaps not only to be challenged intellectually, but also out of a need for community, predictability, and support. Our faculty want the same. We hone in on teaching students executive functioning skills. While, at the same time we continuously work to understand how stress, trauma, and culture influence journey – students, colleagues, and ours. Despite the difficulties, how do we continue to meet one another where we are? How am I a conduit for bringing people to a deeper understanding that God loves each of us unconditionally – no matter our baggage and history? Imagination During one brief conversation I had with a Jesuit priest two years ago in our Campus Ministry office, I asked, “What are we doing well and what needs work?” Among the many responses to these questions was this: “We – teachers and students – have lost our sense of imagination.” How are we continuously renewed and inspired to imagine that we are active participants in a life project bigger than ourselves – AMDG? How do we invite others into imagination with us? How do traditions and rituals help us in our imagining? Ways to enter into this are through celebration and mission-driven actions, as well as planning and purposeful activity that takes us beyond ourselves and our students and that networks with people, places, and organizations that can push us to grow. Ways to enter into this are through habits of prayer and meditation – careful listening and then responding thoughtfully to the call of God. During an unforgettable keynote I attended at John Carrol University (JSEA Colloquium 2004, Cleveland, OH), Fr. Howard Gray challenged us to reimagine the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius – for the time in which we are living. It was a clarion call to Jesuit & lay collaboration, in new and different ways and according to the times in which we live. Since then, where has our imagination around this call been? How do we imagine collaboration and our Jesuit and lay resources? How do we now step up to shape Gray’s vision using our imagination and resources? These questions and their answers are the indicators of successful contemplatives in action. As my conversation with our new Ignatian educators ended, the malaise of our situation in that moment slowly faded. It was replaced by a cautious excitement and feelings of consolation knowing not only that we hired the right educators for our Jesuit high school, but also that they are open to and guided by a common way of proceeding deeply rooted in our mission as an apostolate of the Society of Jesus. If we continue this humble, precise, and careful hiring and formation for mission, we will continue to see success and a connectedness to one another during an unknown semester and future. Despite setbacks and obstacles, may we always find consolation in our deep believe and practice in mission. The pandemic and political climate in our country not only have isolated us but also have divided us. Educators and administrators continue to teach in our schools each day – amidst the burdens of isolation and division – with passion toward something greater. They are light for the world and for students and families. Though vaccines are coming and we see end in sight, what is the counter-cultural antidote for support and encouragement of faculty and staff as we continue to re-build a sense of community in our schools while being exhausted by stress caused by unpredictability and trauma? Professional development is not enough these days. We need more . . . Dean Brackley, SJ, in The Call to Discernment in Troubled Times argues that the penguin is real. In unsettling times, we need community, prayer, contemplation, regular community worship, companionship, simplicity, physical exercise, regular rest and recreation, study, and a sense of humor. These succinct ideas helped us conclude a recent faculty and staff book club Zoom meeting, where we discussed The Call to Discernment in Troubled Times. Ironically, these ideas are what has also fueled last semester’s De Smet Jesuit Community Challenge – a series of planned programs designed as a staff & faculty competition to help heal adults and engage them as we rebuild our community. At our school, we advocate for a philosophy of cura personalis with students: a care for the whole person – paying special attention to each person’s various needs – academic, faith, spiritual, emotional, physical, and psychological. Likewise, the De Smet Jesuit Community Challenge for staff & faculty attempted to care for adults in ways that exceeded professional development opportunities for growth. It was the answer to the question: how can we help our staff & faculty through these difficult times? In addition to providing all staff and faculty with free professional counseling services this entire year, our Community Challenge began in October and lasted until the end of the semester. The Challenge offered opportunities and options for all staff and faculty to enter into experiences that allowed them to growth in their faith, heal through spiritual practice of meditation, exercise, be mindful of nutrition, and read, reflect and dialogue with one another – all set in the context of team competition and community. Here were our Challenge components for the semester: Teams & Leaders To counter a growing sense of isolation among adults in our building, we divided our entire faculty and staff into eight teams, with an equal number of individuals on each team – approximately 10-12 per team. While doing this, we created teams of people who would perhaps not ordinarily run into one another or who were perhaps not even friends. We kept in mind those working from home (4, at the time), and we created teams that were purposely diverse. We chose as leaders a combination of newer employees, staff members, middle leaders, and tenured faculty – responsible for rallying their teams each week through email and personal communication, reminding their teams about weekly events, and tracking individual and team points. For this Challenge, staff and faculty were encouraged to participate in any or all of the events as individuals, with friends, and with teammates. On Thursday of each week, captains checked in with their teams to collect and record points for the week. Finally, updates and pictures were posted in the faculty room – as visual signs of community and fun during the semester. This component focused on trying to eliminate a sense of isolation while improving a sense of community. Variety in Programming Based upon an early captain’s planning meeting in late September, we developed a series of programming pieces that staff & faculty could choose to enter into throughout the semester – both as individuals and as teams. We awarded individual and team points to those competing each week that contributed to their individual and team scores. The variety of programming aimed to meet a variety of needs: social, physical, spiritual, faith, community, nutritional, and intellectual. TGITs – Thank God It’s Thursday outside socials with individually-wrapped appetizers and beverages. Individuals were awarded points for attending and the team with the most attendees was awarded additional points. Though we discontinued these socials as the weather turned colder, we will likely resume TGITs in the spring. Attendance at these was high. With our regiment and routine that keep adults and students apart and relatively isolated, these were occasions for us all to come together at week’s end and just be with one another. Walktober – During the month of October, participants were encouraged to pick a regular time during the day throughout the week to walk around our track or the perimeter of our school’s property. For each lap and perimeter, walkers earned points. And, if participants had step trackers and tracked steps each day, they earned additional points. Walkers were encouraged to trudge individually, with friends, or in a group (with their team). The team with the most participants during Walktober were awarded additional team points. This programming piece was the most popular. It got participants up and moving, outside. Commit to the Sit Meditation – This was competitive meditation, of course. So, points were awarded for individuals