A Few Questions and Answers

On Saturday I met with about 10 families at Dunn Brothers.  The conversation was wide-ranging and very enjoyable.  I am continually impressed by how knowledgeable and thoughtful the people I have met so far have been.  As an educator, it is very invigorating to spend a few hours talking about schools and how to improve them, so thanks to everyone who stopped by.

I thought I would take a moment to summarize a few of the conversations for those who couldn't attend.  One general question was, "what is your student engagement style/philosophy"?  The answer is that I have worked with middle-years students for my entire career and have learned that this is an exciting age.  These young people are old enough to develop deep thoughts and ask complex questions.  My hope is to spend as much time as possible talking with your students, participating in classes with them, and challenging them to think deeply about the world.  In practice, this means greeting students at the door in the morning, walking the halls during passing times, sitting in on classes, playing music or games with students, and during these interactions bringing big topics to their attention.  Whenever I ask questions about social justice, the environment, animal rights, or education, students of this age have strong opinions, challenging questions, and interesting ideas.  I try to leverage their interest to increase motivation and the "love of learning."

Another question that came up was, "how can we do more to make the middle school students feel like they are having a middle school experience."  While I don't have specific answers to this question yet because I haven't been in the school or talked to students or teachers, some of my inquiries will be around the schedule, the classes being offered, the links to Southwest, the executive functioning skills being taught, the level of rigor and competition, and the social skills curriculum.  I have worked in both a junior high setting and a K-8 setting, so hopefully I will have some creative ideas in this area as I learn more about the school.

We also talked about the arts and one parent was asking about "STEAM," which is adding arts to the focus on science, technology, engineering and math.  From what I have learned, the arts programs at Lake Harriet are strong, the real question is what can be done to expand the offerings and enable more students to take part.  Again, there is much I don't know yet, but this will certainly be on my radar during my first year.

If you have any questions, as usual, feel free to contact me.  My hope is to set up another time for a meet and greet in early August.  I will be talking with my family to find the right date and time, but my hope is to be at Sebastian Joe's in the evening this time.  Thanks again to everyone I have met.  Everyone has been very welcoming and engaging.