Create and uphold professional and trusting connections and conduct with ākonga, Kaiako hāpai, whānau, and the wider staff members, resulting in the growth and wellbeing of each learner. 

Week 1

Action Plan - Creating and developing relationships (whanaungatanga) with Kaiako Hapai and the wider staff members. To develop relationships (whanaungatanga) with ākonga and their whanau (when applicable). Creating and developing relationships (whanaungatanga) teaching colleagues and other professionals. Also, the individuals in the wider community, and any relevant agencies and groups.

Reflection

In my first week, I focused on forming and strengthening bonds with my immediate teaching team, ākonga, the larger teaching team, and any other groups connected to the school. First, I tried to learn ākonga names over the weekend (from the google drive that my AT shared with me, which had all the pictures of the ākonga and their names). According to research (Cooper et al. 2017, Murdoch et al. 2018), using student names has been shown to foster a sense of community in the classroom, increase student engagement by making them feel more at ease, make students feel more accountable to the teacher, ensure that students feel comfortable asking for help, and boost student satisfaction in learning. Before I started  my first day I had learned at least 70% of their names, so that I can start creating rapport and conversations with them and fully immerse myself in the groups that the ākonga are in. I thought this would help create rapport and build trust, a great foundation for when I take full control of the whole class. I also researched the school’s core values to better understand their strategy for learning, I thought this would align me well to carry this through the classroom. During my lunch break, I spoke with other teachers in the zone with whom I am doing my placement to introduce myself, get to know them, and vice versa. I discovered that task helped me establish a rapport and trust with the teaching staff, positioning me to be given responsibilities or lessons in the future. 

I have developed a really strong and trusting relationship with my kaiako hapai by being readily available for her if and when she needs me. I have also demonstrated my desire to learn and my openness to criticism (positive or negative), as well as my willingness to take initiative whenever possible. Examples of this include helping and assisting with groups that need help, and comprehending the requirements of the lesson so I can guide and support ākonga when they need help so I can relieve the pressure. I also regularly communicate with my Kaiako Hapai to gain a solid understanding of the protocols and procedures followed in class so that I can be guided when I assume full control of the entire class. According to Dyson et al. (2015) working in ethical ways requires careful negotiation, reflection and communication, and during this week, I have always conducted myself ethically and in a professional manner. I've offered to volunteer with the PCG (parent community group) team to help me forge connections with the larger parent community and perhaps introduce me to any pertinent organisations or groups.

I worked hard to establish and strengthen relationships with my immediate teaching team, ākonga, the larger teaching team, and any other groups associated with the school during my first week. I first tried learning the names of the ākonga over the weekend. (from the google drive that my AT shared with me, which had all the pictures of the students and their names). Using student names in the classroom has been demonstrated to foster a sense of community, increase student engagement by putting them at ease, increase student accountability to the teacher, ensure that students feel comfortable asking for help, and increase student satisfaction with learning, per research (Cooper et al. 2017, Murdoch et al. 2018). I knew at least 70% of their names before my first day so that I could start establishing rapport and having conversations with them and fully immerse myself in the groups that the ākonga are in. I reasoned that doing this would help establish trust and rapport, which would be a great starting point for when I begin teaching multi groups. For a better understanding of the school's approach to learning, I also did some research on its core values (Whanaungatanga, Manaakitanga and Ako). I believed that this would better position me to apply it in the classroom. I introduced myself and got to know the other teachers in the zone with whom I am doing my placement during my lunch break. I learned that this task positioned me to be given responsibilities or lessons in the future by allowing me to build a rapport and trust with the teaching staff. 

By always being there for my kaiako hapai when she needs me, I've built a solid and trustworthy bond with her. I've also shown that I'm eager to learn, that I'm open to constructive criticism, and that I'm always willing to lead by example. Examples of this include assisting and helping groups that require assistance and understanding the lesson's objectives so I can lead and support ākonga when they require assistance in order to create that trusting bond with them and additionally help my AT in the classroom. In order to be guided when I eventually teach multi groups, I also frequently communicate with my Kaiako Hapai to gain a thorough understanding of the protocols and practices followed in the classroom. Working ethically requires careful negotiation, reflection, and communication, according to Dyson et al. (2015), and throughout this week, I have always conducted myself ethically and professionally and reflected and communicated with my AT at the end of each teaching day. Lastly, I have offered to volunteer with the PCG (parent community group) team, to help build relationships with the larger parent community and possibly introduce me to any relevant organisations or groups that are associated with the school.

