Being... the one

This week my heckles started to tense and I felt nervousness creep in with the start back at school. Nervousness and battle-wary (see blog Being...battle-weary).

I read a great blog by a colleague that well stated a great strength of our staff- relationships but a niggle sat within me as I read... we have strength in relationship with those (akonga and kaimahi) we have a relationship with but what about those we don't have a relationship with or the relationship is of disrespect or fear/power. 

As a restorative school we would ultimately restore a relationship but is this at times more difficult for some and whether restored or not, can we carry an unconscious/conscious bias (see blog: Being..biased).

The pit in my stomach. My #oneword2020 listen- listen to my gut. 

Sitting here tonight after a neck release (cupping's the best) I scrolled twitter and @kat_vb tweets (and posts) struck a real nerve...linking neurodiversity and wellbeing. My leadership inquiry-linking the culture of understanding,  When I came across her blog  and this post had me achieving a blog written straight away not drafted.

I want to be the one.... who challenges our unconscious/conscious bias and redirects us as kaimahi to our values,

..... and to grow our culture of understanding to encourage that we as kaimahi have unconditional respect for all.

Passion

As I reflect this week, I reflect on a number of things; the MOE training, our kaupapa and the our team discussions around the kaupapa.

For me all 3 are affected by the teacher student ratio and the restrictions a high student to teacher ratio can make.

Currently our kaupapa has 86 kids with supposedly 4 kaiako; but due to other commitments we are really working at 3 kaiako and sometimes 2 kaiako due to release.

The group being the developing inquiry (group B) should not be an issue but the starting point for these kids being both lack of idea and lack of understanding of the inquiry format.

In our team discussion a colleague commented as a criticism a group who were making fruit kebabs; how was this inquiry? Unfortunately this was the colleague who was unable to immerse herself in the kaupapa because of other commitments and  this group were in fact the group she had as her check in students.  I understood fully the criticism and know that this was a group I had  found myself working with. This group had lacked self-managing skills and were very distracted initially and this idea had come about by the fact that they had watched another group  I worked with make fruits kebabs as a trial for their cooking inquiry. They were convinced that this was their inquiry and I had to make it happen. And referring to the MOE training became argumentative (escalating) when asked why? as a link to inquiry.

Lacking connection to a passion, an idea and the understanding that kaupapa is immersed in the inquiry process takes time and when there is the impact of a large group.

At times, especially in block 3, when we have 2 kaiako in, it has this sense of babysitting.

I question why I haven't felt like this before as an advocate of inquiry projects. The impact of a hapori is that instead of 25 or 120 (as I have had in the past) there are 250+ akonga that we work with and knowing the students and knowng where they are at with inquiry and their passions are hard. Time invested into these rich conversations is crucial yet harder in the open space and number ratio.

My weeks have focussed on the need for a better student ratio  for learning in an open space and the MOE to recognise this.  I have a huge advocate for learning in ILE but would also am experiencing in my last two kaupapas large numbers  and learners new to the inquiry process.


I know that last year we tried passion projects badly; both due to  the lack of devices and the lack of buy in/knowledge of kaiako to an inquiry process. We instead integrated inquiry into our numeracy and literacy groups with were constant and we were able to know students and work with their plus one.

Something to think about below as we endeavour  to proceed...

Making it work for our learners- end of week one term 3

I begin the term refreshed and excited with the changes we have made to our kaupapa ako. Separating learners not by the choice of workshop but by their ability to work within the inquiry model and kaupapa ako.  

This image I sourced through facebook (Mindshift page) came to light as a I thought through the groupings. Mindset for our kids I feel is the biggest barrier to learning rather than the space or academic ability.

Many discouraged by change are quick to criticise and focus on the negative and loss of their known.

One such student who was negative, unsure, reluctant to fully engage (and going through a lot at home) understood the new groupings in her reflection at the end of week one. Initially Xharyah had to be escorted to her group. I will encourage to reflect again on the grouping and her next steps for the next kaupapa.

