Joining the dots

After further mentoring from Claire when she shared an epiphany she had with me I can see more clearly what I need to do to support the team on the journey we need to go on together.

• The team need to link the ideas about the practise of Learning Through Play to what they know.
• This discussion led me to create the BPP below as one of the reasons I value LTP so much is that it gives choice. 
• This led me back to the beliefs the II team developed last year - in particular the Interest and Motivation one.
• I need to go back to where they are so we can travel together on this journey - rather than trying to pull them along
• This might mean going back along the same path we took in Kimi Akau with learning stations, rotations, structured groups, use of lanyards

• The team need to be more involved, whilst I can do lots of the thinking I shouldn't be doing all the doing!
• This will also be great for me to develop more leadership skills as to get buy in from everyone I need to have a clear vision (which leads nicely into another blog post on Kaizen 2017!)
• To have a clear vision I am going to have to "Do my own thinking" - a phrase from last years thoughts from Ben (that is on our t-shirts from Christmas!)
• Part of this thinking is going to be around the how of LTP and linking really explicitly to the NZC - levels 1 and 2. This should also give real clarity and purpose which is important for the team.

A note to self - I had these thoughts whilst riding part of the rail trail over the weekend. I had time to think through my ideas and synthesise what it means and the actions I need to take. Need to do more of this!! 

Teaming and Learning Through Play

Claire came to a team meeting when we were discussing LTP and heard the conflict in the team about the traditional curriculum and practices versus LTP which I believe helps develop the whole child.

The meeting was a positive one in that we are all transparent about our views and I am proud of myself for speaking up about a teaching and learning practice that I am beginning to value more and more.

Part of the frustration is about the perception of “Play” - that it is a free for all with no planning or structure. At the moment I’m still unclear on the “best practice” (if there is one!) on the how of LTP but I know the thinking that goes on behind my Tinkering Time plan and I’m trying to make it clear in terms of Why, How and What for each learning area / station.

So what? What can I do?

Slow down for a start, I have to remember that the team have not been on the same journey as I have and that this is an ideal time for me to practise my 3Ps and lead.

Communicate the thinking and planning behind Tinkering Time, to get buy in and understanding from the team, and just as importantly, their ideas.

Do the thinking, then collectively put the plan into action

Have been thinking about other names and one thought I had was to start calling it “Developmentally Appropriate Learning” but then it occurred to me that all learning should be developmentally appropriate!! Back to the drawing board.

Mentoring with Claire

Claire and I discussed what i’ve been focusing on so far this term. There have been 3 key things that we’ve been working on as a team and, in a slightly different way, me as an individual. They are; relationships, routines, expectations.

Relationships

• I’m very lucky this year that I have a learning relationship with almost all the children - from either last year in Pounamu or the year before in Kimi Ākau, and in my mentor group I have 19 of my 27 from last year. 

• Although this does come with it’s own challenges - letting go of what you know to give a fresh start, plus not falling back into the behavioural habits of previous years. 

• Also, finding the energy to do this with a certain child who I will have been with for 10 terms come the end of the year!

• My relationship with the team is what I have to work on and I know I need to slow down in terms of what I want to achieve and make sure that my vision aligns with that of the team. 

• I found that last year I had a really clear role in the team (that of chief sheet maker! and data queen) but this year I haven’t found my feet yet. 

• What I have to keep reminding myself (and reading my old blog posts is good for this) is that my first 2 terms in Kimi Ākau I was like this too. It was only after the team had been together for a while that I found the courage to speak up, do things and find my niche. Perhaps I just need to SLOW DOWN!!

Routines

• We are setting up clear routines for the children and are scaffolding them where they need more support - like Buddy reading.
• As a team I have discovered some of the routines that come from last year, that aren’t really formal, but are kind of expected! 
• At the end of each day we seem to have a debrief about the day - the why behind this (I think) is to talk about any happenings that we all need to know about, and to make sure the next day is sorted. 
• Although this communication doesn’t always happen as i’ve talked to a parent without knowing the full story. Perhaps we need to be clear on the purpose of this debrief so each team member has a clear picture of what is happening with children in their mentor group.

Expectations

• We have clear expectations for the children and we all seem to be on the same page. This is essential in the teaming environment so the children don’t play one off against another - each child basically has 4 extra parents (loco parentis!).
• We put together our teaming BPP at the beginning of term and so it is probably about time we re-visit it to make sure we are all fulfilling the agreement.

Here is the BPP

Command and Control

Something I said during the professional development we had in January came to mind the other day - Command and control; If we don’t want to be treated like that, why should we expect it of the kids?

This also applies to me trying to lead the team down the LTP path, they need to be involved to see the scope, potential and benefits and so that they feel involved too. We all (humans) respond much better if we are involved in the decisions rather than having them thrust upon us (although at this stage in my teaching career if someone said “xx is a good idea” and sold it to me I would probably run with it to find out for myself!)

