Inspired on "D" Days

“When is the next “D” day?” I ask myself, barely containing my excitement! At Flint Hill, we have a six-day schedule, labeled A-F, and on “D” days, we come together as a Lower School family for “Inspiration.” For 30 minutes, we all gather for this program—led by students—to learn, share, problem-solve, celebrate, and acknowledge successes and challenges that surface within our community of learners.

Each grade, from TK to 4^th, takes a turn to lead Inspiration, and, with guidance from their teachers, the students prepare for their scheduled presentation day. They first brainstorm ideas for a topic, perhaps centered on a class project they may want to share, a school event, or a holiday. From there, they create an agenda and delegate job responsibilities.

On Inspiration morning, students ensure that all technology is ready, the stage is clear and the flag is placed; they greet each class as they enter the theater, introduce speakers, read a morning message they have written for the community, facilitate an activity, and present the topic of their choice in a variety of ways—through a skit, iMovie, dialog, or poetry reading. This special period of time ends by acknowledging student and teacher birthdays and singing the school song. Adult voices are few and far between during this 30-minute gathering.

This year, so far, I have learned how to properly compost and recycle my lunch; how to be safe and respectful on Halloween eve; how other cultures celebrate unique traditions like Día de los Muertos; how to protect the Chesapeake Bay; as well as how to embrace play, and expand my own sense of humor. This is why Inspiration is my favorite part of school; for those 30 minutes I am one of 300+ learners; it is invigorating!

Inspiration has also been the perfect forum for problem solving. Is there a better way to solve some school issues than by involving students and asking for their input? Already, the students have shared a plan to improve the care and storage of our playground equipment, and generated ideas to reinforce sustainable, green practices within our school community. Presently, a group of students are working on collating and developing school-wide rules to share at an upcoming Inspiration.

What will we learn at the next Inspiration? Let the count down begin until the next D day!

Banned Books:Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

At my home a “banned book” is a book collecting dust on a shelf, usually bought for one of my (adult) sons whom unfortunately, have yet to acquire a love of reading. The book sits there, silent, and then all of a sudden it screams out – read me, read me please. Well, mom picks it up to read. There is always a catalyst. So on Thanksgiving Day I read The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie…. Librarians and media specialists were the catalysts this time. I recall a conversation I had this summer with my cousin whose husband is a middle school media specialist; she said “You have got to read this book!” then just last week I was browsing through the library site of my Alma Mater and ran across a blog post about banned books week, which included a segment on Alexie’s book. I went down to my son’s room, pulled that book out, dusted it off and it became my Thanksgiving read. No regrets. Powerful! I am not going to comment on the varied reasons parents want this book off the shelf…my only hope is that by banning it, it will get more attention, and the masses will read it and thus be exposed to the difficult issues that surround all of us: educational inequality, social injustices, and cultural misunderstandings. For it is only through exposure and education that we can achieve a more harmonious being. Isn’t it ironic that adults work to shelter their children from the essential societal dialogs that could lead to more integral understandings (education) of our shortcomings?

My take-aways can be categorized under the following themes:  self-identity, crossing borders, social justice, hope/courage, and supportive relationships.

Self-identity

Junior identifies as an intelligent, proud, quirky American Indian from the Spokane Indian reservation in Washington, who comes to the realization that the context of his reservation community is incompatible with the hopes and dreams he has for himself. He realizes that in order to receive a decent education he must leave the Rez (reservation) and enter the white-mans world, which then leads to constant emotional, social, and physical challenges. Recognizing and accepting his identity is exceptionally painful for Junior who analyzes, through his adolescent brain, the circumstances that have led to poverty, alcoholism and lack of self-worth among members of the Reservation. Although only an adolescent, I believe Junior is conflicted by his inability to change the circumstances of his people, and struggles with his conclusion that his only hope is to leave those circumstances.  Thus he accepts his identity as an Indian betraying his community by entering a white world.

Crossing borders

Junior, a recognized Indian name, remains a resident of his reservation, but commutes daily, as Arnold, his given name, to the suburban white high-school of Reardan. His need to navigate multiple border-crossings is overwhelming. Poor to rich(er) and Native American to white dominate his being. Culture shock and mental and physical fatigue accompany his daily “crossing” from home to school and school to home. He navigates distinct cultural experiences that include making friends and socializing, gaining knowledge and accessing academic resources; expressing pride and negotiating acceptance.

