Year 7-9 Arrive on Site

JANUARY'S END SEES THE STUDENTS RETURN

2020 sees the introduction of our new wānanga class. Wānanga provides a structured time for our kaiako and rangatahi to build on relationships. To establish a positive culture within our kura, where students are willing to step outside their comfort zones, take risks in their learning and to flourish in areas that they are passionate about; while at the same time allowing staff to support our learners towards their chosen pathways.

We see Wānanga as :

• Relational - getting to know our learner 
• Helping akonga to navigate their way
• Learner focused
• Innovative
• Supportive
• Differentiated to meet individual students’ needs 
• Co-constructed
• Structured 
• Increasing student wellbeing

Thursday 30th saw the first day of meeting our new wānanga students. Nerves were high from all corners - staff, students and especially the parents. The Year 7's showed signs of being overwhelmed, new with that slightly big uniforms that they will all go into, their face that showed amazement, terror and nervousness all at the same time. They all sat so quietly taking everything in and happy to explore, meeting their huramanu teachers and seeing the different places where their learning will happen. At the end of the day I was humbled by a wee girl that approached me and handed me a apple and said "we don't give our teachers apples anymore, thank you for being kind". The action was heart warming and certainly made my day.

New Beginnings 2020

27th Jan 2020

NEW YEAR, NEW BEGINNING

 "there is nothing quiet as intoxicating as certainty"  

- What do i do to move us closer to the strategic goals and our move to creative excellence?
 Wānanga will be my focus for 2020 and my stepping stone to improving my students ability to generate creative excellence. Through wānanga students will have the opportunity to take risks, get given leadership opportunities and build relationships with both staff and students.

- Reflection from the year before?
marks that were gained considering the ups and downs I had last year I am pleasantly surprised to have gained my first Excellence in Home Ec externals along with Merits. I really want to maintain the momentum that I’ve started and work towards course endorsement, it’s there for the taking we just need to build on the culture of the students to make them want it just as much as I want it for them.

- Focus for the year
Based on the data over the past three years our students writing level for all gender and ethnicity are above the national average. While Maths and Reading are the focus for the this year and will be seen in Wānanga through the DEAR (drop everything and read) as well as incorporating Literacy into our lesson plans when looking at CARR, Wellbeing and Cyber safety.

Increase expectations of your students - those that are not yet gaining Achieves but are certainly capable of, still need that guidance and support to get them there. While maintaining the standard for our Excellent students.

Cultural Responsiveness
 reflect on what changes i would like to make?
I see Wānanga as a good starting point to introduce the ideals around cultural responsiveness, especially the philosophy around contentedness and getting to know the people round you.

Hospo Pd Cluster at Burnside High school

29th November

Today I got the opportunity to attend the Hospitality Cluster Meeting held at Burnside High School. I have attached below the Agenda for the day

The morning session consisted of going through requirements for moderation and Consent to Assess. It was interesting to see the direction that Service IQ are heading and the introduction of E-Learning into their product options. Considering the direction that most schools are going it is good to see this option is becoming more accessible. However i feel there are still a number of issues that need to be looked at like access to students work.

The ability to talk to other staff especially as I am going through the rebuild was of huge benefit as it allowed me to get the views of other from around the south island and made me feel more confident about the decisions that i have made and the things that i am fighting for in my department.

In the afternoon we had a chef come in and demonstrate the way in which you can combine three units eg Grilling, Frying and Salad or boiling while using the observation sheet. I still find the observation sheet tricky to use and a bit cumbersome, especially during a practical lesson with over 24 students. 

Novemeber 10th

Due to the nature of my subject understanding an knowing how to control a fire extinguisher is actually quiet important. Before going into this training i thought i knew what to do, but actually i really don't.

Key points to remember
1. don't hold down handle until ready to fire
2. remove the pin
3. make sure the extinguisher is held in an up right position
4. release slow and steady, sweeping over the area of the fire, aiming for the base of it.

something that i did not know that i went back to the room and checked was that different models have different purposes. The guys final piece of advice was, if you are unsure then get out and sound the alarm.

Next Steps Camp

18/9/17

At the beginning of August 60 students and 4 staff (Honor, Alby, Phil and Allen) headed off to Kaipoi Blue Skies to attend Hornby's Next Steps Camp (Leadership Camp). Its a three day camp where students test themselves, step outside the box and work with people they may not have had anything to do with prior.

