Individual Behaviour Plan

Dominating the last couple of weeks has been the behaviour of one particular child. I have been in "the pit" several times feeling that i'm not doing enough for this child, or that perhaps i'm triggering the behaviour.... What I am beginning to realise is that he is 5, and a 5 year old child, even one as challenging as this one is, shouldn't play on my mind, or affect my home life.

Decision made, and whilst I may ponder on the day, I now don't let the day affect me (too much!). Our belief that "it takes a village to raise a child" and my realisation that this applies to this situation too has also been a load off my shoulders.

Putting together the IBP has been like the icing on the cake. We have documented what to do in various situation and even gone as far as detailing what language we use with him, his goals, our goals, and a check list of questions we ask ourselves before interacting with him.

This has been in place for 2 days and they have been 2 amazing days for this child. The positive language, clear expectations and clear consequences are hopefully having the affect we are all working so hard to achieve.

The other good thing about putting this in place during week 7 of term 4, is that next year, when we hopefully have him again, we can refer him early on, and we have a plan of attack that seems to work!!

Professionalism with Tony Burkin

Some very thought provoking PD on professionalism. Whilst I come from what I had always believed to be a professional background, actually the teaching profession (clue in the name!) is actually far more professional than being a marketing data analyst (15 years ago in the UK). My perception of “professional” has been more about wearing a suit and the surface features of a job rather than the underlying beliefs.

Despite this, throughout my career I have had to behave like a professional in that:

·      My team were all mutually accountable to each other,

·      There were certain expectation over my appearance,

·      I had to have confidence in what I was doing and saying,

·      I was reliable – I did what I said I would, when I said I’d do it

·      I was continually improving my skills

·      I was organised

I wanted to find out more about what “being a professional” meant so I googled it and from the mindtools.com website I found these key points:

1.     Specialised knowledge.

2.     Competency.

3.     Honesty and integrity.

4.     Respect.

5.     Accountability.

6.     Self-regulation.

7.     Image.

This is directed towards industries other than teaching however following on from Tony’s PD all of the above apply to the teaching profession.

During the session we had to try and differentiate between teaching and professional practice and essentially teaching practice is what is going on in the classroom (or habitat!) – the actual, visible, day to day actions, whilst professional practice is everything else and is also what we are governed by and signed off for our registration. This was a new thought for me, as I hadn’t considered this. The fact that we have 4 commitments and 4 principals and it is essentially these that we are judged against when applying for registration.

4 Commitments:

   1.     To learners

   2.     To parents and the community

   3.     To society

   4.     To the profession

4 principals;

   1.     Autonomy

   2.     Justice

   3.     Responsible care

   4.     Truth

Because of this we are professionals first, teachers second. This has flipped my previous thinking on its head, as I’ve been far more concerned about my day to day than my professional side.

Having said that, within teaching practice there are 4 essential aspects I need to work on (I had written “master” but I don’t believe you can ever “master” them);

   1.     Positive behaviour management

   2.     Curriculum knowledge

   3.     Instructional practice

   4.     Formative assessment

My professional practice supports my teaching practice so the 2 are interlinked and Tony talked about an iceberg and human “rust”.

  

Tony also mentioned a book written by Michael Fullen  - “Professional Capital” and in this book Michael Fullen has a formula for Professional Capital:

 PC=f(HC,SC,DC,)

Where HC is Human Capital – your values, work ethic, dispositions and experiences, SC is Social Capital – your people skills, that you share and grow, you are able and willing, have honest conversations, that you learn through and with each other, and DC is Decisional Capital – that you make good decisions, plan, do review.

As they are a function of each other you need all 3, just 2 or 1 is not good enough.

The PD session finished with Tony talking about the differences between the All Blacks and the Warriors. The All Blacks are a high performing team who are mutually accountable to each other; they put pressure on each other to improve and are committed to the greater cause. They set high standards and high expectations. Whereas for the Warriors under performance is acceptable and players are comforted not challenged.

When asked the question of what team do I want to be on?.... The All Blacks of course. I want to be part of a high performing team who sets high expectations and has high standards. A team where we need to be comfortable being uncomfortable, where we are pushed and confronted, challenged and expected to grow. A team where I know I have the support I need, and that as professionals we are respected and valued. In short, the team at SPS.

Above or Below the line

Last week Claire and I had a chat about communication as it is always essential but even more so at the moment with so much going. She showed me a video about being above or below the line.

My take-away points from the video are:

·      When dealing with something in the “now”, ask yourself “Where am I?” – above or below the line?

·      Being above the line means you are open, curious and committed to learning

o   Learning and growing is more important than being right

o   Allies (Colleagues) are here for your growth

o   Curious

o   Question own beliefs

o   Listen

·      Being below the line means you are closed, defensive and committed to being right

o   Some traits are:

§  There’s not enough…..

§  My story is right

§  The situation is considered to be a threat to approval of me, my control or my security

o   Cling to my opinion

o   Find fault, blame, gossip

o   Feel overwhelmed

o   Conflict – either avoidance of, or for the sake of winning

·      As humans we are programmed to go below the line to protect ourselves from a threat – whether this threat is real or not – ego or actual security

·      When we are below the line we can’t;

o   Collaborate

o   Innovate

o   Create

o   Socially connect

Need to ask myself where I am, but also why? If I’m below the line what has put me there and how can I get back above the line – a bit like getting out of “the pit”!

I used to…… I now…… is another way of reflecting on changes I’ve made and the impact the changes have had. Which links nicely to the PD with Tony Burkin about being Professional.

One further link I've made (through google!) is to the Key Competency of Managing Self. Trisch from St Joseph's shared this with me:
Pick up your OAR or go back to BED;
O - Ownership
A - Accountability
R - Responsible
B - Blame
E - Excuse
D - Denial

And this is something we can use ourselves and with our children.

Swivel

The Swivel is a great gadget that has your i-pad mounted on it and then it tracks your movement and records what you're saying through the use of a dongle that you hang round your neck - all linked by Bluetooth. I decided that I wanted to monitor how I interacted with my mentor group so I wore it during a "Bringing Books Alive" session in week 2 of Term 4. Maybe not the wisest choice of time as we were making paper maiche trees so it was noisy, and messy and I couldn't look in detail into the relationships I wanted to! Here are my findings;

What I did	Reflection
Set out expectations	Good to do and clear
When child wasn’t listening finger in their face	Change – intimidating
Modelled the process	Good
But didn’t make sure all could see or were focused	Change – alter logistics to ensure all can see / hear
Came down to their level to listen	Good
Focused on a negative	Change – should have focused on the positives of other children
Too long modelling	Change – break down into stages
Use children to give out supplies	Change – have it better set up prior
Level of engagement	Good (Yay!!)
Didn’t notice a new child hadn’t really started until near the end	Change – should have given my time and attention to all, not those who made the most noise
Helped where was called not necessarily where needed	Change – as above
Telling children who have finished to support others	Good
Saying “Excuse me” to the children when off task	Change as there was no follow up and I had the expectation they would change – should give direct instructions when needed
Asking “What should you be doing?” to off task children	Hmmm, didn’t always wait for a response
Saying “Great effort, don’t give up” to a new child who didn’t want to do it	Good – positive on the effort
Saying “Is this area tidy?” (when it clearly wasn’t!)	Change – better to make it a statement rather than rhetorical question
“Pick up 10 pieces of rubbish”	Good – competition to see who could pick up the most
Ended the lesson explaining where to next	Good – could have given them some reflection time too.