Goals for 2020

Even though we don't have to continue with appraisal systems based on our recent changes in the Collective Agreement and Accord - info here and here - I still continue to be a reflective and aspirational practitioner.

Goals for 2020:

* Survive Lockdown -- at times it's felt like waiting for the Purge. Other times I'm just damn grateful that I don't have children. Would this be what it's like having children? Stuck at home... ALL THE TIME? Gah. Mindboggling. I miss driving to see my friends. Being on an aeroplane and traveling to far-flung destinations. I miss being able to be completely free to go where I want, when I want. Being stuck inside has been HARD. For everyone. But harder still for those of us battling our insides and past trauma related to home stuff. I have so much aroha for those who are still in those dark, hurt places who are forced to stay in those spaces purely because of lockdown. How hard it must be to constantly be in that space with no hope of getting out. I just hope their neighbours have been actively listening and just being PRESENT for those people - so when the time comes, they will have help where needed.

* Finish my korowai -- last year in my appraisal hui we talked about my hobbies and passions. Something I'd missed doing all year was my korowai. Being so far away from Whaea Lorraine in Mamaku was hard and I struggled to even pick my korowai sampler up. This year I signed up with Te Wananga o Aotearoa... (yes, AGAIN!) and I've really enjoyed learning from Te Raita and her nan Roka. I've enjoyed researching Ngati Maniapoto kairaranga and whatu raranga like Rangimarie Hetet and her daughter Diggeress Te Rangituatahi Te Kanawa. I've recently been taught how to harvest harakeke but because it was my mate o te marama - I had to stand back and watch. Just you wait though... I know where to get the harakeke for muka now! Roka said I need to make 600 whenu. 600! That's going to be a LOT of prepping. Good thing I still have more samplers to do and to actually finish my korowai sampler too. It's looking so beautiful.

* Identify more places to travel to -- When lockdown is over - I am going to TRAVEL everywhere. I cannot wait.

* Sharing my tech geekiness with my colleagues -- I want to start ByteSized PLD with the OC whanau. It worked really well at Heights. Even if I was making more work for myself with little recognition from senior management... I was doing the mahi for them. But OC is different. At OC they seem keen on learning new things and happy for distributed leadership in those areas. I've waited back all of last year, assessing what needs my team has and figuring out how to best help people. I've really enjoyed doing PLD sessions with my team during lockdown. I've developed some PLD videos already for Whaea T, K and A -- and shared HEAPS of resources with S which hopefully helps with 3.8.

* More hui with English Dept -- I have LOVED doing our English dept catchup sessions each Wednesday and look forward to having time built into our timetable to be able to do this more often. Just being able to korero with the team about how things are going and what we need to do next to develop our skills as a team. It's been good seeing everyone and catching up even about mundane things which have become less trivial and actually interesting - the flip of lockdown I guess for me - recognising that this is why my nan always asks these questions about the weather and what I've been doing. Because it's actually interesting when you're stuck, bored out of your brain at home.

* Remote Learning -- I've learnt that there are MULTIPLE ways of doing online learning and that we still have much to learn. Even though I studied in Mindlab back in the ra, and all my studies, analysis, development of perspectives etc it reminds me daily that there are still laggards to bring along with us on this journey. These laggards have now been pushed like blue flamers into the late majority -- still keen to learn but not knowing how. For this, the lockdown has been useful too.

* Learning how to front those difficult conversations rather than continuing to avoid them to avoid confrontation -- the Effective Leadership hui we went on earlier this year is still in the back of my mind. I want to be better at communicating. I think though that the way I've fronted the issues which need most focus - has worked. Offering support, ensuring they know I'm here and waiting -- has actually worked. Proof -- hui this morning. AWESOME learning. It was truly so good. So much learning and more to happen this weekend.

* Developing resources -- Being commissioned by NZATE has been a really good challenge. I know I'm crap at deadlines. I also know I need processing and planning time. I gave myself a deadline I knew I couldn't meet, passed it and then asked for an extension. It's now only been a week since the deadline I should have given haha. I still have more to do. I wish I'd chosen to give a resource I'd already made. A win I guess, is that it allowed the discussion about Creative Commons to occur with my principal and the BOT.

* New leadership opportunities -- I wasn't shoulder tapped this time. But I was talked to about it, in a roundabout way. I was later told that they had brought my name up too but there was specific mandate NOT to shoulder tap me. And thus... I wait further. Hoping that my self-nomination is successful. Though I still would have liked to have more info about the role first haha. We'll see whether the association votes for me.

