HPSS - Day 2

I promise I won't spam with a day-by-day account of what went on every day! It's all just a little bit exciting again today. Amazing what sleep, water, and computer access can do! Suddenly the familiarity of a hybrid and Kamar brings some order.

The powhiri was lovely - it was just the staff and felt really intimate. I didn't realise I'd be greeting every single one of them, and by the end everyone was just laughing. That was followed by everyone of the staff introducing themselves with one slide and 30 seconds of talking. The impression it creates: people matter, relationships matter.

When I first trained as a teacher, this Maori proverb was in the front of one of the curriculum books:

He aha te mea nui o te ao

What is the most important thing in the world?

He tangata, he tangata, he tangata

It is the people, it is the people, it is the people

This still resonates deeply within me, and expresses how I felt in response to today's experiences.

PD was in the library. Bean bags were on the floor. Couches were behind. Chairs behind them. I wish I took a photo. Curled up, on the floor, in a beanbag, with a bunch of other people just like me, writing notes on my hybrid - it really was a nice way to learn. After all, curling up on the couch with my hybrid is how I work at home too.

Maurie spoke on respect - always keeping respect at the forefont of our minds because in an innovative environment respect is essential. People need to be able to fail and to get things wrong so they can risk having a go at being creative. Without respect that all falls over.

Claire spoke on the Code of Professional Responsibility - the new code that has been gazetted and is now part of our governing law as educators. I remember being told once about a Code of Ethics and a poster that I should read, and that was about as far as my knowledge of the legislation went. Spending some time looking at it and remembering why we do (and don't do) what we do (and don't do) was another good stake in the ground. It was good think about things that we can, perhaps, get too familiar with (as in, too blase about) and let our boundaries slacken on. Timely reminders help to keep us all safe.

Familiarity breeds contempt 

Our Guidance Counsellors reminded us all about the simple and obvious actions - and sometimes the not-as-obvious actions - that we should be taking as teachers to keep everyone safe. What I really liked about how everyone was speaking was how it was from a really positive point of view. Let's keep our kids safe. Let's think about our at-risk young people who don't have the skills to keep themselves safe so we have to do that for them. Let's not let anybody fall, but let's keep each other accountable in a respectful, professional, kind way and remind each other of potentially blurred situations if we happen to see or hear them arise.

Lunch was exquisite and a karakia was given before the meal. I wish I had a photo of the kai too. Second day in a row lunch was provided. Summer fruits, beautiful chicken buns, a selection of finger foods - sushi, lamb meatballs, brownies with raspberry couli, chocolate-chip meringues... I may have to go shopping again!

The afternoon ended with a session on Safer Schools by the PPTA, and then time looking at the schedule for the following week. The whole week is set aside for Individual Education Meetings - what others would know as Parent-Teacher meetings. I have 14 students to look after in my hub, and I get 20 minutes with each of them at a day and time that suits them. The importance again is being placed on people and relationship first.

Sit down, on Kamar, feeling proficient. 

Docs sent, weekend reading identified, I know what I'm looking at. 

I'm looking forward to next week, to meeting the ako and their whanau. To sinking my teeth in and getting going. It's going to be awesome.

HPSS - Day 1

The day finally arrived. Even though I'd been so excited about it in the lead up, and getting nervously restless over the past few days, the first day still did come as a bit of a shock. At one point I even found myself longing for the comfort of the familiar. The old place where I knew where everything was and what I was supposed to do.

One thing hasn't changed (much) though - Amos is still Amos!

So what did I learn from today?

The kids are already 21st century learners – that’s when they were born.

• Nearly as much as considering that it has been 20 years since I was in 6th form, that freaked me out a little. We don't need to worry bout turning our students into 21st century learners anymore - they're already here. As Russell always tells me - we can't look at our students' future through old eyes - through our past. Their world is different, and we have to adapt to them.

Netflix, Amazon, Air BnB, Uber, Spotify et al are all responding to the modern demand for personalisation.

• Schools can’t expect to be free from that demand.
  The world is changing quickly but schools aren’t changing quickly enough.
  • 
  
  
  Don’t leave it too late to respond to change.

Kids are not inspired by shallow learning.
Like it on the edge.
They like rigourous, challenging learning - that is more engaging for them than constantly being entertained and not active participants who are discovering new things for themselves. I'm always reminded of Picasso's criticism of this: We educate kids out of creativity. Something I'm always so aware of.



LEARNING DESIGN
Making things is still fun. For years I've had playdough in my room to engage all the senses and build learning. Today, presented with pipecleaners and pompoms and jigsaws and string and... Making the concepts - connected, deep, and visible - was fun. It was fun because it was challenging.

CONSISTENCY
Having a language that is familiar to everyone all the way through the school has been something that I've always felt important. It brings clarity for everyone - staff and students - when we all know what it means.
I love how I see this being achieved at HPSS - the key verbs are visible everywhere. Time is put into explaining to students what they mean for different subjects. An example was "Test" in science could mean to carry out an experiment and see if what you thought would happen actually happened, whereas to "test" in English might be to see if what you wrote actually communicates your purpose or intention to the reader.

From there, lunch (Mmmm - highly recommend the crispy duck salad at Catalina Cafe), timetables, computers, and logins. And though I had my pick of computers, hybrids are me. So, in a school full of macbook pros and airs, I will be the HP hybrid, writing on the screen of my computer with my pen.

It was a full day.
It was a busy day.
It was a good day.

And I'm grateful for the reminder of blogging to help me to process the day, in preparation for tomorrow.