Charlotte Verity Professional Learning (School Based)

Resource:  Incredible Teachers  by Carolyn Webster-Stratton, PH D Chapter 11,12,13 & IYT Workshop 3.8.17 A child needs to have conflict management skills and social problem solving skills to help them regulate their emotions. Children who have difficulty emotionally regulating may also have trouble reading social situations and cues (p. 406 of text). When a child acts out/yells/hits frequently etc (cannot emotionally regulate), this will often result in negative social experiences and possible alienation/loneliness. This child then does not have the peers to practise positive social skills with, and they may become 'labelled' as difficult, defiant etc. Teachers can try to stop this by sharing praise publicly and personally with the child, being explicit with praise, social coaching, connecting with parents and maintaining positive self-talk//thought about that child.  Emotional regulation includes: * Nervous system * Cognitive (reasoning) and language systems ...

Resource: Incredible Teachers by Carolyn Webster-Stratton, PH D Chapter 5 & IYT Workshop Since this workshop, I have been trying hard to: Focus on positive behaviours more than negative behaviours across the whole class. What you focus on will grow!  Circulating around the room to give 1:1 praise and encouragement Making my praise specific, and related to academic (e.g. thinking), social (e.g. managing your body; helping others)  Using proximity praise (i.e. noticing another child demonstrating the desired behaviour, and praising...thereby encouraging others to do the same). Doubling the impact e.g. having children who have persisted, shown kindness etc go and share their work with another teacher. We have discussed this at a team level and each of us has stickers and smiles at the ready for children send by other teachers to share their work Coaching children for academic behaviours e.g. persistence; focusing. I am now aware that children will develop these c...

Copy of presentation: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1AuTXexiFH1_q6qkJidK75kRsXE5OSzbpP-5CjGMT7zM/edit#slide=id.g834f60235_0_422 This workshop looked at responses that people have to problems, or doing something 'wrong'. The thing they see as 'wrong' may only be wrong in their eyes...eg self-blame for accidentally breaking something.  I learnt about to focus on helping students realise they are not the problem. The behaviour  (if purposeful e.g. saying mean things to another person) is the problem.  General reactions to making a mistake / doing something 'wrong': * Attack self * Attack others * Withdrawal * Avoidance Use language, restorative chats and facial gestures (i.e. interest versus judgement or dislike) to help students move past shame (seeing self as problem) to guilt (seeing the behaviour as the problem),        Carol Dwek     

I found some excellent ideas for improving my use of Circle Time, which we use weekly as part of our Wellbeing focus at Beckenham School...through Jenny Mosley's text: Quality Circle Time in the Primary Classroom: Your Essential Guide to Enhancing Self-esteem, Self-discipline and Positive Relationships (1996) My hub colleague and I have been focusing on kindness and resolving conflict lately, given the needs of our students. Fun Circle Time starters from this text: * All change - call out descriptives, w.g. stand up and move if you have a brother; have visited another country; speak another language etc * Show an emotion - peers guess what it is; peers copy * Word association - e.g. say a word related to friendship, fun, calm etc * Eek and zoom - go around the circle, each child saying 'eek,'. Swap directions when one child says 'zoom' Resolving Conflict * Split class into small groups. Give each group a puzzle, missing 1-2 pieces. How will...

SELF-REGULATION = staying calmly alert, focused and managing emotions in a way that is socially acceptable. THE ALERT PROGRAMME... * is a way of thinking about internal state, without focusing on emotions. * uses neutral language AROUSAL = HOW ALERT ONE FEELS To attend, concentrate and perform tasks in a manner suitable to the situational demands, one's nervous system must be in the optimum state of arousal (Mercer & Snell 1977). We need to be in exactly the right state of arousal to attend and complete a task.                  How is your engine running? Take the time to stop and check, how is your engine running? Ask the students, how is your engine running? Discuss how the class' engine is running (as a group). You can use a speedometer picture to show this. What affects self-regulation? * Physiological needs e.g. hunger, fatigue * Sensory processing difficulties e.g. over-sensitive or under-sensitiv...