* External Moderation -- I still need to learn how to do this. I've asked for help from a few different people. Straight up - I just need someone to show me how. I know it's not hard. But it's my first time as a CA to do it on behalf of my team. I want to do it right and listen to what the MNA guy said last year too.

* Cross-curricular learning -- I want to do more of this. Let's work together!

* Localised learning -- I want to do more of this too!

* Lockdown has just been made SO MUCH EASIER -- thankyou cousin! We can now travel around the country to see our whanau. I CANNOT WAIT to go see our nan. YAY Level 2 - LOVE IT. Still stay safe. Stay vigilant and be on guard. Keep your contacts to a minimum.

* Distance Learning -- changes during Level 2 -- there will still be students needing remote learning available. More info to come.

Post-Interview...

I kept it relatively hidden... but I applied for a new job last week. I love my students and the staff I work with at Heights - but it was a new opportunity. Something I'd been waiting for. Something I had seriously wanted as part of my overall development as a kaiako.

Like I did with Hobsonville Point Secondary School at the first #edchatnz conference, I fell in love with Rototuna Junior High School at the recent conference. It's not just the space, or the fact that it's new or that it would be an awesome experience to start afresh without restrictions of history or school culture, access etc ... it's a combination of all this and then the fact that you're collaborating with some incredibly amazing kaiako who want to create opportunities for authentic learning and authentic contexts and relevant learning experiences for students.

When I came out of the interview I naively thought it had gone well. I was all smiles. Buzzing the rest of the day. Surely this should have been the first warning sign. I'd later cringed at how I'd answered the 'What do you do outside of teaching..?' - I have a dog called Mia, a cat called Zo and I read a lot. ... Not the best. There was heaps I didn't say.

It had been a long time since I'd done an interview. I'd been circled before by some interested parties a couple years ago but at the time I was exceedingly happy with where I was during my time at Heights that I allowed those trying to entice me into a new position to ask those questions about change and my ideas for future possibilities without too much weighing on the possibility I might actually want or need to move schools. Because I didn't want to move schools before. I would love to stay at Heights for a long time. To be so embedded that I become a Heights institution. But I know at Heights I feel crazy comfortable and I've actually become quite complacent. I got used to the ebb and flow. There wasn't any BIG change in sight and I was happy doing my own thing in my class, with a captive audience for my terribly punny jokes. I've become part of the school. My students adore my teaching and am always having refugee students seek out my help or asking to come into my classes. It's just that we're taking such a long time to get to where I'd like to see Heights be at. I know we can get there... I just don't want to still be waiting well into my 30s... or 40s and then regret the fact that I didn't try to go somewhere else for new possibilities. I'm an impatient person at best when it comes to change, despite how patient I am with my students and their development and I need to keep pushing myself to be the best teacher I can be.

And so... when I got the call on Monday night after a day of absolute bliss and hope and excitement of a possibility... I was a little gutted. Because it was a lost opportunity. All weekend, even prior to handing in my application, I kept reminding myself to stay close to the ground and not allow myself to be carried away by the dreams and clouds drifting away.... I did... kind of. But that hope - it's infecting. That kind of feeling is something I hadn't felt in such a long time. There are so many amazing things happening in the world of education and I so desperately want to be part of it all. Despite all the cool things we do and learn about in our little space in our classroom, despite my students loving the learning, despite all of this.. I still would like to try my hand at something new. Always a learner... and this unfortunately (mostly fortunately now that I've had time to digest everything..) has been a learning curve. One which I will be thankful for in the future.

The morning after - Tuesday... I had made the decision that it would be okay. That I was okay with not getting it. I was still gutted for sure. But like anything, I'd learn from this. I was still trying to figure out what the things were that I needed to work on in order to get a job like that in the future, but I went to school, heavy hearted, knowing full well my students and colleagues would bolster me and reenergise me. Reminding me why I love teaching. Reminding me why I do all this. Why I get so involved and so laden by the stresses and pressure to keep working towards being a better teacher.

I'd given my students (only my Y12 classes..as they had the most to lose with me leaving with their high level and amount of internals etc) the heads up that I was thinking about applying for a new job... I'd told them I had an interview... and now was happy in a way I could assuage them and stop them giving me dirty, upset and accusingly traitorous looks by telling them that I actually didn't get the job. They were beyond happy by the way. Gutted for me. Happy for themselves. I knew all this. And... now we're back to normal. I think now though there is this feeling of slight untrust that I need to nut out because I've made it my mission as a teacher not to be the one that will ever abandon them. Which is why during the interview I brought up the issue around the start date because I was uncomfortable about leaving them before their end of year exams if I'd gotten the job...

