Physical Restraint Training

 As a Facilitator, I noticed we are not always aware of what is expected of teachers in the classroom. I was invited to join the Physical Restraint Training the MoE has recommended all teachers complete before 7 February 2024. Thanks to one of the schools I was working in.

There are 3 steps:

1. Recognise the Distress / Mātaitia
2. Respond to the Distress / Atawhaitia
3. Restore after the Distress / Whakawhenuatia
   

Followed by the concept of Interlocking Branching, which comprises the collaboration of the community, whanau, and teachers coming together to safeguard the Akonga/Learners.

The rules explain the use of physical restraint in registered schools from February 2023. The school policy needs to be in place and updated regularly from May 2023. Kaiako/teachers must be familiar with the school policy and know where to find it. This policy is also to be shared with the community.

Teachers are authorized to use physical restraint (PR) following the Education Act and following the guidelines provided. In case of any such incident, a written record must be maintained and kept for 10 years from the last action taken. If a student (Akonga) is identified as high-needs, either due to multiple incidents occurring per term, concerns raised by the whānau (family), or if the previous school has indicated so, an action plan must be put in place in collaboration with all parties involved.

Caregivers must be notified as soon as possible after a learner has been restrained. This should be followed by a debrief within 3 days, allowing all parties to reflect. 

Who is in charge of implementing this step?

Monitoring is an important step in this process. Distress will affect all parties: teachers, learners, and the family. This step will also help identify any trends or stresses that may contribute to the incidents. This is then followed by reporting to the Ministry (every incident of Physical Restraint). As Teachers, we need to know where the form is online.

Ditch Summit - Keeping it Real with Student Relationships

 Ditch Summit - Day 1 with Matt Miller & CJ Reynolds

Building relationships with Students and Whanau means students' engagement in class will skyrocket and managing the students will appear to be a breeze.

Rocket Joypixels Stickerfrom Rocket Stickers

John Maxwell says - No one cares what you know until they know you care.

I have made the mistake of believing 'I care, I tell them everyday!' but was I really showing it.

I know I have done this well in previous settings but with Covid and after had I really done it?

Tips on How:

1. Ask the children - (not from the front of the class), get in get personal, and sit with them

What is cool that old people don't care about?

2. Get to know them as people before you focus on the rules and routines!

Show the students 10 slides of the 10 most important moments in your life.

Make it personal, make yourself vulnerable!

Get the kids to make a set of slides of 10 important moments in their life.

3. Show Students you are listening and that you are interested. 

Go to events, be relevant

4. Turn Up - Go outside and play with students during breaks (don't hide in the class). 

Sit and eat with them.

5. Ask Parents - What do I need to know about your child that I won't find written anywhere?

This could be an email or a phone conversation when you introduce yourself.

E.g. What was their favourite part of class/school (When Why?)

Least favourite activity?

6. Then keep looking for clues.

Relationship leads to Classroom Management

This starts outside the class, as I mentioned earlier get alongside them play, and find out what they like. Once in class don't dive into rules and routines tell them about you. 

My name is and I love my job.

 I want to have the greatest day, week and year with a lot of fun in between.

Greet each student every morning, with a fist pump, or elbow knock.  This tells the students they are seen by you. You might be the first one to acknowledge them for the day. 

Build Rhythm in class (routines but they can fluctuate). Students need consistency to feel safe!

Navigate Conflict Moments

Issues are not the end of the world for them or for us. help them to find their way through. They don't have the life experience to understand that the sun will come up tomorrow. Smile it will pass, and have a safe place for students to go. 

Keep Calm and talk to them. This is what I am seeing, Did I do something to cause this behaviour? Own it as a Teacher if you make a mistake.

If NO, How can we remedy this? Because I'm here for you to succeed. How you think, feel and your education is important.

= Encouraging students to advocate for themselves positively. 

Game Plan - if you have a situation who can you reach out to?

- Who do the students connect with, meet with them to discuss, and prepare for situations. Then go back and discuss more so you can understand what or where you went wrong.

Building Relationship

More and more teachers are discussing the importance of developing relationships with students and involving whanau (extended family) to ensure everyone is on the same page. This approach is well established in some countries where teachers have the same class for multiple years.

Ten years ago, I had the opportunity, more out of necessity than design, to teach a range of year levels. I started by teaching Year 1 and 2 students in a school. The year following, they needed a teacher for a Year 2/3 class, so I moved up a level and continued teaching the same students. The year after that, I taught a Year 4 class, and eventually, I became the Senior Teacher for Years 5 and 6. As a result, I had the privilege of teaching half of the students for multiple years.

Each year, I would begin by calling the parents to discuss how their children were settling into school after the break and to address any concerns they might have had. As I had taught some of these students for 3 or 4 years, parents were more comfortable engaging with me and discussing their concerns. However, it took time to establish these connections.

More recently, I moved to a different area and level of teaching. To build relationships with the parents and students I was now responsible for, I started by calling them to introduce myself before engaging in more challenging conversations. Unfortunately, this was the same year that we faced the challenges of COVID-19, and students rarely attended school on a regular schedule. This made it more difficult to establish connections with students and their whanau.

As a school, we read 'When the Adults Change, Everything Changes' check out my posts to see what changes I make as a teacher and mentor.

 

PB4L - Following Up

 Giving Feedback, Feedforward and FeedUp

Circle Time - Setting aside a time daily, weekly to check in with students

SHARE

• Something positive/fun from your weekend, the learning today
• Something you found challenging

Working up to -

• Safe place where students can share problems, issues they would like help with.

To help develop PB4L we need to give students feed to improve learning and behaviour. We can feed them with food about how they did with their behaviour, what hey can do better and how we can help them.

When modelling for students ensure there is an example for students to refer back too. (Although this is something I usually do, we are in the process of moving and the class tv had been moved, so didn't have this option. But I didn't even use paper duh.

PB4L - Expectations

 Positive Behaviour for Learning

This year we have been revisiting PB4L. Which is great as even though I have completed the 10 week course Incredible Years (IY). I know we need to teach student how to behave in order to learn, I have never been coached in this aspect using this specific pedagogy. 

We have looked at the data where interventions have had to come into play through the week and Monday is our worst day. There are many positive reasons for this but if we have a relationship with the students and their whanau we have a chance to help direct students to be ready for learning.

So the first thing we created with the class was a rubric on class expectations. Which we broke down with the school expectation Respect Yourself, Respect Others, and Respect the Environment and then into section of when expected behaviours were expected. This is co-constructed with the students.

But it is important that expectations are kept high.

3P's: Prompt, Pause and Praise are 3 ways I reinforce expectations and learning regularly. 

But there are others to build relationship I want to consider 

• 10x2 - 10 opportunities for 2 minutes to sit with a student and talk with them to get to know them more in-depth.
• Making Connections - using different greetings with (poster)
• Referring back to the Class Expectations regularly to reinforce what I want to see and to happen
• Build in more fun activities - that will energise not just the students but you too.

 

Things I do and will continue to do:

• Ring parents for positive things, not just behaviour. And start this early in the year, making an effort to find the positive during the honeymoon period each term.