The most important session that came from this was the Mana Horomaka session. This came about because we were concerned about the level of pride that students were demonstrating in school presently. We wanted to inspire them to hold their heads high, have pride in the school that they represent and not to be afraid to take risks.

We got the students to look at the barriers that were holding them back from having  pride, below is a list of things they came up with. Many of the barriers are things that they themselves could actually change, while other barriers are things that we don't have control over eg school rebuild.

We got the students to then do a Y diagram of what they would like Hornby to 'Look' , "Sound' and 'Feel' like and they then had to place these ideas onto the cut out letters of Hornby Pride and Mana Horomaka that you can see below

The third and find step in the session where the Mana Horomaka posters. Prior to camp I contacted 10 former students who were willing to put their name and face to support the project. They sent me a quote that represented their reasons for being proud to have come from Hornby.

After showing them the ones from former students we asked the current students to make ones of their own and a couple of what they produced is below

Now we are back at school we have set up a Mana Horomaka committee that is responsible for now using student voice to help promote the message and assist in building that Pride school wide. We have presented back to the school and am now looking at introducing Mana Horomaka awards for the end of each term for both Senior and Junior students 

Professional development #2

My second factor that I have been involved in for the past 4-5 weeks is learning how to run a student lead inquiry. I had no idea where to start with this discussion looking back I have made mistakes that I would change next time such having a strong marking criteria, a timeline with expectations linked to each milestone and allowing the students longer period for the doing and action phase so as to get stronger results on this.

I have found both pros and cons with doing this learning style
1. Its tricky to learn to let go the reins of the class, many times I felt redundant as the students worked independently on their chosen topics.
2. Trying to target the knowledge or information part of the inquiry so that it excites the students into engagement
3. I needed to set more dates of accomplishment so that students didn't get behind.

Things I loved some students really took to this a ran with coming up with some great ideas such as
- applying to get free fruit in canteen
- fitness programs with junior school
- healthy items in the canteen
- creating veggie garden

18/9/17
I am really embarrassed that i have not actually posted on here for such a long time. Reflection back on the Inquiry that i tried doing in Year 10 was a bit of a disaster. The students had some great ideas but unfortunately the follow through was a bit rubbish, therefore we didn't get much completed.

I would like to try and do this again next year and now that i have an idea of how to run it i will feel more confident about how to structure it and make it more achievable for the students to obtain.

Professional development

Since my last posting there are two major events that I have been involved with that need some reflection

The first one being my Middle Management Leadership course run by Murray Fletcher. The main key points that I feel I have gotten out of the first two days are:
- reflecting on the type of leader and personality as a leader I have. Using the activity 'Who is Waka' based on thinking by Suzette Lovely. This required us to select words that we best associated with ourselves. Once completed we counted the group we had the most old whether it be A, B, C or D. I ended up being mostly C's which linked to being a Collaborator.

"They are process-orientated team players,and seek areas of agreement. As respectful listeners, they strive to facilitate involvement, build consensus and promote group stability - all in a relaxed atmosphere. Collaborators value their personal and professional relationships with others. However, their unhurried style can be frustrating to those who prefer structure and results. After all, their focus is on process, not product! Collaborators tend to shy away from confrontation and conflict . Such avoidance may lead to bigger problems later. People describe collaboraors as adaptable, patient, considerate, relaxed and good natured".

I'm not sure I agree with all of this description, but I certainly see elements of my leadership style in this, especially the points about relationships, shying away from conflict, being a good listener and facilitating group involvement are certainly areas that I can relate to as things I'm aware of and things I do.

Murray continues to reiterate that we are there as listeners, not to cast judgements, we are not there to fix it. I talked to him about the struggles I often feel being generally a single person department, as my other team member only has two hours in my department and I feel awkward about taking up her time when she wears so many other hats in the school. He suggested I look at how I structure my communication and ensure that it is specific, and perhaps look at different medias to share ideas and the level of communication so we are both on the same page.

I found his tips on structuring meetings below very interesting and liked how it was based around celebrating the successes and things done well, which are often not talked about. I will certainly be trying to implement this more into my meetings.

RUNNING OF MEETINGS
celebrate and share the learning 6mins
Share children/student issues or tracking of high risk students 3min
Share info on department admin sort of stuff if you don't get to this then that's placed on google site
Focus ons - where to, work ons,

Understand urgent vs important getting the balance 
what's important now
What matters now
What would be nice if we got there
What can wait