and teams. Meditators – amateur and experienced – were encouraged to take time out of their crazy days, to be still. As such, they left the building, to enter into our Chapel on campus. For every 10-minute quiet sit, participants earned points. For every 20-minute quiet sit, they earned additional points. Sits could include quiet prayer, reading, journaling, and meditation. Sits did not include talking with anyone in the Chapel. A silent sit zone was strongly encouraged. Participants were also asked to sign the Commit to the Sit log upon exit. We tracked participation in this event. Supporting our Dionysian Players – To leave room for families to attend their sons’ play production in a safe, physically distance environment this past semester, faculty and staff were encouraged to continue to support our theater production by being awarded points for attending the play’s many dress rehearsals. The team with the most attendees were awarded additional team points. In addition, groups of faculty dined together safely and the school paid for those community meals. Staff & Faculty Formation Friday – In October, we planned and implemented a “mandatory fun” event for staff & faculty, called Formation Friday. Students were not in school on that day. Participants arrived on campus to join their teams for a “college-themed” competition and fellowship as we continued to physically distance and wear masks. Mass was offered at 8:00 that morning. And points were awarded for individual participation and team victories in events that included dressing in college attire, Pickle Ball, Jenga, Corn Hole, video games, ping pong, and a scavenger hunt throughout the school. Individually boxed breakfasts, snacks, and lunches were provided as participants enjoyed being with one another and relaxing – it was a much-needed retreat from the pandemic academic grind. Themed-Dress Days – Throughout the semester we encouraged faculty to participate in themed-dress days, as a simple way to promote community and encourage spirit. For each themed-dress day, we awarded individual and team points. Use it or Lose It Weight Challenge – November & December, we encouraged those interested to participate in a truncated Biggest Loser competition - to weigh-in every Thursday and anonymously record their weight loss for the week. For every pound lost each week, participants earned points toward their team total. Project-Based Learning: A Local Road Rally - After reading an article about Fr. De Smet and his companions arriving in St. Louis, participants and teams were encouraged to go out and discover the significant destinations identified in the article, take a photo of their team at the place, submit the photo, and earn individual and team points. Points were to be awarded for photographs which showed proof of locations identified in the article and submitted with team participants in the photo. Substitution - Our school does in-house substitutions, for classes and for lunch periods – when needed. During this Challenge, we tracked subs during this semester and awarded team and individual points to staff and faculty who took on this added responsibility. Book Club – Finally, in December, staff and faculty members participated in a one-hour Zoom book club meeting, after reading The Call to Discernment in Troubled Times. The school ordered and distributed books in October, and individual and team points were earned for those having read the book and participated in the Zoom conversation. This book club meeting and our reading was a significant end to our Community Challenge. Dean Brackley, SJ, provided us with wonderful words that led many in our Zoom meeting to feelings of great consolation - reminding us of the purpose of our Challenge and of the purpose of our vocations as Ignatian educators . . . that could serve as an apt guide and inspiration to us all as we continue to move forward during this difficult time:
Challenge Chatter: Awards & Trophies Each week, team captains submitted their team point totals and we tracked team winners, individual team winners, and an overall school MVP – that went to the participant who earned the most points for her or his team. The school MVP earned the honor of displaying the Challenge Trophy for the week in his or her classroom. Weekly team statistics and awards were communicated through Challenge Chatter emails that went out on Friday morning, each week. And the Winner Is . . . At the end of our Community Challenge, we declared a team winner – the team who earned the most individual and team points during the Challenge. That team celebrated with a pizza party! Conclusion The Community Challenge succeeded in offering staff and faculty a wide variety of programmatic options during a difficult semester in our school. We attempted to care for our staff and faculty by challenging them to engage in our community, beyond professional development. I am grateful to teach in a school where we care about safety so much so that we have thoughtful, clear, consistent, and concrete rules and policies, along with adjusted facilities and processes during Covid. We are flexible enough to change things up when we need to, and we have resources to provide a safe learning environment for all students & faculty. I am grateful we have students and families who care so much about education that they support us in the work we do. I often say, It’s a Great Day to Be a De Smet Jesuit Spartan. And it is! Especially, during class. Here is what has worked (and why) in my classroom this year during a pandemic. Written Agenda Before each class, I post my detailed class agenda in our MSTeams meeting notes. This agenda is more thorough than usual and though this agenda can change, students have access to this agenda prior to class – they know what is coming. Perhaps this access to our daily agenda helps alleviate anxiety and stress. The agenda is clear and consistent communication for students. Routine Students in my junior English class know what to expect when they walk into class because there is a formal and regularly followed routine for class. Though we may not cover as much material and we may deviate from the material when we need to, students know there is a routine that is generally the same each day. Students come in, immediately sit down in their assigned seats, and get class materials ready. When class begins, I take attendance noting those in-person and remote. Gentle reminders about seating, staying masked up, using protocols, remaining seated and physically distanced, and participating during class assure students and call them to task. Maintaining routine is a trauma-informed practice. Two Minutes Each class, we begin with two minutes of silence and practice our breathing. The lights are usually dimmed. Students close their computers, shut their eyes, and empty their brains – in preparation for our class. This time is characterized by total silence, breathing practice, internal reflection, stopping, resetting, and preparing for the coming class. There is a beautiful sound to communal breathing during a quiet class. Most importantly, silence and breathing practice helps lower levels of stress and raise levels of consciousness. Announcements After two minutes of silence, I begin with announcements that include the following:
In-Person Student Liaison for Remote Learners I am thankful our school has the technological resources and training to offer class for both in-person learners and remote learners – at the same time. One tool that helps me manage both types of learners during class is an in-person student liaison for remote learners. His responsibilities include logging into our MSTeams meeting space, where remote learners are required to be logged into. The in-person student liaison updates our class notes in the MSTeams meeting chat, as well as advocates for remote learners when they have questions or need help. Assigning in-person student liaisons offers the in-person learner a leadership responsibility during class and offers remote learners resources toward a more equitable learning environment. Community-Building Reflection Question or Prompt Each day, after announcements, I offer a community-building reflection question or prompt. For example: tell a brief story about someone you admire and love. The best questions or prompts each day challenge students to reflect on their own personal experiences as they have tied or will tie into the material. The task for this particular prompt mirrors what happened in a recent TedTalk about Indigenous people, when the presenter told stories about people she admired. After students write their personal responses to the question or prompt, we have an opening conversation. Such reflection questions and conversations allow us to get to know one another, connect our lives to the course material, and help us build community during a time when we all feel high levels of stress and perhaps isolation. Participation Each day, in-person and remote learners know what participation looks like during class. Students understand they must be prepared for class, have their materials out or readily available. Students must be actively taking notes in OneNote (where I am able to check their notes), and they must be contributing to the conversation of the class. Regardless of their status as in-person or remote, I try to call on each student each day. Students earn participation points, which are 15% of their overall grade in the class. Through participation, students understand they can positively affect the learning of their classmates by being prepared and by offering opinions. Everyone’s work matters when we come together as a class, even though that work might look different for each person. We all contribute to building a viable community by participating. Finally . . . Use of Specific Language and Verbal Repetition Verbal queues and repetition of specific language is important during class. Repetition of key words and learning new words as part of our spoken language supports routine. Repetition gives the class a sense of community and connectedness. Some phrases I use each day include:
As I sat on our football field during our school’s annual celebration of the Mass of the Holy Spirit yesterday, Fr. Burshek’, SJ, remarks competed with the sirens of a passing ambulance and fire truck, along with a helicopter overhead. We were staring up into a sun transformed by wildfires in the west and seated six feet apart from one another . . . masked. Who knew that evening we would receive the news of the death of Ruther Bader Ginsberg. As I remember our Mass and recall the deep and abiding friendship between Ginsberg and the late Scalia despite their opposing perspectives, all I can think of is, “The highest ideals of a Jesuit education are expressed so well by Jerónimo Nadal, one of Ignatius’s earliest companions: ‘We [Jesuits] are not monks . . . . The world is our house!’” (Hale). This could not be more true and lived than now. But how do we live in and respond to the world? I am a high school English teacher instructing in a phased, hybrid (in person and remote) schedule this fall. I am a high school administrator responsible for curriculum & instruction. I am a participant/observer in my son’s third grade remote learning experience. Every day I am pushed into the world, beyond my level of comfort and realizing that now perhaps more than ever education – experienced in person and remotely – is countercultural for five reasons. We Build Community During a time when the pandemic, social media, and politics aim to not only isolate us but also pit us against one another, education in person and remotely is important because this endeavor brings us together in a loving community. At De Smet Jesuit High School, we carefully plan and successfully pivoted to our phased, hybrid schedule, keeping in mind that not only does our academic curriculum look differently (we will not be able to cover as much of the same content and skills), but also we must take time to build community with students. That’s what’s most important right now. We do this with the presupposition of positive intent. Each day, we arrive at school to build something good and true by working alongside others and supposing the best in them. In our interactions, “teachers need to be true to themselves and also true to their students” (Mitchell). We share what’s going on in our lives and make sense of content and skills for students by seeing how the material connects with their lived experiences (Mitchell). We never shy away from our lived experiences. Instead, we embrace and integrate experiences into schoolwork. Of course, we know this as IPP experience. As Ignatian educators, we practice culturally responsive teaching by perhaps using student surveys or having meaningful conversations at the start of the school year, to collect and use student experiences to drive later conversations, content, and projects (Lee). Perhaps we begin each class with warm-up questions from students’ lives (Cooper), in an effort to connect and build community before jumping into material (Newhouse). IPP experience empowers students, and we know empowering students is a trauma-informed practice we need to employ today. Ideally, we provide authentic engagement and assignments that connect content and skills to the world and challenge students to think about the world (Newhouse). We Explore Truth through Current Events, To Imagine a Hopeful Future Have we lost our ability to imagine a hopeful future? During a time when the pandemic, social media, and politics attempt to avoid and manipulate truth, we seek truth by learning about events happening around us and in the world, to imagine a hopeful future. In our togetherness, and because the world is our house, we learn about the pandemic, who it affects, and how we can be safe. Perhaps we use these prompts to explore this topic from a variety of academic disciplines. During our onboarding process this fall, students learned about the mission of our school, the impact of the pandemic on us all and others, and our new way of proceeding to be safe during this pandemic. Students learned about and practiced having Ignatian Conversations, as well as learned about Formation Fridays that offer opportunities for non-academic curriculum and outside of class opportunities, in the context of classes and homerooms. Formation Fridays also offer students opportunities to meet and participate in clubs, co-curricular events, house events, faith formation, and service opportunities. Being together – in person and remotely – gives us opportunities to talk about the world in which we live, cultures, and specifically the racial unrest in our country. How do we explore this unrest through the lens of course curricula? We take action toward inclusiveness by dismantling policies and systems – from where we stand. I offer 10 factors to diversify curricula. Specifically, I changed the title and overarching theme of my (English) course to be more inclusive this year. I replaced “The American Dream” with “American Voices and Dreams.” This new title suggests a vision for my course that is not limiting or reductive. It is expansive. This new title reminds us how we should think about creating more inclusive experiences. During a summer review of my course curriculum, I removed literature and replaced the removed items with a more diverse selection of voices. In addition, I am cognizant of the times in which we live. To that end, I include immigrant narratives and contemporary black voices, while I integrate history lessons from diverse primary sources. In fact, this year, we will discover how the pandemic affects all types of people in this country. In addition, I develop specific action-experiences for students during units and lessons that help students “live” the lessons of the literature and challenge us to reflect on “How do we think and act in new and different ways after having read this material?” My course is not perfect but it’s relevant to 2020 and it’s hopeful, while exploring how we got here. I try to make change where I am. We Practice Meaningful Dialogue During a time when the pandemic, social media, and politics aim to shut down conversation, we learn frameworks for conversations and practice meaningful dialogue. Our director of diversity and inclusion and our school’s Jesuit chaplain recently introduced our school to Ignatian Conversations, a framework, with suggestions for listening and talking. This year, I will use this framework to model and practice conversations during class that assume Ignatius’s presupposition of positive intent and includes five attributes:
