Oh so Blue!

Analysis of the Herrmann Whole Brain Model shows me as very blue – logical and analytical, and whilst this isn’t a surprise, I didn’t think my blue side would dominate quite as much as it does. 

Before our results were given to us we had to pick words that described us and at the end of the game we had to have 3 words that best described us and one that didn't. These were mine:

Ben asked if Rob would agree with these words, and he did! I was also asked what would I be like without the red "Enthusiastic" and my response was "boring" so I can see that all four quadrants build us up to be who we are.

I have to keep reminding myself that this is simply a preference and doesn’t mean that I’m not any of the other quadrants. I do have several concerns - that I will;

• pigeon-holed as “the blue, logical one”
• Meaning my other sides aren’t valued or heard
• discount my own red/yellow think as “not as good” as others in the team have higher scores in those quadrants
• favour those children most similar to me
• not value myself as a teacher and learner as teachers are traditionally much more red than I am

What this analysis has done is underlined for me why I have to spend more time and energy building relationships, that I have to give more credit to my emotions rather than bottle them, and air my ideas as I do have some good ones!

It is up to me to make sure my concerns don’t hold any weight and these concerns are all are linked in some way to relationships, which is one of my goals – either relationships with children, their parents or the mentoring team. So it is on my radar as an area in which I want to develop this year – perhaps if I do the test again in the future my blue side won’t be quite as dominant!

As a team we are very well balanced which is fantastic as it means that when designing for learning we will ensure that all children are also catered for.

A new year, a new beginning!

My first ever day 1 of term 1. Amazing – so good to have children. PD was fantastic and putting some of what we talked about into practice is great. Loving having to have to think not just do, loving the adaptability I’ve found from somewhere – didn’t stick rigidily to a plan when it didn’t suit the kids. Such a difference in groups of children some who have done 2 terms and others none. All in all a great day!

Week 1

An exhausting week! Fantastic to re-affirm the relationships established from last year and to start building deeper ones with other children I didn’t mentor very much last year. Some real characters in my mentor group and I hope by spending the time now establishing routines and setting expectations that they will soon understand how things will work!

Itching to get started with “real learning” which is silly as building relationships and routines is learning for them and the “real learning” can’t actually happen until these things are set up. Plan for week 2 is to start easing them into the WoRM subjects which is quite exciting. Have to keep reminding myself that most children have only been at school for 2 terms and so don’t have the skills (yet) of some of those who have gone to Coronet.

Must also focus on learning parents’ names and contacting them for the good their children do.

Love the learning centres but do feel that we need to structure them more although a couple of readings on the benefits of play based learning keep popping up in my head and I probably discount much of the learning as it doesn’t seem structured, they can’t be learning…hmm, must get over this!!

What is equitable may not be equal

As a parent of 2 children I battle with equality all the time. Making sure I spend equal amounts of time, energy (and money) with, and on, both children. Coming in to teaching I felt that children deserve equal amounts of my time and energy and so I would be torn when that small group of children were given all my attention, whilst the larger group got minimal.
I am beginning to realise that actually, the amount of time and energy I spend on a child should be based on their needs rather than some sort of tally, clocking in system that I have in my head.
This is hard for me, and whilst I do it, what I need to do is get rid of the guilt over the lack of attention some children may get from me. At the end of the day, over the course of a year, the tally chart in my head will probably look very similar for most children, with the odd outlier on either side - a bit of a bell curve. If I'm supporting the needs of those who demand more of me, and I design the learning to suit them, then in theory all children should benefit and be better of for it.
Here's hoping for a guilt free year!

Appraisal Reflection

No matter what you call an appraisal it is still daunting – RSG (Reflect, Sharn and Grow) was a good way to think about it but at the end of the day I was still nervous!

The points that came out of it;

·      Acknowledgment and appreciation of my input into the team – taking it to the next level

·      Praise for demonstrating my understanding of the school’s values

·      Thanks for setting up systems for tracking student achievement – which I really enjoyed doing – my blue/green side coming out!

·      My goals have been aligned to the Shotover Teacher Criteria which gives me clear guidelines

·      Focus on relationships will continue

o   Immediate team is staying the same; which is awesome as these relationships have already been established.

o   New staff to connect with (and other habitat mentors)

o   New families and children to build relationships

§  Will use some release time to start this with children

·      Behaviour management is going to be a priority for me as I believe that to be effective you need good strong links with the children

·      Curriculum area to focus on will be Writing

o   Lots of goals in this area – making the progressions cognitively portable is a priority so I can confidently talk about next steps with the children

I was really happy with my appraisal and I feel valued and appreciated. I need to think of ways to support my professional development and development of my teaching.

Reflection on Term 4, 2015

·      Meetings, meetings and more meetings

·      Pressure of report writing

o   Also getting to know where my mentor group are academically

o   Writing accurate comments in the collaborative plans to help others

·      Lots going on – swimming, jet boat, walk safe, outdoor ed

·      Trying to stay on top of everything (until I wrote this I didn’t realise how much we had going on!)

·      Collaboratively planning

o   Good seeing what others are doing

o   My green/blue side needs lots of detail

·      Planning for individual needs

o   Developing behavioural plans (NW)

o   Frustrations when things don’t work

·      Owl and Eagle roles more defined

o   Plans for next year (5 weeks in each role)

·      Team teaching for writing

o   Fantastic way of giving all learners what they need

·      Setting up of Learning Centres

o   Be good to have a long term plan for each centre and get more feedback from children as to what they like / don’t like

·      Missed several BT days – illness, Wedding

·      Missed meetings with Claire – same as above plus family commitments

o   Realise how important Claire’s input and guidance is to me

·      Data analysis on WoRM

o   Enjoyed it and think we can do more with our data

What to do differently

·      Depends on how we do reporting next year

o   Hopefully not a big end of year, but more comments throughout the year

o   If the same then happy with how I did the reports with;

§   Earlier guidance on structure

§  Review notes from this year about specific language

§  Keep in mind “help at home” needs to be related to specific goals

·      Keep up with reflections and blog

o   Knowing that they don’t have to be essays!

·      Analyse data more regularly

·      As a team, not try to achieve quite as much!!

o   We can move forwards with what we’ve learnt from this term

·      Keep on top of adminy things like filing photos

·      Not try to do quite so much

o   Want to follow through with things I said i’d do, but then they are more time consuming than anticipated!

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!!