This has sparked some deeper thinking over this past weekend - and the development of why I value Learning through Play.

Watch this space!!

First few weeks in Pounamu

What an amazing few weeks.

I feel truely privileged to be learning with many of the same children as last year and to be learning from new mentors.

It was daunting at first - being the addition to an already established team, but they have been very welcoming and supportive.

At the end of last year, these were some of my concerns;

• The other team members are an established team so worried I won’t fit in
• May view me as just “blue”
• May view me as having little to offer as still a BT
• Not sure the team will value my input as much as current team
• Pushing me completely out of my comfort zone with new team and new level of children
• Lack of knowledge of this curriculum level
• Lots of relationships to build - something I find hard

and here are the positive thoughts I had about my concerns;

• Should look at this as a challenge
• Bring lots of experience @ playbased learning
• Can introduce how we have used pebbles in RWM
• Can introduce and use more SOLO
• Data collection and analysis
• They will value my strengths
• Already worked with Rachel with II team, she knows me
• Good practice for my red side
• Great to learn from new people

Happy to say that my concerns haven't materialised. I still have lots of work to do and my mantra is still SLOW DOWN!

Term 4 2016 reflection - better late than never!

• Communicating Learning
• Was feeling good from about week 8 onwards as had finished CL comments! As we move forward with this I believe it will become more manageable to communicate more regularly and meaningfully, rather than the pressure to “get them done.”
• General comments:
• Some were really hard and I felt that I still didn’t know my children even after nearly 4 terms together (2 with some)
• Some we really easy too - the vocal or stand out (+ve and -ve!) kids
• Goal setting I found to be good, so I obviously knew my kids better than I gave myself credit for as all parents agreed with the goals set.
• Once the GC and CL were finished I felt I could actually focus my energy on teaching and designing meaningful learning! - A thought for going forward - how to have the balance despite the workload?
• EOY conferences were all very positive - funny how some kids react - some went hyper, whilst others were the opposite - note for self, next year prepare the kids more!

• Direct Acts of Teaching (DAT)
• Doing DAT in a 5 week rotation - 5 weeks of Maths and 5 weeks of writing worked really well as it was a decent amount of time to design meaningful learning and understand the kids needs.
• When I was writing eagle I designed learning for the whole group rather than stations (that could be tailored to needs) as I found this more manageable. Evelyn suggested a more play based learning approach but I couldn’t as lots of other stuff was happening and I wanted to have control. I would also have wanted to make sure the kids who couldn’t manage themselves were sorted having everyone do the same thing was just easier - perhaps this was an experience in Universal Learning Design!
• The last 5 weeks when I was Maths Owl, not much actual teaching happened with all the interruptions of end of term!

• Maths
• Love Muireann’s idea of having term 4 as a term of Maths strand whereby you link the knowledge and strategies learnt to other areas of maths.
• Wished we had used the pebbles more - as they are a great way of making learning intentions really visible.
• Perhaps an inquiry next year - use the pebbles (Maths first) as a CL tool - whenever a child achieves a pebble you post it as a comment. Might make comments more manageable and “real” and then would also help with my focus too.
• Team
• Working as a 2 was much easier than a 4 as we could both be more adaptable to kids needs and make changes more quickly - I did have to learn to let go which was a good thing!
• Sad to be leaving current team as we “fit” together and trust one another.
• Will be exciting keeping the same kids and watching them grow.
• Nervous about joining an already established team and starting again - respect, trust etc - I need to make sure I speak up!
• In the old team I did contribute by doing lots of admin type tasks which I enjoy so I hope i’ll still have that opportunity.
• In the new team I would like to;
• Look at playbased learning - will share the Pounamu 2016 BPP as a starting point
• Use pebbles more
• Keep up with our monitoring learning
• Introduce SOLO
• Ensure consistency
• Leadership
• From a leadership point of view as I am already quite comfortable with the management side of running a team I need to develop the skills to lead adults and find ways to grow team members. 
• Perhaps in the short term I will ask to lead an area (play-based learning?)

• Coming up next year also have the Cyclone conference with Evelyn to prepare for - busy times ahead!!

HBDI App

Wow, this has changed the way I see myself (well, a little bit anyway!!) As Muireann was saying about it not being a deficit model the app gives you the details of what your preferences are, even in the quadrants that aren’t a preference!! I was so inspired by this that I chose it as my Smackdown item for the PD session in week 7.

The app tells you your characteristics in each 4 quadrant and also how you communicate, solve problems and make decisions. The great “So What?” part of this app is it tells you what you overlook and as I agree with most, I know what to work on!

