Leadership in 2017

This year, I have taken on the role of assistant team leader at Plimmerton School.

This means I have more responsibility and do the following:

• Attend senior staff meetings
• Liaise with the team leader about what jobs need doing
• Plan and run some syndicate meetings
• Plan trips out of the school for the syndicate
  • I co-ordinated the Capital E trip in Term 1
  • Planning RAMS for trips & getting these signed off by D.P and Principal.
• Oversee and manage planning of units for each term
• Complete appraisals on other teachers (to come during the year)

Creating a safe learning environment

For the beginning of this school year, I’ve been really focusing on creating a student-led environment where students feel safe to take risks and to feel valued for who they are and what they bring to the class.

To build  a positive classroom environment, I have been doing a few different activities.

The first activity was a class treaty. I had decided to let the students come up with the way we were going to do this activity to promote student voice and engagement. We had a few options for how we could achieve a class treaty and it was decided that in small groups, the children would brainstorm different values and statements for how they’d like our classroom to be this year.

The students then decided to write these on post-it notes and to organise them into categories of ‘yes, no, or maybe’ and a final list of ideas were formed. A group of students who wanted to do the display then created a class scroll (still to be finished) which has really encouraged a big sense of ownership.

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The next thing is that I’ve created a ‘Room 17, Class of 2017’ magazine/book. Here, we included some information on each student so they can get to know each other a little deeper. This will also be a home for class photos and other things the students want to include as a ‘year book’ of sorts.

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Next, we created florets – a Pasifika flower that shows the following things:

1. Name
2. Family
3. Dreams and aspirations
4. Our interests and hobbies.

This was a great way to promote discussion between students and to see where there are similarities across students. The students said they felt a real sense of pride in who they are and that it made them feel more valued as a member of the class – that they were valued.

Teacher Only Day – 2/2/2017

Notes from T.O.D 

Student Outcomes from ERO

We looked at how Plimmerton School is currently meeting the ERO student outcome indicators and collaborated with all syndicates. We’re going to check in on this document throughout the year and see what areas we need to focus on (both independently as teachers and collaboratively as syndicates and whole school).

 

 

 

 

Glasser Behaviour Management

On a daily basis, I use the Glasser and choice theory principles to engage with students. I use choice theory and the 7 connecting behaviours to discuss student behaviours. This has helped students to take more responsibility for their behaviours and to see how their choices create both positive and negative consequences. 

This has been particularly successful for dealing with student issues as a way to remedy the friendships.

I am still learning how to use this most effectively, however, I think I have already come a long way in my behaviour management approach. Now, when I deal with behaviour situations, I am more kind in my behaviour management and it is more of a discussion between all parties involved rather than a top-down approach.

Karakia

Each day, as a collective, the class say a well-known karakia, He Honore, to begin and end the day.

This has been embedded in our daily class culture and even when I am not at school and there may be a reliever, the children still say the karakia.