I also use specific phrases when practicing difficult conversations during class, and I teach students to use those phrases during conversations in and out of class. Here is a list of phrases we will practice this year during class:
These conversation attributes and specific phrases challenge us to a higher level of respect and understanding of one another, toward thinking and acting in new and different ways (IPP Action). As we practice dialogue with one another, and in particular are aware of attribute one, I am reminded that we are trying to model our behavior with that of St. Ignatius. That, “From the time he left Manresa, Ignatius, while seated at table with others, had made it a practice never to speak except to give a brief answer to questions. However, he heard all that was said, and took occasion after dinner to give the conversation a spiritual turn” (O’Connor, SJ, ed.). We Provide Predictability & Support During a time when the pandemic, social media, and politics force us toward chaos and self-reliance, our school provides predictability and support for students. Here are a few ways we do this:
We Introduce Skills for Success Finally, during a time when the pandemic, social media, and politics force us into new, and unfamiliar routines, we introduce important skill-sets for student success. In addition to helping students learn and practice specific executive functioning skills, we help them build digital capacity by practicing digital competency (Kitchen). We work with students to practice using our OnCampus and MSTeams platforms. Before we employ technology tools in remote learning, we introduce them, model them, and practice with them. Before we begin our work, we look at our courses and identify key digital skills our students will need to be successful. We communicate those skills and provide time in class to practice those skills with students. Ten Factors that Impact Action toward Greater Diversity in High School Curriculum Design & Review8/20/2020 I have held several leadership responsibilities in secondary education over many years. As a consultant for a national network, director of school support for a regional network, and high school administrator, one focus has been my curiosity, increased self-awareness, and work toward racial equity in schools. This has grown over my years of being engaged in this work, despite failures along the way. 15 years ago, I was part of a conversation with academic department chairs at my school, where I asked, “How come we don’t have student data, disaggregated by race?” As eyes looked down, I was quickly told by a tenured department chair, “We don’t do that . . . and you are a racist. Everyone in this school gets treated the same way.” That particular comment continues to guide my curiosity and growth. No one around the table was ready, perhaps. As one direct response to the racial unrest because of the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO, I worked with a group of educators (regionally) to develop a race/ethnicity Examination (audit, really) for a regional network of high schools. This audit allowed a school to reflect while gathering and evaluating perceptions about race in their schools – to begin to examine policies and systems. The first iteration of the Examination also had the potential of comparing and contrasting results with other schools in-network and across time. When we invited schools to participate in a pilot project to test this Examination, we got no volunteers, for various reasons. The initiative faded. Schools were not ready, perhaps. I was introduced to Courageous Conversations about Race (Singleton & Linton) in graduate school. Since then, I have introduced this framework in my own school and with a network of diversity directors in schools regionally. We practiced. We modeled. And the practice grew to other schools and works. During those various practices with Courageous Conversations, I grew by listening to others and by developing my own racial autobiography, where I reflected on this central question: “What can you recall about the events and conversations related to race, race relations, and/or racism that may have impacted your current perspectives and/or experiences?” (Singleton, Linton). Over the past few years, have been part of a high school working curriculum group as part of the Slavery, History, Memory, and Reconciliation Project, sponsored by the UCS Jesuits, and I have recently participated in my son’s school diversity & equity summer book read: How to be an Antiracist (Kendi). It is valuable for me to be continuously engaged in this work . . . to learn new things about others and myself. At the same time, it is frustrating to make mistakes, missteps, and fail; and, it is challenging because the work is slow, with dead ends. However, I/we must continue . . . Today, our school is guided by the Jesuit Universal Apostolic Preferences (specifically, accompanying youth and walking with the excluded). Our school’s Black Student Union (BSU) recently responded to the summer’s racial uprisings by developing a practical list of “asks,” of the school – pathways for our school to engage in changing policies and systems. Last winter and spring, I had one-on-one reflecting conversations with faculty. Reflection trends around last year’s conversation thread of race/ethnicity complement the recent list of BSU asks. When I see connections between and among independently organized initiatives aimed at changing policies and systems, I feel consoled. Finally, last week, our Examination (audit) group from many years ago began communicating to re-ignite that once-failed initiative. And, in partnership with The Boniface Foundation, I participated in a few days of examining how we approach race conversations among colleagues at school and with our students in class. All of these past & current initiatives focus on policies and systems and inform my way of proceeding this year, as I consider 10 factors toward re-imagining a course I will be teaching in the department of English at my high school. Re-imagining it to be more diverse. These factors also complement the Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm for learning and teaching that we employ at my school. And each factor presents concrete challenges for us all as we design and review curriculum through the lens of diversity. Factor 1: Work on the Work My past and current work on racism allows me to feel comfortable being uncomfortable and informs how I proceed, decisions I make, and actions I take. My goal is continuous quality self-improvement (progress, not perfection), continuing to stay plugged into this important work, listening to others, and taking advantage of professional development opportunities that focus on racism and my roles. I listen to those who know more than I know and challenge me about my own racist baggage. Just this morning, I responded to an email from my son’s elementary school about participating in the next book club focusing on Between the World and Me (Coates). I said yes, and today I will order the book and begin reading it. I listen and respond to where I am being called. This is a continuous process of working on the work. For me, working on the work results in action & praxis. Reflection: where is your entry point for starting or continuing work on racism? Factor 2: Use Data At my school, we developed a perception survey that students take toward the end of each year, which informs the way we proceed and the areas of focus we have for the coming year. It is not a perfect tool – we are continuously revising it, but it is an institutionalized tool applied to a system to help change that system. This survey’s results are disaggregated by race to provide us with a clear picture about trends in academics, faith formation, sports participation, co-curricular involvement, and family life. From results, we can clearly identify consolations and desolations, as they pertain to policies and systems in the school. As a teacher, I also have access to my student course list, where I see specific information about my