The End of Year looms!

My 3 Great Steps:

1   Seek transformative feedback (not just information) that requires action to grow leadership.

How? Ask specific questions, engage in professional conversations.

2   Prioritise and balance responsibilities.

How? Book in social time and exercise, cull to-do lists weekly, ask myself if my contributions are 'token' or if I can commit fully.

3   Activate my professional reading

How? Write about it, record my synthesis, record my what now, and talk about it.

My biggest reflection on the year is that my goals were not great. They were mostly unmeasurable and non of them had a teaching focus - which meant that my teaching practice has not developed in the capacity that it could have.

My biggest achievement this year, has been what I've learned about myself and the way I deal with stress. Goal number two played a massive role here and creating time for myself has meant that I can read my own cues better to when I need to activate systems to deal with happenings.

There's been lots of highlights - being a part of the Innovation Incubator team, and the leadership that came with that, has been great. The team make-up was fabulous - serious enough but we had loads of fun, the topic was a passion of mine, and there has been so much learning! I've enjoyed taking a role in leading our team in some development around feedback and capacities also. And my team have been brilliant! I couldn't have asked for better people to work with.

Looking into next year I really want to bring my focus back to the classroom and the habitat. The leadership stuff will happen, now that I have got myself into it. I want to ensure that I'm modelling and promoting school-wide practices like capacities and learning conversations, which can run through progress pebbles.

Big goal: Progress pebbles

1. Use of capacities to drive reflection/evaluation of progress
2. Learning conversations/conferences/parent involvement
3. Instructional techniques to achieve pebbles

Term Two Reflection

Wowsers! What a term.

It's harder to write about the successes - they are not the things that stick at the forefront of my mind. But they are important to look back on. 

The progresses/successes I have noticed this term:

Pipeline One

• Our team has gelled more and found our rhythm
• Maths has been massive learning for me (never taught these stages before!)
• Officially opening was magic and an awesome celebration of the (short) history but also the future
• Communicating Learning comments to parents

Pipeline Two

• Found some flow with the Innovation team and we're getting into the application of some the things we've been visioning
• I've been able to give some coaching to our TL around his goals
• I've done some serious reconsideration around the 'steps' I had recorded in order to get to my desired reality. This has brought me further into pipeline two
• Learning about the pipelines and having a session with Tony Burkin

Please find here the link to my updated steps towards my desired reality.

This term has been quite draining, with several factors relating to that. Having a team member away for an extended amount of time really makes you realise the importance relationships play in a team and the contribution each person makes. That, and some other events changing, meant changes to the release schedule and a shortage of relievers has put pressure on, on occasions. Planning ahead and being prepared for your non-contact time does not always bring the full sense of calmness you expected. 

Part of 'building a school' (not only the buildings) is to develop the school-based curriculum resources and references. This has been a great area of interest for me because I've always been held an interest in curriculum development. However, it comes with it's challenges, because there are still expectations to meet requirements such as forming OTJs and with some of those references and recording platforms still in the development stage it has made those tricky and time-consuming.

I'm looking forward to a well deserved break and to reassess and plan for the term ahead. I'm stoked to be working on the Innovation Incubator team and reflecting on my development in that. Our team is also looking to change things up for literacy next term, and that will hopefully bring back some of the literacy joy for me.

Clarity in the Classroom - Absolum

We've had a focus at teacher meetings around Chapters 1-4 of Clarity in the Classroom. This has included Learning Focussed Relationships and providing clarity about learning that is to happen. 

As a team we decided that Integrity, Respect and Openness were the best fit for our principles to guide our belief around learning focussed relationships. These are not too dissimilar to the principles that Absolum himself uses. It was an interesting exercise to go through to get to this point, and we really had to dig deep to understand what each of those words meant to us. 

Building on those principles, we looked at sharing learning intentions/objectives/goals etc. with the children and co-constructing these for shared ownership. Chapter four was a good read and I think Absolum makes some very interesting points that confirm my thinking around some of the things. 

• It doesn't matter what you call them
• It doesn't matter how you share them - in fact, different ways will work for different things
• Learning isn't segmented and should be seen as a whole.