Yesterday afternoon I finally got the guts up to ask for some feedback after the interview and particularly around gaining a bit more clarification around what I might need to do in order to develop more experience in what was called 'extended pedagogy'. The term was new to me and I wasn't too sure what they'd meant by it. I get it now though. And I'm still kicking myself. Because I can SO EASILY explain myself when it is in this mode of explanation through writing. Ask me face to face though and I sound ridiculous. If we're talking about something I'm crazy passionate about - there are no stops or starts in what I'm saying. I can talk for hours. I'll talk your head off. No umming - no stuttering. I know I used to be able to articulate myself well. I did. Before. So... I need to build these skills up again. I've been using stronger verbal questioning skills with my students as a way to redevelop those connections in the neurons... and even so... gosh. Maybe I just need to suck it up and ask for clarification whenever I'm unsure rather than reverting to that meek, passive person I used to be while growing up...

The very incredible new Principal of RSHS called me tonight to talk me through some of the feedback around the interview. It was mostly things I'd already told myself off about on the drive home after conference... but the clarification around what I needed to know was that extended pedagogy stuff. It's not really a new term. It's the fact that I didn't really explain myself in the interview. I didn't show how everything was interconnected. I didn't answer the questions well. Maybe in that moment I didn't even really know what the questions were trying to dig at. It's the same rookie mistake that my students make when going into their exams. They completely miss the point. And I think that's what happened to me.

She mentioned about my strengths in cultural responsiveness and relational pedagogy - a section I didn't even need to answer in the interview as I'd obviously covered it in enough depth just by talking about myself and my manaaki for my students.

But why didn't I then use this as a base for all of the other questions? In everything I do... MindLab, Kia Eke Panuku, Restorative Practice, inquiry and goal setting, reflections, planning, teaching and learning processes.... this strength of mine is at the core. Because I connect so INCREDIBLY well with my students. Why did I think it was a good idea to nekeneke without any actual connection to the kaupapa? Gah. Ko hoha au. Hoha with myself. Because I know this stuff. I know it so well. I could spout off so much of Russell Bishop and Mere Berryman's research. I can explain the areas around the Mana Potential and Rock and Water programmes and how I use these as a base for my restorative practice pedagogy and empathy modelling with students. I can easily share areas around moments where I've shown high expectations with my students - they too can easily ariticulate this. Because I never ever give up on them. So much so that when I found out one of my students had left today and it was a massive surprise to me... my students said it was because she didn't want to tell me because she knew I'd be disappointed in her. Disappointed in myself that another student was lost to me. Lost and I had no way of helping them achieve their full potential.

The Principal discussed the answers I gave around how I'd dealt with conflict with a student and how I'd extend students, and how I'd use inquiry to form judgements based on evidence collated by student data. I messed these questions up because I didn't really get the question. I was listening for what I thought they wanted to hear... not for what the question really was. I wasn't showcasing myself at all.

I have no idea why I brought up the conflict that hasn't really been resolved yet with one of my students... It's still weighing on my mind. It's still bugging me that there is that space that won't be filled from her side where she is unwilling to cross and go back to normal. Why didn't I talk about how I don't call students out for silly behaviours rather than that one time I did and it blew up in my face. Why didn't I talk about how I encourage my students to push themselves when they give up. How I contacted the parents of one student when I was just getting nowhere with him at school in my normal humourous joking manner of prodding along... and found out him and his mates were doing stupid stuff to each other and how this helped open a new kettle of fish where I reopened the dialogue I'd created with these parents last year when I'd taught him in a junior class.

Why didn't I talk about the time last year with one of the most loyal students I have now? How she seriously did not like me last year commenting on her work while she was doing her resubmission. How we got on the same page with our frustrations of the requirements set by her teacher around what was acceptable... and how we tried to nekeneke by using digital modes for her assessment... and were both gutted when it didn't work... and she had to revert her VERY awesome assessment to something more basic, more handdrawn... and which although she achieved... she would have gotten an Excellence with her digital version because of how she'd edited it... How she has been an inquiry student for me for a long time because she has issues with accepting praise when she's done something well, or when she thinks she's not good enough... how she was a phenomenal help in our extra-curricular dance competition and raised herself to a leadership position quickly, being her humble and quiet self, and her angry and frustrated self when other students weren't paying attention to what us teachers were trying to say...How this year she has grown astronomically in her confidence levels and is beginning to believe in herself finally.