SOURCED from: facebook 

CORE top trends

In the past 5 years I have been using the CORE top trends to empower my thinking when  I was feeling a lone wolf. CORE as a company was a refuge for me for the last 5 years through the VPLD mentoring programme   I feel as though I am  eagerly awaiting  the release tomorrow.

I went back and had a look at last years and diversity jumped out at me.

Firstly as a proud moment of me of our hapori team and the changes we are making for our  next kaupapa ako cycle.

The first sentence states 'Designing for difference is impacting the way we organise and govern our societies and prepare for the future.

In reflection our previous kaupapa(s) we were expecting everyone to be able to run the Haeata inquiry process in their space and with the number of akonga that who on paper/physically  their  kaupapa.
We were limiting ourselves/stressing ourselves by making one-size fits for all when in actual fact our akonga were all at different stages of self-managing.

Leading into the parent conferences thinking through the challenging questions we  may receive, I reflected on the impact in particular the environment had on the social learning our akonga have to go through to be able to work in this space. And how we as closing school could not have really prepared them for this space.
I am a huge advocate of these spaces and excited at where we will take it but reflective of the impact these space have on our learning; for example Ruby.
She came to Haeata excited about change, enthusiastic about what she had heard, strong in ability but new to the community. Initially it was a culture shock- swearing, kids behaviour etc but as term 2 has progressed the 'girl' drama has for Ruby overshadowed at times her learning. RKF with her own device had chosen one kaupapa but because of the drama did not want to attend and instead attended another kaupapa at time- work wise did she work on her 'survivor' inquiry or did she work on a 'human rights' inquiry. In her words 'survivor was her favourite kaupapa so far' but was this because of camp  or the actual inquiry??? Socially RKF is struggling at times and prefers to hang with kaiako  at times. When we look at her link-ed are we seeing the best of her her learning or is it influenced/distracted by others.

Having just completed a kaupapa ako with a group that grew immensely throughout due to social connections I felt compromised initially that I wasn't teaching and that very little inquiry (in my gut0 was happening. I went from student led to teacher led (first/then) just to manage this group. Dividing our 50-60 into 3 groups- the independent/digital artists  to Clark; the reserachers/writers to Alicia/Sarah and the digital Maui /Matariki stars to me.
My reflection prompt for this:



So...... so excited after talking with Karyn re PD session last Monday and what we discussed as a hapori as a consequence of this for term 3- dividing the independent and the dependent for kaupapa ako.

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TOD webinar reflection-to be edited- just want for order

During our teacher only day we focussed on building relationships through circle-time, shame and trauma.

Reflecting buy in

As I revisit, finish and post my reflections I reflect on my lack of buy in and why....

As a teacher, reflection was/is a big part of my learning programme and was the focus of circle time everyday. 10 years ago I tried to push a reflective journal for colleagues and got shot down so I got used to reflecting myself and  possibly not writing it and sharing it.

I realised that I reflect more on the negative/frustration  as I try to problem solve to be not be a negative or frustration. I struggle with sharing my negativity and frustrations.

So I looked  at what I do do... and what works for me....as  away to reflect...
*Twitter - each fortnight I lead a #BFC630NZ chat- the question comes from a reflection so i will post these to my reflective with my thought process and any outcomes from the chat.

*I will continue to use this reflective blog and upload photos that I take with a reflective comment. This can easily be done from my phone and look to do this 3x a week. I blogged most days as a class teacher and was quickly done.

Onwards and upwards; no excuses!!

Week 10:The idea of choice

This week we (Korepo) are focused on our kaupapa ako thinking and a great 'robust' conversation began during Monday's session on what our kaupapa ako sessions could run like and whether our thinking of 6 tasks should be compulsory or of choice.

I was of the thinking that choice should be the case and that for some learners they could be hooked and then not want to do the other tasks.

My thinking was that we would hook then engage personalised planning to drive learning areas that were missing from the initial task. Having been a advocate of integration i saw this as a given thought. I was wary that some links could be token measure but saw that literacy was a given for all tasks and with the right research numeracy could be added with a problem/question.

I was scared by our conversation that we were going down the line of Hobsonville Point and Rototuna and linking just 2 curriculum areas and having fixed co-teaching pairs.

This is my thinking for Monday.