students that includes photos, race/ethnicity, indication of learning preferences and plans, family background, residential addresses, etc. This data provides me with a broader picture of the students I teach and gives me a glimpse into their lives outside my class. I use this information during my class when I’m challenging students to connect the experiences of the our content to their lives. Reflection: what data points can you readily access and how does data inform action? How does data analysis reveal strengths and challenges to your school’s policies and systems? Factor 3: Examine Course Assumptions Everyone brings baggage into school and into classes – my students and me. This baggage is based upon our lived experiences, and it informs the way we operate in the world – the decisions we make and the actions we take. In The Assumptions of White Privilege and What We Can Do About It, Fr. Bryan Massingale talks about how we become racist . . . “It’s something that you absorbed by just living. Just by taking in subtle clues such as what the people in charge look like. Whose history you learned in school. What the bad guys look like on TV. The kind of jokes you heard. How your parents, grandparents and friends talked about people that didn’t look like you.” When I reviewed the process of reflection during the creation of my own racial autobiography, I learned this: racism is absorbed by just living – having the freedom to make decisions based upon experiences. But what do I do? As a teacher, I continuously revisit the assumptions I make based upon my baggage (based upon my lived experiences), and I examine existing course assumptions and experiences I bring with me to my curriculum and my classroom. I also challenge students to examine their own baggage, assumptions, and ways of proceeding. Reflection: what baggage do you bring with you into school every day? How does that baggage inform your assumptions about your curriculum, your classroom, and students? How do those assumptions drive your actions? Factor 4: Employ Existing Frameworks I use resources I’m given by colleagues and professionals to continuously re-examine how I approach classes and my work. Recently, I was given valuable tools that help me shape my course this year. Our director of diversity and inclusion and our school’s Jesuit chaplain recently introduced me to Ignatian Conversations, a framework with suggestions for listening and talking. Our director of diversity and inclusion introduced me to Critical Analysis of a Curricular Unit, a framework for reviewing lessons through a cultural competency lens. I am continuously reviewing and revising our class visit rubric, based upon Characteristics of Professional Development, which includes a diversity, equity, and inclusion component with specified cultural competency indicators. I use these existing frameworks to re-shape my classes, to be better. Reflection: what existing frameworks do you use to help you re-shape your course curriculum? Factor 5: Start at the Top I changed the title and overarching theme of my (English) course to be more inclusive. I replaced “The American Dream” with “American Voices and Dreams.” This new title suggests a vision for my course that is not limiting or reductive. It is expansive. This new title reminds me how I should think about creating a more inclusive experience for students. Reflection: how do you rename an existing course to suggest an expansive and inclusive vision? Factor 6: Review & Design the Course During a review of my course curriculum over the summer, I removed literature and replaced the removed items with a more diverse selection of voices. In addition, I am cognizant of the times in which we live. To that end, I include immigrant narratives and contemporary black voices, while I integrate history lessons from diverse primary sources. In fact, this year, we will discover how the pandemic affects all types of people in this country. In addition, I develop specific action-experiences for students during units and lessons that help students “live” the lessons of the literature and challenge us to reflect on “How do we think and act in new and different ways after having read this material?” My course is relevant to 2020, while exploring how we got here. Reflection: where is your entry point for reviewing and re-designing your curriculum and how are you making it relevant to today? Factor 7: Integrate Experience From day one, we develop a community of trust in our class, as we begin to understand one another and our individual contexts. We use community conversations, so we begin to understand one another. I challenge students to connect their own lives to the lives and ideas within the history and literature, and I model this by providing experience examples from my own life. Reflection: where is your entry point for learning about and using experiences? How do you share your life with students? Factor 8: Teach Vocabulary I use discipline-specific language with students and set high expectations that we all use the same discipline-specific language during class. We practice using the language. I also use specific phrases when practicing difficult and courageous conversations, and I teach students to use those phrases during conversations in and out of our class. Here is a list of phrases we will practice this year during class:
Helping students learn and appreciate vocabulary and introducing students to helpful conversational phrases is culturally responsive teaching that promotes equity (Lee). Reflection: what are discipline-specific vocabulary terms you teach and use with students? How do you teach students important phrases to use during class conversations? Factor 9: Reflect on Policies & Systems I use cultural competency critical analysis – along with a focus on policies and systems (ref. Kendi) – with students to frame conversations during class. This analysis challenges us to think about how to explore and change policies and systems. Prompts include:
Reflection: identify policies and systems at your school that need work or change. Factor 10: Construct Rules & Protocols Finally, I use our “Ignatian Conversations” framework to model and practice conversations during class, that assumes Ignatius’s Presupposition of good intention and includes 5 attributes:
These conversation attributes are in my syllabus and they challenge us all to a higher level of respect and understanding. Reflection: how do you explicitly model and assume good will? Sources Kendi, Ibram. How to Be an Antiracist. Penguin, 2019. Lee, Laura. “The Value of Culturally Responsive Teaching in Distance Learning.” Edutopia. 15 June 2020. Massingale, Bryan N. “The Assumptions of White Privilege and What We Can Do About It.” National Catholic Reporter, 1 June 2020. Singleton, Glenn and Curtis Linton. Courageous Conversations About Race. Corwin Press, 2006. Last week was our annual PD Summer Seminar, developed for teachers. Sixty-four voluntary participants attended throughout the week – including educators from two additional Jesuit schools in our Jesuit province (UCS): Loyola Academy of St. Louis and Jesuit College Preparatory School of Dallas (TX). During the week, we learned about our new way proceeding (on campus and remotely) in the coming academic year, and we practiced concrete strategies for remote learning. Why? After our spring semester, we felt positive about our remote learning experiences. We had specific systems and supports in place, we tried new strategies, and we set high expectations for student learning and engagement – yet we remained flexible. Our belief in continuous quality improvement always challenges us to continue to get better. This PD Summer Seminar was the vehicle to help us get better. Below are 7 qualities of this experience that might prove useful to other schools and teachers when planning, implementing, and evaluating professional development. Coincidentally, teachers can use these same qualities with students as they plan for the coming year. Mission Especially during this pandemic, we are renewed in our mission as a Jesuit high school. Despite tremendous challenges (and trauma), we are hopeful we can continue to creep toward joyful giving through companionship and accompaniment with