I know I didn't answer the question properly around how I extend students - I'd thought the question was more around the expectations of the parents.. I should have clarified the question to ensure I was being clear from the get go. I winged that question and that was the question which I could have easily connected with. I talked about how the students need to push themselves to their full potential. At no point did I mention I help scaffold them to get there where they can fly solo. I could have talked about our awesome sticker charts that we have in class that I've developed as an inquiry over the past two years and how these show the progression of student achievement and overall development. How these sticker charts, while back to basics, are a visual reminder of how we're going as a class. How these charts are a constant reminder of the students I need to pull up with the rest of us and the students who need constant pushing forward to reach their crazy awesome potential.

I could have talked more about the fact that despite my strengths being with encouraging my students who are struggling, I am also getting VERY good at more in-depth higher order thinking questioning skills with my students to make them think DEEPER and with a stronger focus around building the audience and overall purpose into EVERYTHING they discuss and share. I could have talked about how we've developed entire programmes together as a class based on student interests and how these overwhelmingly have enhanced my teaching as I've developed stronger and more in depth foci around my own teaching style and the needs of my students. How I've become so much more aware of my reverting back into traditional modes of teaching because of the restrictions placed on us and how asserting my knowledge around building 21st century skills in regards to collaboration, participation and overall thinking skills have helped to develop more enhanced learning opportunities for all students.

I also could have explained my use of assessment data to talk about my inquiries and how these relate back to so many different areas where I have strengths... how I created a Google Form for my Year 12 Alternative English class to evaluate my teaching and their learning processes. How the questions were framed in a way to ensure full student evaluation of their learning within my class and how I've used culturally responsive pedagogies in order to ensure better outcomes for all students. How this use of qualitative data outlined certain areas and issues in my practice that I had known but had ignored - particularly how I believe my Y13 students in that class will be fine, how I try to let them figure things out before helping them too quickly. How this actually doesn't make them feel safe or comfortable in the learning just yet. How I try to scaffold them to make them feel more comfortable and ready to fly solo. Using this data and the achievement of certain internal assessments to graph the results and then analyse the data in our professional learning groups showed that I can discuss the intricacies of relational pedagogy and more importantly the critical lens of AKO and Mana Motuhake. Why oh WHY did I not bring these up? Why didn't I elaborate further around this?

The last question I messed up was around integrated learning programmes and particularly how I've been part of enabling these. I talked about the Year 9 Heights programme of induction around English, Social Studies and Science. While this was cool, I could have talked about how I'm currently collaborating with the health and physical education department and particular colleagues to enable our students to succeed in both English and Health to ensure our students are making the most of their learning opportunities and how my fabulous colleague Sam and I have been discussing the need to share our resources (which we have at differing times - start of this year and a couple weeks ago) to help define the skills in which our students are using in our individual classes to try to connect their learning on a level platform - not so much single cell subjects... I could have talked about how I've been discussing the same kind of thing with my colleagues in the Music department about their performance standard and how we could use it for our Visual Verbal standard. More than just doubling up on the credits... or double dipping as others put it... how we want to change the way we're teaching and learning to ensure that our students get the best deal. That they learn that many of the skills we're all teaching in the different learning areas are actually connected - how they're interdisciplinary skills.

All of this annoys me.. because I know this stuff. I know it so well. I talk to anyone who will listen about this stuff. Because I believe in it so much. I absolutely detest deficit theorizing. I refuse to ever believe that a student doesn't want to learn. They just haven't been given the right opportunity yet. Sometimes sure a student lacks the motivation... but again this comes down to encouragement of their efforts rather than their ability. Growth MINDSET! Why didn't I bring this up - the Class Dojo geek that I am. Gah.

I think overall, like she said, it comes down to interviewing skills. I wasn't ready for the interview - usually I do so so much prep before I even apply to a new school. I embed myself so completely within their website, and any and all research I can find, that I know the mission and school charter better than many of the current staff at the school I'm applying at. True story. It had been a while since my last interview. I was nervous. God was I nervous. But I don't think I was hungry enough for it. I am now. Because that opportunity while lost... isn't the last one. There will be more opportunities. It's an expanding school. Next time I will be ready. I will articulate myself clearly. I will be clearly spoken. I will have a range of experience to gather from and nekeneke properly by connecting everything to my overall whakaaro. I will be absolutely sure it's what I want. I will dive headfirst. Because that's what I'm like... all or nothing.

For now though... my students are happy. My Principal is happy. My colleagues are happy too. It didn't quite feel like the right timing this time. It kind of felt like a false start in a race where I tried to outstrip the bullet in the gun before it was even shot out of the barrel. I wasn't quite ready. Eager, always. But ready? Not quite yet.

