TO Day 2: Stephanie Sinclaire Lightsmith, Artist

Stephanie Sinclaire Lightsmith

came in and talked to us about using art to express emotions. We did some exercises together that she has done with children and adults around the world, and she did with our seniors last year.

Painting emotion:
First close your eyes and feel into your body.
Write down the first emotion that comes to you. No judgment, be authentic (sometimes people need help clarifying their emotion).
Then paint what that feels like.

We were encouraged to use our hands to paint with, to deepen the experience and embody it.

Sometimes the emotion changed as we were painting, and we painted again to express the new emotion.

The science behind this is all about expressing emotions in a positive, creative way so that we don’t hold onto negative emotions, and enjoy our positive emotions.

We shared what our paintings meant to us, giving us all some understanding of what was alive for each other.

This is a great exercise for children to teach them a positive way to handle emotions that they are struggling to manage constructively.

Tapping into your body’s wisdom:

Close your eyes and focus on any body part that you choose for a couple of minutes. Feel into it deeply.

Now write from that body part to you - what is it’s wisdom that it is trying to tell you? Write for 5-10 minutes then read it over. What have you learned?

A third exercise Stephanie shared with us (but we didn’t complete) is to write to an authority figure in your childhood (parent or caregiver, etc) fully expressing whatever you want to and then also have them write their response to you.

We ended the session with a lead meditation to the stars and beyond...

Blog post written by Gabrielle

Relationships - ACR - 1 FEB 2018

Responding to success or failure

Recognition and gratitude are the fundamental building blocks of positive relationships

So in working with others to get going on the campaign- this is paramount!

The way we react to news- both good or bad is important to the continued health of these relationships

We might think- I’ve got a good relationship with that person so it doesn’t really matter how I respond to their successes however Shelley Gable ( University of California) has shown it’s not that simple. Your respond to success can lead to future success OR it could in fact shut it down big time.

Gable and her colleagues found that how we respond to positive events, is a better predictor of relationship success than how we respond to negative events. The most empowering way of responding is Active Constructive responding - ACR. (We touched on this is a TED TALK with Martin Seligman last year)

Active Destructive	Active Constructive
Passive Destructive	Passive Constructive

Example:

Let’s say Susie has come up with a new plan for how she is involving parents in the planning of service learning. A few other colleagues have been thinking about this but she is the first to bring the idea to fruition. She comes energised to staff meeting to tell us about her plans.

The worst response we can give her is lower left. PD. We might turn away, avoid eye contact, or change the subject. Or we might make a quick criticism of the idea- say it’s already been done, it’s not clear enough...and then start to talk about the work other people are doing.

Top left we have the AD response- it’s not much better at all! We find something to attack, to critique and focus just on that. Our response is entirely and relentlessly negative….vigorously so  in fact! “ That’s not going to work, they won’t like that...that will take too long, I wouldn’t do it like that…”

Underlying these 2 forms of response could be a reluctance to recognise others positively, possibly insecurity, feeling threatened…..and the like

PC response- well this one is positive at least. We might smile, say “good one...that’s nice” Then move on to something else. It doesn’t make the most of a positive event which could lead to further success.

ACR - Ideally we would hope to find a way to respond in this way. We’d maintain eye contact, take  real interest in what Susie is up to and her excitement over this new idea, we would ask more questions, show enthusiasm- maybe help her fine tune by saying something like “ That sounds great, tell me more, how exactly do you see that working?”  You may think it’s got a few holes here and there- but start with the strengths, help Susie uncover any potential gaps or weaknesses - help her consider it against other possible options.

In this way you will have helped Susie do more and better thinking.

Role Play Activity

Form groups of 5 or just get creative if it doesn’t work out numbers wise

1. Each person will share their ‘ success story’ Their good news……..
2. Take turns at responding - take on a quadrant each
3. Change quadrants at each story so you get a taste of all of them

What are the barriers? What prevents us from ACR? How can we catch ourselves more frequently?

I wonder how many ACRs we will give to colleagues, children and their whānau today?

Jude

TO Day 2: Natalie Hogg, Sports' Psychologist

On our teacher only day, Natalie Hogg, a sports’ psychologist and parent at the school, came and spoke to us about making 2018 even better than last year. She spoke to us about some of her work with the Hurricanes and other sports teams. We ran through some visualisation exercises and talked about wellbeing and its importance to mental health. We were each asked to give one word that represented what we felt we needed to make this year better than last. The team ranged in ideas from unity and vision, to communication, to growth mindset and action. We discussed some of the perceived barriers and made a small action plan for where to next. We’ve already begun implementing some of our ideas with our This Week/Next Week whiteboard in the staffroom to improve our communication and keep everyone on the same page for what’s going one. Natalie also showed us a few helpful diagrams.




This is to help check in: be present in what you’re doing, commit to what you say you want to do, accept that sometimes we are slightly diverted, don’t beat yourself up and carry on.





If you can imagine the big picture goal is at the top of the line and we are walking the line, we are often diverted from the big goal to either avoid or have immediate gratification. Keeping the big picture in mind and not straying too far from it helps you stay grounded, mindful and in good mental health.