The writing in bold are my selected characteristics, Italics are maybes and the others weren't selected. Looking at this, "Musical" isn't selected at all and yet I love music and play (or use to play!) the Piano, Flute, Recorder and Ukulele. Perhaps it indicates that I don't value that part of me as much as something else, or perhaps because it's not something I do everyday or think about all the time I don't value Music as much as I think I do...hmm, time to start my personal goal of re-learning the Piano!

This sums me up nicely! I know I tend to get to the point and miss the "personal touch" so it has highlighted something for me to work on!

Definitely me! Analysing the problem, looking at the facts, organising and missing feelings. However, I do value team processes and new ideas I just might not be the initiator.

I do forget to look at the overall picture and think that this is one area I will improve in as I strive to become a leader within the school. I know I can be future focused, I just have to make sure I don't get bogged down in all the facts and details that I love so much!

My Yellow Side

In a brief chat with Claire about the Maths Whizz cards I suggested that we make a website / blog that teaches students / mentors / families how to use the cards. Each team could create a series of videos and then the learning will become much more powerful!

I then wanted to get started straight away!!

3Ps of Leadership

Writing review end of Term 2, 2016

Looking at my chosen 3, plus the CL comments for our Skippers/Pounamu children has sparked some ideas for writing time.





Whilst punctuation is a surface feature need for child 2 and 3 they also both needs support with structuring their writing. This held true for others too.
To try and help their learning in this I decided to start with a SOLO rubric on punctuation with examples.



The examples are displayed so that the children know what they are aiming for.

As well as working on punctuation, a deeper feature that I want the children to learn is how to structure their writing so it has ideas, order and flow. To help this I focused on writing a recount which the children do all the time...interesting to note that they had no clue what a recount was! Just shows how explicit we need to be when teaching, and that we need to use the language of learning.

This has all just started and Eve is now the writing owl so we will have to see what happens next!

Teaming

A chat with Muireann over the holidays sparked some more thought about teaming and what it means. She asked if there was anything concerning or frustrating me and there was!

During the end of last term I felt somewhat stranded by some of my team and believed that I was left to do the bulk of the planning and direct teaching for some learning areas. I do own some of the actions that led to this situation as I know I find it hard to let go, and even harder to ask for help. With hindsight I should have insisted upon planning together instead of expecting collaboration via a planning doc, and I should have spoken up. I was very much in Pipeline 1, whereas I should have stepped into Pipeline 2.

Using our teaming BPP I should have held the team members accountable for their actions.

My goal (again!) is to speak up when I'm not happy about something and to also speak up when something is going well. Pipeline 2 is not only about holding each other accountable when something is going as expected but also when the good stuff is happening. We don't praise each other enough.

This also links to other areas of PD we've talked about in the past - that of being above or below the line. I am determined to be an above-the-line, pipeline 2 (when needed) team member.

Just posted this and then watched a video Muireann recommended - about above and below the line with this graphic in it. Sums up perfectly how I felt at the end of the term (below the line) and how I'm feeling now (above the line)!

from www.concious.is

Pipeline Leadership

Ben talked to us this week about Pipeline leadership which I found fascinating. Ben quoted someone as saying “if an organisation is well led, it will be effective”. We are a very well led team (just like the ABs) and so our school should be a highly effective one.

Traditionally teachers are in Pipeline 1 – they just have to be concerned about themselves and their role.

Traditionally team leaders are in Pipeline 1 and 2 – where pipeline 2 is all about the team and growing others with a bigger picture lense.

Pipeline 3 is where the APs sit and they are focused on building capacity with the team of adults and Pipeline 4 is the Principal who has to be thinking and planning strategically.

In our environment Pipeline 1 and 2 overlap. As a team member I have to be in Pipeline 2 sometimes, as we all have to hold each other accountable for our actions, we have to grow each other, we work collaboratively so have to have an eye on the bigger picture, and we have to ensure that our teaming BPP is being valued. This isn’t just Muireann’s job, we all need to step up and do this.

I have to say that this is one of the reasons SPS is such a great place to work – the expectations are high and so when we meet those expectations, so is our performance.

Ben also introduced 2 new terms - FAE (Fundamental Attribution Error) and  Naive Realism.

FAE is something that everyone does - we attribute a consequence of an action to that person's personality - we blame them, rather than look at the context of the error and find out why. We need to do more questioning and less "jumping the gun".

Naive Realism is the belief that your view is right and that if only everyone else was as rational as you are then they would understand it too. This struck a chord for me! Thinking about the Herrmann HBDI model where I am predominately blue, this logical and analytical side of me can cloud my judgement when I reach conclusions faster than others or my logic leads me down a path where no-one else is willing to follow.
The great thing about this is that I am aware of this side of me and one goal I have is to slow down . If i'm trying to convince someone of something the burden is on me to explain it better rather than them to "get it".
Naive Realism will stop teams growing, so it is essential that I keep this awareness and question the why.

Linking with the "Slow down" theme here are some quotes Muireann found;

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.