Ngā mihi nui to all those who helped me with my application. I'm sorry I let you down. I will do better next time. To those who supported me post-interview and post-interview result too - it's not an easy thing putting yourself out there and I'm glad I did it if only for the interview experience. Massive thanks to the leadership team at RSHS for the opportunity and for the chance to share who I am with you. I look forward to seeing where you all go in your planning for the rest of the year and can't wait to hear about the awesome things that will be happening there. Lastly, massive thanks to the RSHS principal who took time out of her day to talk me through the feedback from the interview. Not all Principals would do this and it meant a lot. Ngā mihi nunui ki a koe e whaea.

MindLab: Applied Practice - Week 32 - Changes in Practice (Activity 8)

This post is the last for my Mindlab journey. And has it been a journey!!

At first I was so incredibly ecstatic to be involved with the Mindlab. The course looked great. Exciting and so much potential to teach me new things that I hadn't already taught myself. The digital and collaborative paper, the research and community paper, the leadership paper!! And this last applied practice paper. So much learning.

I loved that I was able to share my learning during classes when we learnt about Twitter or blogging or something else I was extremely passionate about. Being able to share the power in the room by enabling each other to share our strengths and learn from each other was awesome. I appreciated the opportunity so much as this is something I want to be able to facilitate at Heights.

I blogged a lot in those first few weeks... about augmented reality which I fell in love with!! And more in depth about gamification and the impact that understanding learning has on a learner. That process of knowing the next steps and how this is absolutely critical.

As time went on and I began to get bogged down by the assessments and the reading, my natural passion and ability to reflect and blog about my learning dissipated. I found this concerning. I struggled a lot because I couldn't for the life of me understand why the two things I love the most in the world - learning and reflecting on my learning - were at such loggerheads. At first I thought my blogging mojo had been stopped because I was just learning so much, reading so much, busy too much to try keep up with school stuff and assessments and students etc, or the stresses of normal life... but I've since come to realise it's definitely part of all this but also... the fact that usually I learn what I want to learn.

I struggled for weeks in figuring out how to say what I needed to say in this post. Because this isn't just for Mindlab. This is for my overall learning and reflection. This blog has been going since I first started teaching five years ago and it needs to still be tuturu and more importantly relevant to my own perspective and whakaaro - both the negatives and postives.

The majority of feedback I got from assessments was great. The first couple of assessments I got back bit into my own confidence levels but as a growth mindset person, I bounced back and realised that was just because I need to be more clear and concise and develop my own thoughts more deeply. I need to be able to try new things and craft my own skills in videoing more effectively and I need to sort out my time-management. All things I already knew and know but were reinforced by an outside marker. Which was a good thing because I am naturally a cocky person when it comes to my own ability and I needed to remember that even though I have a lot of ideas, I definitely don't have the practice.

I absolutely enjoyed learning collaboratively with the colleagues from around the country but also in Rotorua. It was so cool to meet people, other teachers from Rotorua who were as keen as I was. I missed our group the most once we stopped doing the F2F korero sessions. It felt like I'd moved away from home and was missing the whanau.

The wide range of people was very realistic to how it is at Heights too which must have been tricky to navigate as there was such a wide range of knowledge on the room. A lot of these teachers had never been to a Connected Rotorua meeting too and so didn't come with the foundation of knowledge some of us already had. Hopefully they will come to more of our hui and share their ongoing learning now that Mindlab is over. :)

What I've struggled with the programme is how it has been so incredibly structured. For those that know me well they would understand easily what I mean... I'm all about the organised chaos. I am a learning sponge. I soak up what is relevant and what is needed when I need it and release the knowedge when it is no longer needed.

I easily could have gone through the whole course and learnt at my own pace but I felt restricted to stick week by week according to the course structure, assessments etc. And I think that that is more of a traditional model rather than one that I would like to have seen in Mindlab where the 21st century learner is at the centre and is able to completely focus their entire learning and interests around certain areas.

The majority of my learning for the past four or so years has been focussed on identifying HOW to enable my colleagues to build confidence in using elearning and every single one of my assessments reflect this passion. What I needed more of was guidance through more targeted feedback to help me figure out what I actually needed to do next in order to be better, understand more clearly and enable myself to be a better leader.

Even with the Mindlab certificate, I know the reality will still be real for me. Even with certification that I know how to work collaboratively, digitally, with the ability to reflect and research to ensure my knowledge is founded in hard facts and solid previous research and studies - I know that it still won't make a difference overall to my ability to help my colleagues. I am still at the same place as I was back in November - scared to open a dialogue with my principal about going for a Management Unit in order to be able to target staff by having an allocation of time to help support them where needed.