one another, through prayer, and by being reflective practitioners. As Ignatian educators in the Jesuit tradition, we live a certain way with one another and with our students. The Magis – How does the ongoing pandemic and racial inequity and unrest continuously challenge us to evaluate and be creative in new responses and in renewed reconciliation? As teachers and as students, how can we challenge one another in hopeful creativity and renewed reconciliation? The First Principle and Foundation - For everything has the potential of calling forth in us a deeper response to our life in God. Everything. As teachers and as students, how do we understand and live this ideal? How can we help one another to see this? The Life of St. Ignatius – “Ever since Manresa, the pilgrim had the habit when he ate with anyone not to speak at the table except to answer briefly; but he listened to what was said and noted some things which he took as an occasion to speak about God; and when the meal was finished, he did so.” (Powers of Imaging: Ignatius de Loyola - Antonio de Nicholas). As teachers and as students, how are we attentive to others? How do we note and speak to God? Cura Personalis – How do we simplify content and skills, while adding three essential components students need to be successful: executive functioning skills, digital competencies, and building trust and communities (on campus and remotely) by being authentic and allowing students to be authentic and feel supported. Jesuit Universal Apostolic Preferences – How do we walk with the marginalized (for us that is black students, GLBTQ students, students who are socio-economically disadvantaged, students – all – who experience trauma, and those students who have diagnosed learning differences and as such have school Learning Plans)? Especially today, how do we examine the impact of the pandemic and racial unrest on students and families? During this time, how do we accompany youth – living in the tension of competing priorities, all the while being hopeful amidst the continuous reality of an uncertain future? Ignatian Indifference (when simplifying curriculum) – What’s the big deal? A colleague raised this question during a conversation earlier in the PD Summer Seminar week. In terms of content, what’s a big deal for us to cover? Why? Is it because it’s essential or is it because we have a predisposition toward the content or skills? What’s most important? What’s not a big deal if students don’t get it this year? Indifference (Ignatian) means being detached enough from things, people, or experiences to be able either to take them up or to leave them aside, depending on whether they help us to “to praise, reverence, and serve God” (Spiritual Exercises 23). How can we apply this concept to curriculum choices we make: to simply and slow down? How are we living in Ignatian indifference and how can we model that for students? Students: How can we work with students to consider the life, choices, and way of St. Ignatius, to help us to know Jesus and God better? Data & Talent We designed our PD Summer Seminar after synthesizing survey results from faculty, students, and parents. Throughout the spring semester, we continuously surveyed and gathered data, talked with stakeholders during remote learning, and changed things up. One central question we posed to teachers: What do you need to be successful in the coming year, if we were to continue to be remote? During conversations with stakeholders, we were careful listeners, noting resources, tools, and strategies students and teachers need to be successful during remote learning. Our PD Summer Seminar design was the result of our attentiveness to needs. Who does what well? During our design process, we identified Area Experts in our building, based on experiences from March – May. We offered Area Experts opportunities to lead sessions through the PD Summer Seminar: teachers-teaching-teachers. This model has many unintended positive results: it provides Area Experts opportunities to lead; teachers are open to being led by their peers; and it gives everyone opportunities to practice with our technology infrastructures before the year begins. Students: How does data collection through student surveys and conversations drive our classrooms? How can we use Student Experts to help with technology and to help animate content and skills this year? Logical & Purposeful Design We designed our PD Summer Seminar with logic and flow that is similar to what students could experience in our courses this year. We began by introducing larger, philosophical and theoretical frameworks: Teaching and Learning in a New Model (session 1) and Creating Classroom Models for Remote Learning (session 2). We began with the why. We asked teachers to integrate research and external best practices with their own experiences from the spring to create new resources for themselves and others. Next, we narrowed our focus by re-introducing our digital platforms that we use with students: OnCampus and MSTeams (sessions 3 & 4). Third, breakout sessions led by area experts re-introduced participants to specific tech tools they can use during blended learning this year (sessions 5 & 6). The PD Summer Seminar ended with broader conversations about classwork, homework, assessment, curriculum initiatives, simplification, themes, creativity, and collaboration (sessions 7 & 8). There was strategy to our design. There was an ebb and flow. There was an effective interplay between offering content and practicing skills. Students: How can we revisit our academic curriculum, using logic and purpose, for students? Research, Best Practices, Experience The PD Summer Seminar sessions were rooted in research and best practices. Throughout the design of the Seminar, we gathered relevant research and best practices. As we continued to shape each Seminar session, we carefully chose specific research pieces for support. We asked Seminar participants to come to sessions having read the research and completed pre-session reflections and surveys. Finally, we embedded the research into session content, frameworks, and projects. We challenged participants to be reflective practitioners – using their experiences (IPP reflection and experience) to animate a new (and improved) way forward this coming year (IPP action and evaluation). Students: how can we work to integrate student experiences, reflection, action, and evaluation in the coming year? Practical & Product-Based Our PD Summer Seminar began with philosophical and theoretical frameworks: an overview of our schedule and building models for remote learning. But, we did not stay there. Quickly (after day 1), we moved to teaching and practicing. We provided concrete and practical strategies – tools – teachers could use in the coming year. Each day, we used meta-cognitive reflection to challenge teachers to articulate what, from the days, they will use. In addition, we embedded projects throughout the week. Participants walked away having either created or contributed to building individual and group products for use in the coming year. We began work with an Inventory Project that challenged Seminar participants to integrate research-based components into their way of proceeding in the coming year. These included how to help those most vulnerable by employing trauma-informed practices, culturally responsive teaching strategies, and suggestions for students with our Learning Plans. We continued by offering a session where Seminar participants worked together to develop strategies for our Remote Learning Classrooms. In both projects, we reminded Seminar participants throughout the week to continue to build and “add to” these evolving works. Throughout the week we introduced resources for Seminar participants to “contribute to” and use in their own Inventory Projects and Classroom Modeling Projects. We asked participants to comment on and contribute to our school’s Remote Learning Handbook. We asked Seminar Participants to look at their curriculum through the Jesuit Universal Apostolic Preferences (especially Walking with the Marginalized and Accompanying Youth). We provided strategies for curriculum simplification, and we challenged participants to continue to think about