Lastly, as a tool to stay on track we have this diagram for actions on a minute to minute basis. Just being mindful of whether your actions are leading you towards or away from your big picture goal is important and being mindful of what is driving you to those choices.

The session was incredibly informative as it gave us practical tools to use to keep us on track towards our big visions. It also helped us clarify what we, as a larger team, feel we can do to improve upon what we already do well. Thanks very much Natalie!

By Gillian

2018 team actions/improvements to support the ‘Campaign’

1. Cohesion/Unity

Increase transparency

The why are we doing this- big picture

Ask questions

Challenge each other

2. Communication

What’s on top- whiteboard in staffroom- advertise what’s going on

Emails- check audience/detail/ timeliness- especially with parents

Trips- improve systems and processes- delegate/clarity

3. Growth

Being open and flexible

Take risks

Quality of feedback

Dream BIG!

Commitment

Be open

Just do it-action!

Teacher Only Day 1: TED Talks

Welcome back everyone! A new and exciting year for lots of growth and learning...

Today we all had a chance to share a TED-type talk with each other- anything goes under 'Educating for the Future'

Jude started the day with a session called Know thyself and be thyself where we were able to explore our passions in our personal and professional lives and how we can use these in our teams. 

Nicola and Ximena spoke about Number Talks and how this has a big impact on student outcomes. 

Gabrielle spoke to us all about resilience and how we can teach this to our students. 

Susie talked about Positive Purpose, what she has been researching and how she has been focusing on this when working with her students in Tautoru. 

Anna discussed the importance of getting students moving. You can read her notes here.

Cloe spoke about the changes that she has been making, moving away from a traditional way of teaching to a focus on Positive education. She compared this process to Metamorphosis.

Suz shared the learning that she has done with David Keane and how this has helped her to be present in her professional and personal life and the importance of working in Quadrant 2. 

Hayley spoke about ‘Heroic Recovery’ and the benefits of working together to try new things accept challenges and reflect together.

John talked us through the model of the Hero's Journey and how students can relate to the characters. 

Gillian talked about the importance of language. She said, "I spoke about the power of language, looking at both our internal and external language. I looked at the power of the words we think to create our realities and the words we speak to affect those around us. With little words like yet, we can change a statement from one of despair, "I can't do it," to one of hope "I can't do it yet!" The words we speak can change our mindsets and those around us. Let's use our words to make better worlds for ourselves and for our learners!"

Scott shared his thoughts about the Environment and why it is important that our learners take action!

Therese and James  (Masters of Teaching and Learning students) spoke about teachers and people who inspired them connecting this to what kind of teachers they would like to be in the classroom. 

Shona showed us some valuable resources for students for English Language Learners:

Steph shared ideas about communication and how we connect with our parents- not always easy!

Physical Restraint in Schools

We read the key points as a jigsaw activity then fed back to the rest of the group. 

https://www.education.govt.nz/news/new-rules-for-using-physical-restraint-in-schools/

PLD about PLD

Jude's Inquiry this year was around effective PLD. She investigated the different levels of PLD and how they are all connected. 

As a result of Jude's Inquiry, we have begun to track our learning on this blog. We have also identified that we need to connect beyond our place.

This is a draft copy of a visual. The intention is that staff will use this when planning their PLD. 

The 7 principles of effective PLD will also run through this.

Principles of Effective PLD:

●      Links to identified student needs and learning outcomes

●      Integrates knowledge and skills

●      Operates within a learning community and culture of trust

●      Offers sustained, multiple opportunities to learn (= TIME)

●      Is collaborative, shared, collegial

●      Active role taken by leaders

●      Is inquiry-based( some not all is at present)

(Readings: Professional Learning in Effective Schools, BES: Teacher Professional Learning and Development)

Maths PLD, Feedback 2017 (this will inform our next steps for Maths PLD)

All teachers have made changes to their programmes based on their goals and learnings. Many staff members will be signing up to take the Stanford Jo Boaler course- How to teach Maths (for teachers). This is significant as it will create a big shift in teaching practice across the school.

Teachers were asked what they have changed in their programmes. There is wider curriculum coverage, number talks, Visual Maths, EOTC in Maths, Broad open ended problem solving, collaboration (teachers and students), Rich inquiry focus and a better understanding of formative assessment.

Many teachers found that triples were useful and affirming. It was good to set goals around these. The mini inquiries allowed for everyone to be accountable.

Teaching as inquiry has a huge impact on learners (including us as learners).

Next steps in Maths:

Staff are clearer about the Internal Evaluation process but not everyone is confident in this area.

We need to develop Number Talks as formative assessment and share these with each other.

How to teach mixed ability groups (the what).

Some questions to consider:

How do we ensure that we are stretching the higher achieving students?

Are we teaching enough strategies?

From our data, we have identified that we will need to have a focus on Writing next year.

Where to next for Writing?

We asked staff:

1. What aspects of your writing programme are you feeling good about?

2. Where do you need development and growth?

We will look at this data and make a plan for our next steps, using the visual template.

2018 Planned Actions

These meetings were focused around planned actions for 2018. 

This was the "Smackdown" led by Gabrielle

This was the "Smackdown" led by John:

We started by planning from the why?