My colleagues still trust me. They still find me approachable. Which is awesome. But since starting the Mindlab, perhaps I've become even more intimidating.

I've learnt the kupu for the things that I do. I understand the why and the how and the what more clearly... but still don't have the access to effectively practice my ideas. I thought that by this time this year things might have changed in that regard... and while they are changing... it's not fast enough for me to be able to implement my learning from the Mindlab effectively.

I implore everyone I ever meet in teaching to do this Mindlab course. I just feel that it needed to be more differentiated, to allow those of us who knew a fair bit already, who still had serious gaps in other areas, to be able to clearly create a programme that would be beneficial for our own learning and possible pathways in life.

With all that being said... I have learnt a lot. I've made new friends. I've collaborated and shared my learning. I've forced myself to get back into blogging and after 300 or so posts I was stupid to stop back there for a while. Because it's important to be a reflective practitioner. We need to push ourselves out of our comfort zones and need to identify areas that are of most importance to us.

*****

Two key changes in my own research informed practice in relation to the PTC's in elearning:

* Collaborative programme of learning
This essentially builds onto all of the learning I've been doing but still need to build more confidence in myself in order to continue trying to encourage a collaborative programme of learning for staff and students at Heights.

My students easily see the why and how when I explain to them how we could be doing things in class a lot better. But that confidence I have being able to be myself with my students hasn't transferred really into confidence with my colleagues at Heights. I'm always feeling like the rug is about to be swept out from under my feet when I bring up a new suggestion or idea. Mind you I have found people I can collaborate with on this journey which has been good. Colleagues who have been thinking about doing the Mindlab course have been asking me about the course and I've been sharing my learning. Surely this is a start to a possible collaboration in future.

* Knowledge about how akonga learn
The research I've done through the Mindlab has definitely reinforced my own thoughts around how students learn and this research has come in handy plenty of times over the past 32 weeks. I've been in conversations with my up-line or others in more authoritive positions and been able to make quick and easy connections to multiple pieces of research to show I connect what I'm doing with how students learn and the why along with the how. Although knowing this research has helped me, perhaps it has isolated me also as now I know 'stuff'. And for some, knowledge is definitely seen as all powerful. I just want to collaborate.. so I'm in an ugly catch 22.

My students though have benefitted so much from my new learning. We've been trying heaps of different things in class, been practicing some really cool styles of learning and teaching. We've been thinking more deeply about next steps. I've pulled away from practices that I was doing previously around understanding knowledge acquisition in learners particularly around SOLO Taxonomy and Class Dojo which is strange as previously they were my go to tools. I suppose now that I'm trying out so many different things, I may have lost sight of what actually works for me and my students. So I need to rethink and practice more to ensure what I'm doing truly benefits student learning.

Over the last few months I've definitely seen a change in my overall teaching method, but I don't know whether it's a better one. I'm a lot more tired, have less patience and although I'm still differentiating my student's learning, I don't know whether I'm teaching the best as I can right now. I've definitely improved my own time-management skills with the focus on timed assessments and due dates (and those beautiful extensions) and my procrastination has become a lot more focussed and timed too which has been great and is a lot easier to manage.

I've been more aware of deadlines at school and teaching students how to keep up with deadlines too.

I wonder though whether knowing and keeping to deadlines will be as important as it was in the 19th century as it might need to be in the 21st century.

Goals for future PLD:

I definitely want to investigate more Google Hangout styled events where students and I discuss learning and can get help from each other and how this might play a part in developing more collaborative learning.

I want to figure out how to be a better leader, to inspire and to create moments where learning is at it's highest peak. That comes down to practice and self-confidence... I need to figure out how to transfer my skills as a passionate speaker with my students and colleagues outside of Heights to my colleagues inside Heights.

I want to keep identifying areas of learning that is relevant to my own personal situation.

But most of all I want to figure out how to maintain my passion for teaching and learning... without constantly being in fear of burnout.

Overall, I'd just like to say a massive thanks to Lynley and Tino who made my learning journey in the Mindlab awesome. They were constantly willing to listen to my concerns and help me when needed. You two are absolutely fabulous. Thankyou. Nga mihi nui ki a korua.

I'd also like to say a massive thanks to Mary Hamill who has been my partner in learning and development for all of this Mindlab journey.

Also... massive thanks to everyone in the Mindlab intake of November. You guys were very very cool. :)

Last but not least... to the markers who ignored my constant overwordyness and word counts that bulged every single time well over the limit. Thank you for your guidance and your focus and your willingness to help us be better teachers. Nga mihi nunui ki a koutou katoa.