their own curriculum through the lenses of being creative and collaborative. PD Summer Seminar participants left the week with concrete frameworks and products that they worked on – individually and as a group – throughout the week, to use in the coming year. Students: How can we embed frameworks and project-base learning with students during our classes this year? Walking with the Marginalized Walking with the marginalized (in particular, black students, those who have experienced trauma, students with Learning Plans) is a priority during an academic year that is hybrid (on campus and remote) and unpredictable. During the Seminar, we re-introduced trauma-informed teaching practices, culturally responsive teaching strategies, and methods for assisting students with Learning Plans. Students: Our new way of proceeding impacts those on the margins. How will we continue to embed relevant strategies to help these students and how can we continuously respond to their needs through research-based strategies, best practices, and based upon our existing experiences? Modeling We are living in a new and different reality. When we return to school, our way of proceeding will be influenced by trauma and by circumstances that have required us to change our facilities. PD Summer Seminar teachers participating on campus during the week got a preview of what is to come: they saw a building changed and they practiced safety procedures. Our classrooms are different. Seats are spaced 6’ apart in every classroom. Non-traditional spaces are now classrooms. New technology has been added, while previous technology in place in our building is no longer usable. Teachers practiced wearing masks, continuously sanitizing, and maintaining 6’ of distance. This stuff is strange and hard. But, because we want to succeed in school, we are adapting and flexible. PD Summer Seminar teachers participating remotely experienced what students experience, and they practiced about how they will be teaching and how students will be learning in the coming year. Finally, the PD Summer Seminar integrated choice and flexibility:
During the PD Summer Seminar, we purposefully modeled choice and flexibility. Students: How can provide our learners with voice and choice this year? How can we model and expect flexibility with students? Meta-Cognition and Growth During the PD Summer Seminar, we frequently challenged participants to “step out” of the Seminar – noting specific design strategies they could use in the coming year. I stopped sessions and said, “Let’s take a step back, note, and add to our list of strategies” – not only challenging participants to list strategies embedded in their experiences but also asking them to look at the overall way we were proceeding – for clues on how teachers could teach in the coming year. This meta-cognition is essential. Concrete lists of take-aways is important. The final session of the Seminar (session 9) was a review of all the content and skills from the week. During the review, we encouraged participants to break open their notes, highlight important concepts, circle ideas, and underline important strategies. Finally, we challenged teachers to revisit/create two goals for the coming year, perhaps based on the Seminar. I encouraged faculty to revisit their Growth & Renewal Reflections (from May) and offered these questions:
Tying the PD Summer Seminar to other institutional frameworks– like our existing Growth & Renewal – challenges teachers to make sense of new knowledge and skills in the context of predictable and supportive processes. Students: How can we continuously remind students of connections in our classes and beyond, during the school year? A Summer Toward Accompaniment and Companionship - Using Seven Foci for Rest, Reflection and Renewal6/17/2020 And the school year is over . . . just . . . like . . . that. Summer has typically been a period of rest, reflection, and renewal for schools. This year, amidst the shifting American educational landscape caused by COVID-19, which has itself illuminated great disparities among people in our country, and a heightened awareness of institutional racism and the Black Lives Matter movement as a direct result George Floyd’s death, I find myself wanting to do more: more reflection and renewal in the form of action – and wanting to do these things in the spirit of companionship and accompaniment for and with others. Here are three questions I am considering:
As I consider these questions, my summer plans include seven foci. Focus One: Faculty & Staff Rest, Reflection, & Renewal Grounded in Mission Toward the end of the academic year, we created, planned, and implemented numerous faith formation opportunities that allowed adults at school finally to take a step back to rest, reflect, and begin to renew. These opportunities ground us in the mission of our work of Jesuit secondary education and supposed that we take a position of companionship – that we accompany one another in continuing to create community. We shifted our final on campus Ignatian Evening that would have included dinner, fellowship, and prayer, to an online opportunity for a few hours one evening at the end of May. The topic of our final online Ignatian Evening to end the year was Spirituality at Home. Twenty-seven faculty and staff participated in this optional (Zoom) night of sharing, reflection, and prayer where we reflected on the changing contexts of our lives and how this context has shaped our faith life and prayer. How did we officially end a year after two months where faculty and staff were engaged in remote learning? We did not meet in person to celebrate or reflect at the end of our year because of local physical distancing restrictions. Instead, on what would have been the last day of classes, we planned an optional online (Zoom) Ignatian Examen for our adults. Two volunteer teachers began the Examen by simply reflecting on their personal feelings of consolation and desolation about the year. These reflections led us to a traditional communal Examen, whereby we found consolation in returning to a familiar Ignatian reflection tool that we use almost daily during our on campus school year. Thirty-two faculty and staff participated in this opportunity of shared prayer and reflection. In early June, we invited faculty and staff back to our campus – for a celebration on our football field, where we honored retiring teachers and those with varying lengths of years of service. While we physically distanced ourselves and wore masks per safety guidelines, this gathering was a tremendous social opportunity for adults to return to school and to see one another, listen to one another, and just be present with one another – albeit from a distance. During this month of June, eighteen faculty and staff members are participating in one of four self-led retreats, in their own homes, with The First Spiritual Exercises: Four Guided Retreats. Our Jesuit chaplain and Jesuit scholastic provided resources and a retreat kick-off video, as well as ongoing spiritual support. And because, “The Exercises also expect personal faith to be expressed in community and communal action,” we come together as a community once a week (Thursday nights) to support one another through Zoom meetings (Hansen, SJ). Finally, a group of fourteen faculty is reading Richard Rohr’s The Universal Christ, and coming together several times to discuss the book, again via Zoom or a safe, physically distancing get-together. Despite obstacles, we accompany one another in community this summer. How do we continue to model that accompaniment and companionship for our school in the coming academic year? Focus Two: Stakeholder Input for Continuous Quality Improvement Now more than ever we need to resist living in a bubble and acting in a vacuum. It is important to continue to ask questions and gather opinions and perspectives from stakeholders – students, parents, teachers, administration, and school leadership – to keep growing in education and faith service to students and families – toward meaningful action. Servant leadership depends upon stakeholder input and collaboration to move forward in positive and productive ways. Here are some stakeholder areas of focus as we continue planning.