This last point, I think is particularly important and I like the example he used about a surgeon knowing how to make an incision, drain wounds and stitch. It's all very well for a surgeon to know these things, but we want them to be able to put their knowledge together to complete a successful operation. If I think about the complexity of writing, learners need to know how to hold a pencil, form letters, spell, form sentences, create interest etc. and put it all together to complete a story. Children need to be aware of the whole, and the parts.

What I worry about, is that balance between communicating the learning process and teaching the actual process. It would be a shame to see great portions of school learning time spent on writing up great screeds of intentions (for the students or on planning) - from the global to the specific. Although there are benefits to working through a sequence of teaching, a teacher is a trained professional, and has good judgement to know where to take students next on a whim. I would hope that a lesson would not have to stop to inform the student of what is about to happen. Often there's joy in the surprises.

Seeking Feedback

After recognising that I hadn't made much progress on actively seeking feedback) (one of my Three Great Steps, I decided to do something about it.

I sent out four emails to some of the attendees at the teacher meetings I co-lead and asked for some constructive feedback. I was really seeking something to work on. I got three responses back.

I have since met with the third person who asked me for some particular things that I wanted feedback on. (Aside: This is a great way to give some control to the person receiving feedback, particularly if they're not ready to hear some of their next steps - however, does this defeat the purpose???) They asked me to talk about what I thought went well and what I needed to work on and then they agreed with me. It's the notes - I have to let go of them!!! It was also nice to hear from this person that they thought one of my strengths was articulating my thoughts and appearing relaxed. 

It was great to get some pats on the back and some encouragement. My next step in working on this goal is getting day to day feedback. Perhaps I will start with asking my team leader to start noticing my classroom manner and then discussing it at one of our Monday catch-ups.

Am I moving towards my Desired Reality???

It's been a few weeks now since we set goals to reach our Desired Reality and it's time to check in on them. 


My 3 Great Steps:

1   Seek Feedback - constructive 70%/ positive 30%
The purpose of having this goal is to grow my capability as a leader. I have been getting some feedback, mostly in relation to co-leading the Innovation Incubator team, but I'm not really seeking feedback as the goal states. This one needs to become priority in Term 2. I have purchased a book called Thanks for the Feedback and I'm hoping I will dig into this over the holidays and get some inspiration. 

2   Honest conversations regarding priorities and balancing responsibilities
I have been persistent with some things and making my feeling known in habitat team meetings, sometimes without a result. Am I not being heard? Or is it that my priority is not a team priority? Hard to say - but working on my first great step could help with this. I am improving on saying no to things. In fact I can think of two examples where I have turned down 'extra' jobs because the timing and commitment wasn't right for me. 

I have found this term particularly busy. Before school was preparation time, non-duty lunchtimes and after school were basically meeting times. I have found it extremely difficult to find time to work with Emma on Innovation Incubator stuff, so it is essential that I continue to prioritise this goal.

3   Make time for professional reading (learning environment goal and Innovation Incubator)
At the beginning of the year I set myself a wee target of four professional development books over the year. I have already exceeded this! I have read 1) The Element 2) chapters from The Professional Practice of Teaching in NZ 3) Expansive Education 4) Show and Tell and I'm currently making my way through What's the Point of School? 


My One Line Job Description:
To lead learning (for students and colleagues) that adds value.

I had to look this up this morning, meaning it is not yet cognitively portable - this is something I need to remedy.
However - do I think I'm doing it? Everyday? Yes and no. 
For colleagues, every day that I have an opportunity to work with the Innovation Incubator team or leading on behalf the team - yes.
For students, I would hope so. I think so. But more time and daily reflection needs to go into this one. A screen shot and laptop wallpaper may help me with this.

Putting on the presenters hat

Yesterday was a new milestone for me - co-running my first teacher meeting!

I was a bit nervous leading up to it, but actually it was more excitement as the topic is a passion and sharing that with others always brings a sense of joy. The actual presentation I felt went well mostly, apart from the odd fumbling of pages, making sure I hadn't forgotten to share any of my notes and the bit where I kicked the bucket of pens everywhere!

It felt really good be able to talk about and share what the team had been up to. Emma and I complement each other in many ways, and Emma (with far more experience in leadership) is doing a great job of extending me in my ability to both think about and articulate my ideas more clearly. 