EdBlogNZ Challenges

Absolutely stoked with the amount of people that have signed up to the EdBlogNZ challenges!

As always I'm starting late - as I tend to do with these challenges but I'm excited to take part in this.

Since our CENZ presentation on GHO last year during Connected Educator month, have been again and again impressed and humbled by the sheer awesomeness that Nathaniel Louwrens has in working towards building a more collaborative and connected community of bloggers in NZ.

With the very early beginnings of EdBlogNZ these past few months it's been an absolute honour to have been asked to take part and be involved as an admin for the blog. There's been so many tweets and sharing of teacher's blogs - it's been awesome to see so many people get involved. The blog roll using the RSS feeds is particularly brilliant. It makes finding new blogs so much easier to read. I've tried commenting on a bunch and need to read more too.

The past couple of weeks with the beginning of Connected Educator month has been overwhelmingly awesome - the sheer number of people getting involved and the challenges that have been completed. So so cool!

Am really looking forward to ULearn when we do our presentation too because it's always good to work with Nathaniel and I really love getting newbies into blogging. A captive audience helps this too! :) 36 people in our workshop. Pretty exciting!

Now to just finish the slides (always a procrastinator) and get some blogging challenges done myself! :)

Curiosity....Quiet Readers...Please comment where you're reading from!

Hi guys -

One of my students asked me the other day who I blog to. Pretty good question from a Year 10 student actually about who my audience is.

I showed him my stats on blogger as well as my most read posts and the map which shows the areas my readers are in.

The only real response I had to him was, "Well, the world..."

In essence that's all I really know because - 14,000 hits on my blog can't be just from click farms or from bots... right?

So - if you read, have read or will read this - please comment below!

Have tried this before but didn't get much of a response.

We've talked about the need to comment more regularly - on our blogs not just on our Twitter accounts or Google Plus - because it's good to engage and relate to each others' blog posts.

Anyway - hope you write something! :)

Human Rights and Stress in the Workplace: Yvonne Oldfield - PPTA Issues and Organising Conference 2015 - Workshop

Human Rights and Stress

Yvonne Oldfield

Are Labour Rights Human rights?

Normative - something that is inherently right, has a moral force or absolute value

Something you don’t have to bargain for or fight for. A normative right is something that is a given.

“A human right is not earned or legislated into existence and cannot be bargained away… it attaches to the very fact of being human.” (Hugh Collins/Virginia Mantouvalou)

Moral weight - health and safety goes to issues of survival.. a facet of … “inalienable facet of life.”

Universal application - must apply to everyone. We are all workers or potential workers

Stringency and timelessness - accept that no activity can be entirely risk free

Uni of Dec on H R (1948)

Right to work (article 23):

1. Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment…

International covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

• Right to work
• Right to safe and healthy working conditions
• social security
• etc

Health and Safety and the ILO

• Millennium Dec… Decent Work Agenda
• Seoul Dec (2008)
• Safe and healthy work environment - human right

Defining the right -

“The right to work in an environment reasonably free from predictable, preventable, serious risk” - Spieler

What does this mean in practice?

• stress: personality differences, the idea that you are to blame,
• physical: short and having to stand on tables,
• workload:
• Communication breakdown: SMT to Staff, HOH and Teachers, Teachers to Teachers, holistic
• Extra-Curricular and Extra Opportunities for Ss. Expectation that you should do it.
• responses put us at risk, “teacher just needs to harden up”,
• Unacceptable behaviour
• Feel stressed when our response taps into physiological and psychological stress
• Situation will affect everyone differently -
• Minimise risk -

Difficult to define the expectations and the responsibility and blame for stress.

The need to have a Health and Safety rep at school.

The need to have support networks

Boards should have a policy.

Process needs to be really clear: identify hazard or problem - who to talk to - knowledge that they’re going to deal with it.

What are the key elements of the right?

• Predictable?
• Preventable?
• Serious?

Who are the “duty holders” - who is responsible for ensuring that this right is upheld?

• Everyone -
• ERO - identifying that conversations

Elements of the right:

• Rights to information about the dangers on the job (goes to worker control/informed choice)
• Freedom to protest or refuse work (level of risk may change over time, or new information become available)
• Worker participation (Robens model predicted on full engagement by workers)

Discussion:

For new teachers this is HUGE. We feel too scared to say that we’re overwhelmed because we’d be looked as if we were incompetent.