As an educator in a middle to upper-class, majority white, suburban school, I wonder how many of our students must “cross borders” on a daily basis. What can we as educators do to ease, understand and facilitate this border crossing? Arnold was accepted into his new community, and I believe the educational community that I am part of is also welcoming and accepting; however, I feel that it is our obligation to strive to facilitate less traumatic “border crossings” and I wonder what we can do as a community to achieve that?

Illustration pg. 43 by Ellen Forney

Hope and Courage

This coming of age novel is truly one of hope and courage. Junior’s hope for a better life led him to seek out a higher quality education; and it took great courage to put aside the forces of a group-oriented culture to enter one that focuses on the individual.  Indeed, leaving a community where the expectation is to put ones group above oneself, led to rejection and hostility which made his journey all the more difficult. Courage led him to walk many miles each day; led him to accept the loss of his life-long friend; led him to ask a white girl to the homecoming dance; and to share in the joy of learning whether that be on the basketball court or in the classroom.  Learning about his world through his story gave me hope as well; as it was clear that the students of Reardan learned through his realities, were empathetic and began to understand more about a the culture of one’s neighbor which at one time seemed to be a distant land.

Social Justice

A glimpse into the world of this Indian reservation highlights a variety of social justice issues that although are perpetuated within certain Indian lands, also exist in many areas of our society. Extreme poverty due to systematic societal inequities; educational inequality or simply no access to any decent education; cultural isolation and a sense of inferiority leading to a mirage of mental illness and addiction.  Wondering how to best address these issues?

Supportive Relationships

In the end it was very humbling to view the development of relationships between Junior and others. To experience the type of support, against all odds, that he received from his mother, father, sister and grandmother was sobering. The importance he gave to developing friendships within the Rez, at his new school, with his girl friend and among his teammates was courageous and genuine. The attention he gave to the advice his Rez teacher gave him, made a world of difference to his future. It certainly sends the message that no matter what our background and culture is we thrive on relationships and need support from loved ones both during challenging times as well as times of celebration.

A wonderful Thanksgiving read, ironically leading me to ponder – with this particular population should we be offering thanks or asking for forgiveness?

Design Thinking and the Chesapeake Bay

There is nothing more fulfilling for me as an administrator than to learn from my colleagues, teachers and students! 4^th grade has always done amazing things with their study of the Bay. What is so awesome is that each year they expand their unit making it more relevant to the students. This is not about transferring knowledge from adults to children; this is about igniting a fire within the students, which pushes them to solve the problems around them. After spending part of a morning in 4C and listening to the students speak confidently and passionately about how to improve or better control the water run off and pollution on our campus that could lead to the Bay, I truly believe these 4^th graders were young scientists working to solve common, local problems. They were not just completing a school project, they believed in the power and relevancy of their work. Following a similar process as the one noted in this article on project based learning students:

• Conducted a needs assessment - by walking around the campus to pinpoint the problems. 
• Brainstormed ideas about the problem and possible solutions.

• Completed a prototype.

• Presented solutions to an authentic audience - the Facilities Director and members of his team.

In reviewing the scale of authenticity of their products and prototypes, I certainly feel the majority were in the “somewhat” to “fully” authentic. However, it was the critical thinking, creativity in their solutions and their presentational skills that really did it for me.

Here is the project:

Each member of Mrs. Hinnant’s 4^th grade classroom followed a design thinking approach to conquer a real world, local problem: 

Problem: How might we improve the quality of water that is draining from the Flint Hill campus into the tributary of the Chesapeake Bay?

The following process was used:

•             Brainstorm prior knowledge of problem
•            What questions need researching to better understand problem?
•            What ideas do you have to solve the problem?
•            Create a prototype of your proposed solution
•             Present the prototype to a Flint Hill administrator.

The students proposed the following solutions:

•           Put screens and filters on all drains.
•            Plant more trees
•            Limit parking areas to avoid run off
•            Plant more moss to absorb the excess water
•            Control fertilizer used
•             Design more “green roofs” around campus
•            Install rain barrels to capture excess water; could also be used to water plants

Follow Up: The Design Thinking Tool

On a side note I was impressed by the design-thinking tool used by Mrs. Hinnant. First and foremost, it is an appropriate tool for one to approach a problem from multiple angles and delve into a variety of solutions. It is a “thinking tool.” It also confirmed for me once again the power of modeling. Every faculty member during the pre-planning period prior to the start of school used the design-thinking tool to delve into a community issue of interest. All 200 members of our faculty and staff spent one full day working in an affinity group, using the Design Thinking Model, to address a challenge within the community. This model, just introduced this academic year, has been accepted and is presently being used by our students, faculty and staff. I was so pleased to see Mrs. Hinnant quickly add it to her teaching repertoire.