Week 2

Action Plan - Communicating effectively with others and taking initiative through active contribution and showing leadership, particularly in areas of responsibility.

Reflection

This week, I have dedicated all of my attention to actively assisting the teaching staff in my zone by communicating with them effectively and demonstrating initiative by demonstrating that I am always willing to contribute to teaching small groups and multiple groups. Along with being present and paying attention to classroom management, I demonstrated leadership to show my AT that I was prepared to take on multi-group or whole-class teaching tasks. I have also been actively participating, showing up for the lessons, by constantly assisting the ākonga. I've demonstrated that I'm eager to volunteer for extra work that will benefit the larger teaching team, like helping with library management duties. 

There were two instances while I was performing my library management duties where I had to step in and use library management. One group that entered the library, for instance, was quite disruptive to the other students. I said to that group in a quiet voice, "This library is for either reading or doing an activity such as chess or checkers quietly," and the students listened before leaving for another area outside the library. Another instance where a student went to a space that was reserved for before- and after-school care, and I asked him to move because this space was being used for something else in the library. The student's response was unappealing so I invited him to join me outside for a private conversation. It rarely works to call out students in front of the class. It might lead to more indiscipline and resentment. Moreover, avoid criticising or demeaning students in front of their friends. Ask them to come see you instead after the lesson so you can look for the underlying causes of the behaviour (Future Educators, 2023). I asked him if he had made a good choice, when he responded in an unflattering manner, his response was "yes I did". I disagreed and said, "Your choice of not listening to a teacher is not a good choice because you are here to learn and I am here to help you learn, and if you are making the choice of not listening to the teacher while you are in the library, then I will have to ask you to move to another space”. His response was positive and moved to another space. When this incident occurred, I told my AT about it, and she suggested that I note it on his behaviour management chart so that his teachers can keep an eye out for future defiance.

In order to effectively deliver the lessons throughout the week, I also learned how to plan the upcoming lesson during the course of the week. Together with my associate teacher, I planned this. In order to get a good idea of the learning areas we are focusing on as well as the achievement objectives for the learners, we discussed what we have been learning and why we are learning about these topics during this time. Researchers and teachers generally concur, according to Sahin-Taskin (2017), that a lesson plan's quality and an effective teaching-learning process go hand in hand. It felt really empowering and uplifting to have lesson plans prepared and be prepared to take on the rest of the week. By the end of the week, the zone had insufficient relievers because no one had responded to requests made via the relievers app, and my AT had a CRT day (class release time). Because I had already written up my lesson plans for that day, when the team leader in that zone asked if I would be comfortable teaching reading and mathematics to the entire class, I felt confident enough to accept. The ākonga were attentive and actively engaged throughout my lesson delivery. I was really proud of myself for understanding the material and engaging the ākonga, and I was proud of them for participating and demonstrating their level of understanding.

Week 3

Action Plan - Communicating clear and accurate information about assessments for learning and achievement. Working collaboratively in the pursuit of improving and learning my own organisational practices.

Reflection

I consistently enquire about the lessons that my AT has planned to understand the purpose of the learning outcomes and the achievement objectives, to help me further develop my own organisational practices and pedagogical approaches. Mostly to also gain an understanding of how lessons are carried through to benefit the ākonga’s learning styles. I found that enquiring about this has enabled me to write my own lesson plans relatively quickly whilst upholding the curriculum requirement and achieving learning outcomes for ākonga’s learning style.  Additionally, when some ākonga had trouble with some areas of the lesson,  I found because of my previous observations of my AT of how she handled ākonga enquiry when they felt challenged I was able to handle the situation with the same approach with a positive outcome. For example, when student A said “I don’t understand what we are doing for our Self Lead project and the questions we are supposed to be researching about for our leader we chose” my AT’s response “Let’s look at what have learned about this leader already and see if we can spot any information that can help us write some questions that we already have answers for”. 

To help me learn about my own organisational practices in the future and potentially improve any shortfalls I would have in my pedagogical approaches was the other

reason that I consistently asked questions about lesson plans.