It was wonderful to get some great feedback from teachers today - saying they enjoyed the meeting and appreciating the great deal of work that has gone into what seems like a very small slice of what is to be done. 

Getting nice feedback is always a good feeling, but it's the more specific stuff that will help me to grow and learn. 

One person said that they really liked my manner as I was presenting and sharing. 

Another gave me some more critical feedback (which was probably not intended this way, but was good to hear anyway). They said I had done a good job coping with co-presenting and that from their experience they knew how hard it is when presenting with someone who is good at talking off the cuff to an audience and how when you have your notes you want to go through in the planned order and make sure everything is covered. 

This unveiled a big realisation for me - something I think I already knew, except this was the moment of true-recognition: I have not yet developed confidence that I actually do know what I'm talking about. I rely too much my notes as though they are the only ones who can 'think' for me in a public situation. 

Next week, we have session two. I think I'm going to try to put the notes to the side, be more present in 'reading the room' and engage in the 'feeling' of the day.

Here I am clutching my notes as though my life depends on them!

Expansive Education

The main theme I'm getting out of it is the need for a 'whole' education. School is not just about the content, but learning about being a person too. This includes knowing how to behave when we don't know the answers.

The early chapters in the book has referred to the Theory of Mind a bit. This was a concept I knew about, but needed a little more context before I could continue reading. I found this little video helpful.

The basic vision of Costa and his colleagues is that schools should prepare young people 'not just for a life of tests, but the tests of life'.
My other keys points:

• students to need to be self evaluative
• willpower is like a mental muscle that can be strengthened (or depleted through non-use) and likewise resilience, concentration, imagination and collaboration can be coached and cultivated
• Expansive Education see 'skills' grow into strong 'dispositions'
• three attitudes as elements of a 21st century mindset: communal virtues (honesty, trustworthiness, kindness, tolerance, empathy), virtues of self regulation (patience, self discipline, tolerance of frustration/disappointment) and epistemic/learning virtues (determination, curiosity, creativity and collaboration)
• of course, all these things interweave and even sometimes conflict each other. Balance is key
• John Dewey was ahead of his time, "the teacher becomes a partner in the learning process, guiding students to independently discover meaning."
• learned helplessness arises in students who not not given the opportunity to think of intelligence expansively. They lack resilience and resourcefulness.
• successful intelligence is to think in three different ways: analytically, creatively and practically.
• approaches (such as Building Learning Power) do not work if they are simply bolted on to another restrictive approach.
• using colours to highlight mistakes (and not fixing them for a student) means the student does the thinking about it and how to fix it - building a discussion around 'good' and 'silly' mistakes. This has created a greater feeling of playfulness and adventure in their writing
• interesting analogy: Children sitting around like baby birds with their mouths open, ready for the teacher to bring them the worms - we need to teach them to get their own worms. Learning isn't just an outcome, it's a process.
• re-defining pedagogy - should we more often be referring to it as 'Instructional Design'
• a teachers main task is to notice the impact of their teaching on students' learning and achievement. They need to talk less and listen more
• we need to be so careful with our use of the word ability - it is easy for it to become a synonym for 'talent' or 'intelligence'. Create learning groups that are genuinely fluid and regularly changed
• getting into a state of flow is an optimal learning experience. There needs to be three things for this to happen: task is sufficiently demanding and engaging, learner has enough skill to tackle the task, and time.
• talking about learning is good. If learners see what is going on as they are learning, the better they will be able to apply it to different contexts

What if education were less concerned with the end-of-year exam and more concerned with who students become as a result of their schooling? What if we viewed smartness as a goal that students can work toward rather that as something they either have or don't? 

-Ron Ritchhart

The book also covers the significance of others in the learning environment. "Little or no learning will take place unless the learning environment is trustful and the others who are significant to the learner (parents, teachers, coaches, etc.) model the desired outcomes."

This is backed up with other key points:

• Hattie says helping students to develop habits (curiosity and collaboration) works better when teachers model these
• culture is set by the leaders of the institution and what is around in the environment, even before the teacher walks in
• it is essential that teachers develop and share a common language of learning with students and the parents/community.
• thoughtful environments encourage a focus on big ideas. The learning offered in them captures the interest of students and provides them with some degree of autonomy and choice
• we have to expand staffrooms, as well as classrooms, and consider how teachers are trained and subsequently developed.
• new teachers become socialised by 'old-timers' into semi-conscious views and habits. "For expansive educators, it is vital that the community of practice of a staffroom is also a living, evolving community of enquiry."
• Hattie makes explicit connections between teachers undertaking professional enquiry and the benefits that transfer to student learning.