Accompaniment and companionship assumes that we continue to reach out, listen to, and act upon stakeholder perspectives. Focus Three: Developing and Fine-Tuning Our Way of Proceeding for the Coming School Year In planning for the coming academic year, there are many unknowns and as a result many potential “return to school scenarios.” We can plan, even though we don’t know . . . and we are doing so. Our leadership team is certain about guiding principles that drive education at our school.
We will listen to, understand, and celebrate students, especially black students and their families, by continuing to explore and improve (1) systematic institutional practices, (2) curriculum and co-curricular activities, and (3) the classroom experience (as measured by (a) listening to students, (b) through targeted class visits identifying specific cultural competencies, and (c) by identifying and addressing school trends as they relate to diversity and equity faculty conversations). We are committed to students and families and will work with students and families to deliver the best educational experience for students that we can – preparing students for life beyond high school, into college. We are committed to working with families to make this work logistically and financially.
Keeping in mind these guiding principles, we are developing scheduling options that include on campus learning, facilities adaptation, on campus guidelines and safety measures, and remote learning. Finally, we have working leadership teams on areas that focus on (but are not limited to):
While the process for fine-tuning and developing our way of proceeding is grounded in guiding principles, it is dynamic, generative, expansive, and creative. Focus Four: Professional Development Summer Seminar In direct response to faculty needs as identified by end of year faculty survey results, we have developed a four-day Professional Development Summer Seminar happening on our campus and streaming live that includes the following sessions:
Each session includes resources, a brief context-setting piece, conversations, and work time – allowing teachers to learn about and integrate specific strategies into their existing courses. While the Summer Seminar will happen in our Innovation Center, we will also provide live streaming sessions, making information available to colleagues across the country in our Jesuit network of secondary schools and beyond. The Summer Seminar is a creative response to faculty and a resource for successfully teaching into 2020-2021. Focus Five: Our Curriculum Design & Review Process (CDRP) Continues When the pandemic forced us into remote learning, our school was on the threshold of forward-thinking curriculum work, immersed in our Curriculum Design & Review Process (CDRP). This work included the development and implementation of a clear CDRP, which included ongoing curriculum writing and revision by departments and the formation and work of a CDRP core leadership team and core initiatives:
As we move into 2020-2021, how will the pandemic, our experiences with teaching and learning, as well as our continued commitment to explore companionship, accompaniment, and reconciliation with black students and families around the issue of systematic racism change the landscape of our work and our curriculum? Focus Six: Resuming Faculty Teams With New & Emerging Questions In addition to teaching, coaching, and moderating clubs and events, our teachers have had a commitment toward working on adult teams to support one another and provide ongoing resources and services. How will these teams continue to meet and what are emerging questions?
Faculty teams are positive ways in which we live in companionship and accompaniment. Focus Seven: Our Work with Diversity & Inclusion Our school has been committed to working toward a more diverse and inclusive learning community. Our director of diversity & inclusion is responsible for leading this work with students and adults on formation programming and advocacy/awareness. In our admissions, in our financial aid, in our school resource allocations – we are doing more to listen to the experiences of students and families, examine how and why we operate the way we do, and make institutional changes. One feeling of consolation I have had over the years is that we have been working on the work, we know that the work is ongoing – not perfect – and we are happily uncomfortable, realizing the work is never finished. While retreating this June, I have developed a habit of daily prayer that concludes when I ask for particular graces or desires – things for me to think about and pray over during the day:
Today I realize how my current “asks” for specific graces and desires align to the current and evolving conversations and protests about race in our country. How does this awareness propel me – from where I am – toward action in solidarity? As a white privileged male, I can do more to listen to the experiences of black students, black parents, and black teachers. I can do more by educating myself through professional development organizations and opportunities, and I can do more to work on the work as an ally. Here is a dated but practical piece that continues to guide me in this work: For Our White Friends Desiring to Be Allies (Ariel). And here is an important reflection I have also been using: An Open Letter to My Fellow White Americans (Malone, SJ). Finally, here is an important piece that helps shape my way forward: When Black People are in Pain, White People Just Join Book Clubs (Johnson). In that piece, I am challenged to think and act in new and different ways, when Johnson writes, “It will be found in your earnest willingness to dismantle systems that stand in our way - be they at your job, in your social network, your neighborhood associations, your family or your home. It's not just about amplifying our voices, it's about investing in them and in our businesses, education, political representation, power, housing and art. It starts, also, with reflection on the harm you've probably caused in a black person's life. It may have happened when you were 10, 16, 22, 36 or 42. Comforting as it may be to read and discuss the big questions about race and justice and America, making up for past wrongs means starting with the fact that you've done wrong in the past, perhaps without realizing it at the time: in the old workplace, neighborhood, classroom, softball field. Maybe even the book club.” We have more work do. I have more work to do. Here are some initiatives that currently excite me:
Teacher responses to this particular thread have been collected and analyzed to yield perception data trends and resulting tangible questions as we think about planning for ongoing institutional systemic changes:
This list – of specifics as they relate to diversity and inclusion conversations and reflections, as well as the seven components for my summer work – is merely a start to reflection and action. It is not exhaustive and it is not perfect. As I am want to say, “these are in DRAFT forms.” This summer, I am grounded in working on the work. I know that the work is ongoing, not perfect. I am am comfortable realizing the work never finished. Note: images used in picture https://www.istockphoto.com/illustrations/face-mask?mediatype=illustration&phrase=face%20mask&sort=mostpopular https://www.shutterstock.com/search/body+temperature https://www.vectorstock.com/royalty-free-vector/black-washing-hands-with-soap-icon-isolated-on-vector-30831233 https://www.burohappold.com/articles/social-distancing-in-the-workplace/ |
Pete MussoAssistant Principal, Curriculum & Instruction Archives
May 2022
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