Furthermore, I have been continuously organising and planning with my AT about the lessons we will be covering, during this time I also took the opportunity to discuss any feedback (if any) my AT would have for me towards my organisational practices and any required improvement (if any).

Overall Comments for Professional Goal - Overall I have really enjoyed achieving my professional goal of building relationships within the school. I realised that it’s one of my strengths and I look forward to continuing working hard at building relationships because without this I believe we as Kaiako are not able to achieve learning outcomes nor collaborative and effective teaching without it. 

Develop an environment built on trust and respect with students through a learning-focused relationship by setting high standards for learning outcomes, managing the learning environment to ensure that all students have access to learning, and fostering a welcoming environment for all students by recognising the diversity and individuality of every student. 

Week 1

Action Plan - Developing rapport and trust with learners through a learning-focused relationship. Enable learners to actively participate in the process of learning, sharing their ownership and responsibility for learning. Fostering an environment for trust, respect, and cooperation among learners. So, they experience an environment where it is safe to take risks 

Reflection

According to Hale and Robey (2019), Dr R E Wubbolding researched choice and reality theory, he found that connecting and showing interest in the students enhances their motivation and builds trust that the students feel comfortable to engage and participate in the lesson. I positioned myself next to various ākonga groups throughout each lesson. After the lessons had begun and the students had been sent off to complete their tasks, I conferenced around the room and sat with different groups to provide assistance and support to ākonga if they needed it. I frequently observed that some ākonga did not listen during the lesson so they went around to ask what they are meant to be doing to their peers that are consistently listening. I saw this as an ideal opportunity to interact with the students and build their trust by offering to help with telling them what they are meant to be doing and spark their own ideas by providing examples of my own. Throughout the week, I discovered that doing this helped me grow their trust in me. 

According to Dalton (2020), she explains that creating a learning- focused environment helps with supporting and challenging each other, to also add growth to their learning and be the best that learners can be by holding each other accountable for it. With the help of my first math lesson, I was able to get to know students better. I achieved this by paying attention to their ideas and strategies, and by encouraging them to keep expressing their thoughts because we are all here to learn from one another. One learner raised their hand to share their strategy on the board, and I encouraged this by inviting them up to write on the board. I also asked questions about their strategies to better understand them, as well as to demonstrate to the ākonga that I trusted their approach and appreciated their courage in taking the risk to stand up and share their ideas on the board.

When I was teaching a maths lesson to one of the mathematics groups, ākonga and I talked about how crucial it is for everyone to be respectful of one another's work because doing so demonstrates Manaakitanga. (which is one of their school values). This conversation started when one of the students said to the other student, "That's silly, why did you write that?" I intervened and reminded them of their school's core values at that point. When I said this, I discovered that the ākonga were aware of their behavior, stopped speaking negatively, and continued with the task.

Week 2

Action Plan - demonstrate high expectations for the learning outcomes for all learners including learners with disabilities or learning support needs. Taking initiative to learn about varying disabilities to understand how I can connect with those learners. Furthermore, manage the learning setting to ensure all learners have access to learning and to maximise learners physical, social, cultural, and emotional safety. 

Reflection

This week I have focused on showing genuine care to learners' well-being and learning by taking interest in their learning styles and sitting beside those that have varying learning disabilities to offer help and assist them. These disabilities include, ADHD, Dyslexia. For example, when I sat next to a learner that had ADHD, he was struggling to focus on writing what he wanted to write about during the writing revolution lesson and he was not able to  focus, so I asked him to talk to me about it and see if we both can come up with a sentence to write, so he said “The robot was trying to make his friend pay attention to him because he really loves playing with him” I then said “perfect let’s write that down together, and then afterwards we can add an appositive (something we have been learning in class) at the start of the sentence about the robot so we can introduce him as a character”. His response was “oh yay I got it”. Another example, when I sat with someone that had Dyslexia, she was having trouble understanding what was showing on the slideshow displayed on the TV. I said to her “How about you take a picture with your device of the slideshow and let’s work on it together”. After she had taken the photo we sat there and decoded the words she had trouble reading, we repeated it about three times each time and she was able to read it by the end of it and started doing her task. I remained there for another five minutes to show her support in her writing in case she needed me, however she didn’t look like she did as she kept writing without pausing.