"A teacher can never truly teach unless she is learning herself. A lamp can never light another flame unless it continues to burn its own flame."

-Rabindranath Tagore

These last few points made connections to another video I watched today. This is Kath Murdoch and her thoughts on teachers can (or can't) teach inquiry.

All of this together basically says to me that a good teacher is prepared to, and will, let go of control.

One final thought: 

Education has to change. It has to engage the energies and intelligence of all young people. It has to respond to their anxieties about the future, and to help them develop the mental, emotional and social equipment they will need to thrive in a complex, challenging and exciting world. Here's hoping, as David Price says, that the seeds of Expansive Education that we have explored in this book will continue to germinate strongly and to populate the earth!

- Claxton, Lucas and Spencer (Expansive Education authors)

2016 Current/Desired Reality

3 Great Steps:
1   Seek Feedback - constructive 70%/ positive 30%
2   Honest conversations regarding priorities and balancing responsibilities
3   Make time for professional reading (learning environment goal and Innovation Incubator)

Term 4 Reflection on Desired Reality

My January desired reality was:

I altered it slightly at the end of term one when I had a better idea of things. My goals were:
1 (continued from Term One) Develop a strong understanding of students and their relationships (personal and learning) in Y1-4.

2 Build effective and and interesting literacy practises to engage foundation (emergent) students into reading and writing.

3 Be proactive about interactions with parents

In the middle of the year I wrote about my progress on those goals. And now I get to do the final check off! It's nearly time to complete the appraisal process for the year and so it's a good time to have a think about where I am with my goals. 

I've really enjoyed the appraisal process as an on-going event. Not a scramble at the end of the year to check the boxes. It is especially important as being part of the foundational team to keep the culture of reflection and not lose sight of the "climate of possibilities".

1 Develop a strong understanding of students and their relationships (personal and learning) in Y1-4.
I have learnt so much about 'junior' teaching this year and I'm grateful for all the professional development opportunities I have had from the experts within the school, and also externally - particularly with literacy. I recall one of the SLT saying at the beginning of the year "you've all had children you've taught at Level One, the only thing that changes is the age." And, it is so true! I've really enjoyed my learning here and I hope I get another chance in the near future to consolidate my new understandings here.

2 Build effective and and interesting literacy practises to engage foundation (emergent) students into reading and writing.
This has been a big learning curve here and the biggest thing I've learnt is that I can, and need to, push harder. I've seen massive improvements in my literacy groups and it really has proven that 'if you focus on the learning, learning will happen'. 

3 Be proactive about interactions with parents
Wow, I'm actually a little bit chuffed with myself on this one. I was a little like this penguin in the video - but once I'd made a 'stumble' and was 'thrown in' I realised it really wasn't so bad. It's scared me for so long and I really don't know why. I've been making an effort to go out of the classroom at least a couple of times a week at the end of the day and mingle with parents. It's really not that scary and it's made necessary conversations so much easier and far less 'eventful'. Toastmasters has also probably helped a little with confidence too. 

I defined my job to be: to make learning successful for all students.
How did I go on this? 
I think all students have progressed this year in all areas - including growth in character. I have absolutely done my best job in achieving this with the time, resources and energy I had. Having said that, there is a lot of improvement that can happen from here. I feel like I've had too many focuses, and therefore flitted from one thing to the next. 

Development in reading has been one of the biggest areas I've focused on and I know a great deal more now, but I wish I knew it all from the start. Writing has been the area of least development for me, and the least satisfaction, yet it was probably one of the ones that I thought I would be more competent at. Maths has been great. I've loved teaching collaboratively all year and having the chance try different things out with my teaching buddy. My struggle is that with so many children I don't feel I know them as well as I would like to in terms of knowledge and strategy ability.