Not speaking up. Scared you’ll lose your job. Lost to the profession. Not compensated. We’ve lost teachers from heart attacks. Stress can be fatal.

Stress in Teaching:

Teaching has always been considered stressful - research by England’s Health and Safety Executive, found it to be one of the most high-pressure careers, with 41.5% of teachers reporting themselves “highly stressed”. www.the guardian.com/education/2012/dec/26/teachers-stress-unions-strike

The Role of the State: monitoring and enforcement:

Maastricht Guidelines: States must acknowledge legitimacy of rights and meet obligations to:

• Respect (don’t undermine workplace safety)
• Protect (set standards to prevent violations by third parties) and
• Fulfil (monitor/administer/enforce to ensure the realisation of rights).

What are the health and safety issues for teachers?

Specifics on Stress:

• increased workload
• being asked to now perform extra initiatives beyond training (academic mentoring, guidance counselling, negotiators, policing students)
• expectation of being available 24/7
• fast paced initiatives that don’t really change anything though they are pushed out as if they will change everything
• diversity of student behaviour - expectation to fix it
• personalising of programmes
• HOD - extra legislation to ensure..
• Middle Management and senior mngmt are sometimes bullies, tell you to suck it up, build a bridge and move on
• PPTA expectations and having to fight for our rights as teachers and as workers
• Data gathering
• ADMIN: academic tracking sheets
• Building portfolio for appraisal
• Engendered by increasing vulnerability of fixed term contract, casualty of the workplace
• constantly having to be on top of behaviour
• Restorative Justice: restorative chats to get things sorted, missing out on breaks, becoming seen as a bad teacher for taking your breaks
• Can’t say NO. The mechanism for relieving stress is creating stress
• Under more pressure to keep up with tech and expectations of the digital load
• Erosion of work/life balance
• Mentoring -
• LACK of TIME.
• Time pressure
• Given an extension of form class to do academic counselling - track it on KAMAR. Checking up on us for not doing our job
• Hekia saying we need to raise the bar all of the time and what we need to achieve
• Summer school
• Extra classes, more credits, “Can’t you find a Unit Standard for them to do during the holidays?”
• If you follow procedures, sometimes it doesn’t work and then it’s not followed through.
• The tension of when a teacher can reasonably say NO. Or question the situation.

Who?

• Govt?
• BOT?
• PPTA?

Information is a key issue. But if you don’t know where to go with it or whether it will be followed up - then what will happen?

What is workplace stress?

• “work-related stress is the response people may have when presented with work demands and pressures...which challenge their ability to cope.
• Stress occurs in a wide range of work circumstances but is often made worse when empoyees feel they have little support from supervisors and colleagues as well as little control over work processes
• There is often confusion between pressure or challenge and stres and sometimes it is used to excuse bad management practice.”

www.who.int.oc

Solutions:

Survey to be created and sent out to branches

Workload Taskforce: paper version has been done. Digital survey to be created and all schools will be doing it this term. Encourage your colleagues to do it.

Need to tie in consequences. Need to show the outcomes of people with health issues.

What are the health issues that flowed with stress levels.

Need exit surveys when people leave schools.

What might a safe system of work look like?

How can we:

Prevent (Eliminate)?

Reduce (Minimise)?

Manage?

Cope?

With stress and violence in schools?

OUR thoughts: It is too individualised. Those who have the stress need to say that they’re stressed and feel comfortable in their workplace to be able to do so. Access the tools available to them individually.

The main problem is that people don’t feel able to stress out.

Group discussion:

When new initiatives are introduced - a RAMS audit should be done. If staff were consulted then risks would be reduced. Something has to be taken off. Layer upon layer upon layer. “What is this replacing?” You may only do it for a couple of years (the money is gone) and all of your hard work is gone. How are you going to show that it’s working?Measure effectiveness. Need to measure effect of initiatives. Never any evaluation of the initiatives brought in and how effective they were.

More support needed for eLearning. Include use of volunteers. What is effective of modern learning?

Abide by the contract.

Nurse/other specialists not able to help staff.

Limits on work time - start by measuring hours.

Preventing stress in schools…

• develop a constructive workplace culture based on decent work, professional respect, basic health and safety principles, tolerance, equal opportunity, and quality of service
• Promote a culture of school or organizational healthiness - redesigning work, ergonomics, teacher training and counselling to assist teachers in coping
• Implement safe schools policies and programmes including clear statements that violence will not be tolerated, and
• Recognise and assess serious student behaviour issues; intervene, monitor and evaluate

Handbook of good human resources practices in the teaching profession, ILO, Geneva 2012