I visited Rowan Lockton at Somerfield School to learn what wellbeing strategies they have in place.  Like Beckenham School, they have a leadership system for older students. They also have school values (SMART - see http://www.somerfield.school.nz/)  Key Differences (that we might consider using beyond 2015): Pastoral Care Team * Meets once a fortnight * Comprised of public health nurse, school mental health team rep, teacher reps, leadership * Each team identifies students with pastoral needs (e.g. safety, welfare, attendance, nutrition etc) * These students are listed on a register. The team reviews and decides the next step: either teacher to work with family or the child is referred for, or connected to further support (e.g. a welfare agency etc) * There is an ongoing loop of communication: each level/team feeds back to the Pastoral Care Team, to share whether issues are resolved or continuing. Further support is then allocated, or further referrals made....

The last three weeks have been great learning for me.  Parent conferences These were really positive and valuable for learning more about my students and celebrate success.  Several social issues came up, which we will address in wellbeing and general class time: * Including others at playtime * Using kind hands * Reporting any problems to a teacher at the time these occur How can I connect with parents more regularly? I have set up a googledoc with student names, and aim to more regularly contact parents to share progress, photos of student success etc Collaboration Our collaboration model has changed since my last blog. We now have two teachers (Amanda and I) working in one hub for reading. A small number of children read with our third NE teacher in another room. Amanda and I have shared our children. We have parent helpers in, working with target students from both classes, for 15min sessions.  We have also discussed collaborating in maths... I read Jen...

Our Assistant Principal, Michelle Maule, came and ran Circle Time with us today.  We are using Circle Time throughout the school this year, to help our students learn about and reflect on our School Kete Values:  We Care  -  We  Love Learning - We Get There Together -  We Make a Difference Michelle bought a sign with Circle Time protocols, and went through these with children: We then had a circle time discussion, sharing differences about ourselves with the whole group. Children also turned and talked with a buddy, sharing their favourite flavour of ice cream and identifying if this was differerent from their partner's preferred flavour. After Michelle left, we used the Circle Time model and protocols, and shared our highlight from the day. I noticed that more children had something to share (i.e. less 'passed') on the second circle time session.  My next steps: * Utilise  the Circle Time model weekly so children are used to th...

Session One  Mindfulness Meditation: www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfWK6hvUjEg  There are four processes involved in mindfulness: 1. NOTICE and attend to the experience  Recognise the symptoms...e.g. the tiger of anxiety may feel like fast breath, not being able to sleep, an unsettled stomach... 2. Make space for it ....be ok with experiencing it! 3. Respond skillfully (rather than REACT habitually) 4. Over time, grow a greater understanding of what makes wellbeing Likewise, mindfulness is a strategy for not being caught up by the 'monkey mind' (brain chatter!). WHY?  Emotions (negative and positive!) pass in 90 seconds BUT our internal dialogue stops them. Our self-talk keeps an emotion inside our heads and our 'now' experience. STOP the self-talk; BE AWARE of the feeling and LET IT PASS. ANXIETY: triggers the same fight, flight or fantasy that real physical danger does! THE DAILY PROCESS:  1. Set a time 2. Find a relaxed, alert position 3. ...

January 2016 Key Take-Aways ( and what I will do  this  term ) * One size does not fit all * Learning goals underpin but shouldn't drive learning ( i.e. leave the learning intention until after writing...START with the stimulus!) * Enthusiasm for learning & for writing * Fill up the room with  GREAT  writing, and fill their ears with the sounds of great writing. These include exemplars of expected/quality writing at students' level * Effective teachers  read, write  and  know: How words are formed;  the processes and strategies writers use;  structure  and  features  of major genres *  Hold high expectations for students * Min  20 minutes per day   independent writing   -  this could include speed writing, e.g., 1 min to plan; 5 mins to write where pencil isn't allowed to leave paper *  3 types of words:   Looking  (find on word card, dicti...