SPS Teacher Criteria and looking forward to 2016
I have also had a look at the teacher criteria I need to meet and reevaluated the progress I have made along the continuum. My appraisal team will be able to see this doc, where I had made judgements at the start of the year of what I was doing. Now I have highlighted my progress for each of the criteria and also my goals for next year.
Some of the things I will be working on (one from each area)

• communicating confidently, especially in leading difficult conversations
• coaching individual children to know their potential as well as to know they're supported in goal setting and action
• recording the actions I take from reflections
• knowing that children are engaged by the process of learning
• using the physical environment to show value to the learning process and children's work
• taking on a whole-school leadership role

Many of these things I am kind of doing, but have little evidence to prove it or I'm not doing them to a standard where I feel I can say it's being done. 

The first point will be my main goal for 2016. I feel it's a good continuation of my 2015 Desired Reality 3 and applies not only to parents, but to colleagues too. 

Term Three Reflection

Term Three was hard. I tried to write this reflection in the holidays and couldn't bring myself to it. I tried to write it during the first two weeks of Term Four and I couldn't bring myself to it. It's only now, that I've had a long weekend away that I feel ready to record my reflections in writing. 

It's not that it was a bad term - far from it. I even quite like a busy term, so it wasn't totally that either. But there was something about the term that didn't go right and I really can't put my finger on what exactly it was. Unfortunately, whatever it was had a snowballing effect and by the end I was making big about little things. That's not really me. 

It was a really odd feeling, it was like my head was full of fog and I couldn't see anything clearly. I didn't feel like I was doing my best work. I dealt with this snowballing by keeping the focus I had on the children and the team. I reduced whatever personal 'work' I could. I stopped tweeting as well as stopped publishing blog posts. There's a few drafts there that I will go back and review.

In an open space and ILE, your team are your flatmates. For 8 hours a day you 'live' with them. The are your support - like a machine in which all the components work together in a rhythm. Unfortunately one of our team members became quite ill for a time, and although no one is irreplaceable as far as work load is concerned, you do miss the rhythm that that person provides. 

If there's one thing I've learnt about this year, it's about teaming and collaboration. I've blogged before about the value of working in this way and I would find it very difficult now to go back to single-cell teaching. However, (and I'm very brave to put this out there) I do wonder if I'm the only one who sometime feels like it holds you back a bit. In some ways you can only go as fast as the 'slowest' person. Let me explain - when you're in your single cell you prioritise your next steps/focus: maths development, use of space, teaching technique, school belief etc. and you get on and do it. When you're in a team, each of you are still individual thinkers, so often your priorities will be different and two things can happen. One - you feel like your priority is not priority enough. Two - they all become priorities and then you feel overwhelmed because not only is there a number of different focuses, but there is a number of different people to bring on board. 

It adds a certain pressure to each team member because you're constantly trying to please everyone - and as the saying goes "you can't please everyone". Of course this is where a shared vision is essential and I feel most grateful that this is a constant focus of staff, teacher and team meetings. 

I would like to finish this post with some of the highlights of term three:
Skiing
CL conferences
Art PD
Pirate House Day
Open Evening
Flash Mob
The movement in some of my readers

Can change happen in an Open Learning Environment?

A fellow tweeter posted this quote: 

"Great teachers change their methods min by min: while being staunchly consistent in their relationships with students."  @Charbonneau 

with their own comment, "One of the reasons I love my single cell classroom! I love change & are always trying new things!"

Naturally, this got me thinking.... The big question that popped into my head was, well if I'm not a single cell teacher does this mean I cannot change my methods and therefore I'm a poor teacher!?!? But it's more important to answer the little questions.

• Can I and do I change my methods min by min?
• Have I made changes since moving from single cell to open environment?
• Are my changes any less?
• Do the students 'miss out' because I may not be able to make an immediate change?

I think there are different levels to what you might change in a classroom. 

There are those days where students or the teacher is 'not feeling it' and so in the morning, or throughout the day you 'throw away' your planned writing and you spend that time doing something else - an experience that leads to great oral language, values building, skills in other areas, and then perhaps even writing about it at another time. In a single cell classroom, this can happen on a whim. In an open learning environment it can require a bit of communication but actually, there's no reason why the group of children your with can't have that opportunity too. As a school and a team we believe in the importance curiosity has on 'in the moment,' engaging learning and therefore it is always our best intention to have the children's idea and questions be the vehicle for any learning.

