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.

BPP of working as a team

We have just finished version 1.1 of our team BPP. It is essentially a collective agreement as to why and how we do what we do. I'm sure we'll type it up at some stage but here it is;

Our "Why" is because working as a team we cause richer, deeper learning. 2 plus hours of debate and discussion to come up with those crucial 9 words!

In the Pit

Well i've been in the pit and have climbed back out of it! It's taken a couple of weeks of reflection to figure out what put me in there and to try and identify triggers so if I feel myself peering over the edge I can take a detour to avoid the pit!

What put me in there?

• Week 1 of my second term at SPS 
• and the first time I've taught two consecutive terms!
• Un-settled and out of routine 
• I had a vision meeting with Ben (amazing) and a CRT day which meant less time with my children
• Expectations of students behaviour too high
• I didn't really consider the 2 week break and the impact of no routine would have on certain children
• An activity that went on too long and so some students not fully engaged
• Bringing a story to life I had a cut and colouring activity which most did a great job with, but a group of 4 boys and another of 3 girls were noisy and disruptive
• Another mentor having to come and speak to my group to quieten them

Realisations 

• My excitement about going back to school wasn't matched by all the children!
• Discussion with other mentors about the children and acknowledging the fact that behaviour will have changed because of the holidays and so to have this at the forefront of my mind
• Next week 1 to spend as much time with the children in the habitat
• Other mentors speaking to my children is a good thing! "It takes a village to raise a child" and I have to be comfortable with this in our environment

Change

• Bringing a story to life - I've made it more hands on and creative with clear expectations
• I also swiveled myself to look at my interactions with certain students
• Whilst I like children to choose where they work and with whom, sometimes that is just not practical and that it is fine to move them!

Reigniting the love of learning

 One child in KA has been particularly disruptive and disrespectful during the first 2 weeks of term 4. According to the other mentors he has regressed back to how he was at the start of the year when he didn’t want to come to school, didn’t like school and didn’t like learning. This is in stark contrast to the end of term 3 when he was caught on video talking about liking school because he liked learning.

We had a meeting this week with the child and his parents to discuss what we could do to bring the love of learning back. They have troubles with him at home and he is quite a lively, energetic child who has trouble staying focused and gets easily distracted.

To help combat some of this and encourage him to manage himself we are going to move where his mentor group meet to a less busy area, we will create a learning space for him to go to (a carrel type set up), have ear muffs available when the noise gets too much and bring in a wrist band reward system. Whenever a mentor catches him doing the right thing he gets a wrist band, when he has earnt 5 then he gets extra play time (something he chose).

Hopefully by focusing on the good (ignoring the bad), and having a space for him to learn that has less of a sensory impact we can make a positive change and restore the love of learning. He does have to realise that learning is hard and that by using a growth mindset he can grow his brain and that managing himself and being motivated to learn will enable him to succeed. We just need to put systems in place around him to enable this.

Fingers crossed it works!!

Professional Development

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/neuroscience-behind-stress-and-learning-judy-willis


One thing I need to do is find a way of tracking the PD I do and whilst I grapple with the many different options I'm going to post some images from the Art in Literacy course I did in term 3.

Not all the activities and skills taught would be possible with a group of 5 or 6 year olds but perhaps there is a way to adapt some of the ideas.

Quite like this, done using a finger only, starting with blue paint and then working up to the lighter paints. Was copying an image which is a great way to get some focus!

Think of a word to describe what is important to you, fold your paper and write it then cut it out. Draw a border and add more information.

This picture was done using a vivid for part and then water colour pencils for the colouring. When water is sprayed on the pencil it runs. Mine doesn't really show this! The writing is a Haiku (5,7,5).

Using Maori

One of my (many) goals it to use more Maori in my day and to make sure that in my planning (and that of the team) the bi-cultural heritage is being respected.

I'm not one for token-ism and so I'm trying to use Te Reo Maori in a genuine way. Greeting students in the morning and afternoon, giving basic instructions, and learning basic vocab with my children. I believe that if they see me as a learner of Maori then they will be willing to give it a go too.

In the writing centre I have also put in some Maori writing to be done - a very simple Mihi, and I just need to explain what needs to be done so they students can do it with minimal support during Learning Centre time.