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.

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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.

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.

PB4L - Matrix

The School has a detailed Positive Behaviour Matrix for the whole school with headings on how to respect yourself, others and the environment. There is a range of contexts or scenarios that help to break down this matrix. 

We discussed how in class we all have rules and how we have acted them out to help students to understand expectations. Have we considered creating a matrix with the students in our class to help break the rules further so they know what it looks like, or is there a reminder of what it should look like?

We looked at a few samples from other places and with a range of focuses.

First thing back in after the holiday that was where I started new term fresh start, especially having just taken over a class mid-way through a term. Now was a good time to re-establish expectations and rules that all could aspire to, even in the Robotics Room.

Tala noa - Cultural Responsiveness

Cultural Responsiveness has been a priority for all teachers, no matter what school I have been in. This session was discussed through a Tala noa, which under this name I hadn't attended before. 

Tala noa a discussion based around an objective with NO judgement. Despite the fact that this is not a new concept when I heard this first I was relieved because I have been in discussions where you could feel the look when you had your say. Personally, you can't change your thinking if you can't share it.

We looked at the Pasifika Success Compass, showing the student/learner in the middle and the way people, families, communities and series wrap around them. All with the purpose of Achievement, Engagement and Participation for the student at the forefront.

Students don't care what we know until they know that we care!

We looked at a video with the pleas of Pasifika students for the education system to catch up with the innovative practices of our Pacific communities.

"Enable me, enable us, my community, all our communities, my family, your family - so we can grow our potential."

When Pacific learners and their families all across Aotearoa feel safe, valued and equipped to achieve their educational aspirations, we know we have made the system shift in the right direction.

5 Main Ideas to Supporting Pasifika Learners (from TKI)

1. Know your Learner
• Build Relationship
• Ask Students what will help 
2. Establish Reciprocal Relationships with Families
• Partner with Parents
• Create Welcoming environment
• Discuss Learning
• Support Families
3. Build Community Networks
• Value Parents and Community Expertise
• Strengthen Pasifika Community Engagement
4. Build cultural Responsive Environment
• Integrate Languages
• Provide Leadership Opportunities
• Support English Language Learner
• Use Technology
5. Explore Pasifika Perspective on Inclusion
• Explore Family Beliefs, Values and Expectations
• Review Research

What am I doing and What do I need to do more?

1. I love getting to know my students and sharing myself with them. I use the scrapbooks of family albums to show my own family and my life. We create a profile about ourselves for the class wall, I even did this in Term 2 this year when I started a new class because I believe relationships are so important.

2. Create a welcoming environment, with their work on the walls to help develop pride and a sense of belonging. Talk about learning with students and parents not just at interviews.

3. I have just moved into a new community so I am working on this one.

4. Each term I try to encourage different students to try different responsibilities. I love using technology to help explain learning and love how student blogs can be used to rewind learning.

5. Through meetings and reading I am coming to understand more about the way families are and how important RESPECT is! 

If I am honest, this helps not just our Pasifika Students. 

It helps everyone to feel valued! Making Society a Better Place for Everyone!