This week, I've also concentrated on inspiring ākonga to speak highly of themselves and their skills. For instance, one learner kept telling herself aloud, "I am dumb at math. I can't do it. I'm not good at it." My response was, "Instead of saying I'm not good at this, why don't you train yourself to use positive self-talk and start saying I'm good at this and I can do this." She responded, "I can do this and I will do this." According to the Conflict Centre 2018, if you speak to yourself more positively, you are more likely to grow in confidence and self-esteem, feel more in control of the events in your life, and achieve your goals. Every time I see her during math lessons, I can hear her say, "I can do this," now.

Week 3

Action Plan - Create an environment with the learner’s being the core focus in the classroom, which will be achieved through welcoming their culture and languages into the classroom, develop and celebrate their diversity and uniqueness through acceptance of who they are. Enhancing and validating all learners' abilities and identities. Furthermore to meet regulatory, statutory and professional requirements. 

Reflection

This week has been a focus purely on engaging with ākonga learning and taking multi groups and whole class teaching. During this time I have been able to create and develop an environment where we celebrate all learners as themselves and the varying cultures they bring with them. And most of all listen to and share their ideas within lessons and whole class discussions to enhance their abilities. During this we week we had leadership speeches and I helped one learner include a part of his speech that he wanted to take out because he didn’t want to use it as he felt that it was silly and embarrassing as it was about his mana and he thought others would make fun of him if he was to share that. I said to him that he needed to include it because it’s part of his culture and he should embrace that and not feel embarrassed about it because it makes him the person that he is. He ended up using it in his speech and he was proud that he did.

Pondered why code (Structured literacy) was taught before reading time and so I had a discussion with my AT to understand why we were doing structured literacy before reading as opposed to writing? During this discussion my AT reflected on that and found that it made sense to do it before writing as we are already learning how to construct sentences and it would help with spelling our written words.

During maths class I have been noticing some negative self talk from ākonga and suggested to my AT during our planning time for lessons to perhaps talk to them about what negative self talk is and how it can be damaging to our learning that we do, my AT agreed and we found some resources that we can discuss instead of the hotspot game time before maths as a whole class. Another suggestion I had this week for maths was for the last lesson. I thought it would be a great idea for us to consolidate our learning that we have done in this term, such as what three examples can we take away from each lesson that we have had.

Overall Comments for Professional Goal - Overall I have enjoyed focusing on ākonga's learning outcomes and achievement objectives to gain understanding of their learning stlyes. I am looking forward to being involved in the planning for my next practicum because I have enjoyed achieving my professional goal for Learning Focused culture and I know I will be learning and reflecting a lot more as I move through my practicums and I am looking forward to it. 

Cooper, K., Haney, B., Krieg, A., and Brownell, S. 2017. What’s in a Name? That Importance of Students Perceiving That an Instructor Knows Their Names in a High- Enrollment Biology Classroom. CBE Life Sciences Education 16.1 (1-13).

Dyson, M., Plunkett, M., &  McCluskey, K. (2015). Success in Professional Experience: Building Relationships. Cambridge University Press. https://books.google.co.nz/books?id=Cb0sCQAAQBAJ&dq=Success+in+Professional+Experience+Building+Relationships+in+Educational+Settings&lr=&source=gbs_navlinks_s

Future Educators. (2023). How to handle bad student behaviour. https://www.futureeducators.org/how-to-handle-bad-student-behavior/

Hale, J. V. & Robey, P. A. (2019). It All Begins With Relationships: The Glasser Quality School Model. In K. Daniels & K. Billingsley (Eds.), Creating Caring and Supportive Educational Environments for Meaningful Learning (pp. 20-35). IGI Global. https://doi-org.ezproxy.massey.ac.nz/10.4018/978-1-5225-5748-7.ch002

Learning Culture for Learning Impact Joan Dalton, Page ix, 2020

Murdoch, Y., Hyejung, L., and Kang, A. 2018. Learning Students’ Given Names Benefits EMI Classes. English in Education 52.3 (225-247).

Sahin-Taskin, C. (2017). Exploring Pre-Service Teachers' Perceptions of Lesson Planning in Primary Education. Journal of Education Sciences, 7(12), 57ー63.

The conflict center. (2018). Positive Self Talk: What It Is and Why It’s Important?. https://conflictcenter.org/positive-self-talk-what-it-is-and-why-its-important