Then, there's the changes of groups. At this moment in time, with the phase we're in (phase - suggesting we're changing/refining the way we work), for some learning areas a student is assigned a mentor for that area. For example, I have a group of children who always work with me for literacy, they are 'my' literacy children. Within those children I DO frequently change their groups depending on their needs and pull them out for workshops based on that. This is not necessarily levelled, but based on their needs. What about between mentors? Well, overnight they move mentor groups. Assessment, planning and anecdotal notes (most importantly conversations) are open for all mentors to see. They are really 'our' children. And yes it does work even with high numbers - but that's a whole other blog post!

So what about within groups? Well that's easy. It's no different to a single-cell classroom. For example, if you're trying to teach subtraction and you quickly observe a student or students can't count backwards, you immediately change the learning purpose for those students.

Quite simply, I don't think I have lost any freedom. We are encouraged to be innovative, share ideas and make change happen for better learning. The team are always talking to each other and when you have support from others, I have found it's often easier to put change into place.

Am I lucky with the support I get from the team I work with? Maybe. Or is it the culture and expectation?

Week One

We made it! We opened the classrooms for formal teaching on Monday after a somewhat tear-ier start than we anticipated. 

Otago Daily Times: School's In

It has been a truly tiring, but one of the best, experiences ever! It has been so great to be working with the children in their purpose-designed learning space. My group has activated all but one area in the habitat so far and the children are already beginning to respond to how those spaces have been activated. (There is one space I will definitely be making an effort to 're-activate' in a more positive way!)

There has been so much learning happening for me - getting to know the children and their caregivers, beginning to understand the stage-age relationship, being more adaptable than ever, working with and by the team during learning time, working with the team after-school, recognising strengths in others, dealing with issues as they arise and at rare times learning to be tactical in approaching possible difficult situations. 

What I have really enjoyed is spending time getting to know my mentor group - their interests, their abilities, their personalities and what drives them. I have also really enjoyed our afternoon rotations working with the other mentor groups. I love that within our habitat ALL the students are 'mine', and all the other teachers. I believe having that flexibility to intra-change is going to be a powerful practice to support learning.

What am I looking forward in the week approaching? I'm looking forward to spending a bit more time with other groups and developing a deeper understanding, not only of my group, but of the other children. I look forward to the focus we are going to have around collaboration and enabling those students to have the ability to strengthen their working relationships with others.

Kitting out the Classroom (Habitat)

One of the most exciting things for a teacher is setting up the classroom. We go into a state of craziness over transforming what is often a very dull space into a spectacular, inviting, creative learning space. I'm personally not much into Pinterest, but I do identify a little with this fabulous parody. 

I should point out here that my personal philosophy is that a classroom has to work for the teacher - but it's primary function is to support the learners. It has to be a safe place, and a place where students feel they belong. I believe that a teacher can decorate a room, perhaps in a theme (I had a 'Flying High'/Aeroplane theme last year) but learning materials must wait and go up when they have a context to the children. Start teaching vocab/sightwords then put them on the wall, teach your writing process then put the prompts on the wall, etc. 

But what happens when there's four teachers, with four differing philosophy's sharing the same four walls? How is the space and resources managed?

It's certainly a discussion that has to be had within and team - and perhaps to school level. It needs to be considered - what do management, visitors and parents want to see on the walls? Just finished products? Should parents see the planning and crafting process as well? Should there be no children's work and just reference points to learning tasks? Do children even pay attention to reference points? Can a classroom have too much 'visual clutter'?

Then there is the matter of resources. Do you put everything out at once so children have access to whatever interests them? Or if your focus is on measurement, do you just put out the measurement things? Should books be kept in one place, or all over the habitat? Should language resources be kept in a language 'centre' or should the children access that everywhere? What if it's a language book - is that a book or is it language!?!?!? 

For all of these questions I can make a decision for myself. But it comes back to the team - it's one of those little things that's going to take some time, but I think it's time worth spending getting on the same page. 

The key in the end.... WHY?

A week with Julia

The penny dropped last Monday night that the person coming to work with us was Dr Julia Atkin - as in the lady in the curriculum video. I'm not sure why it took so long to make that connection, but it caused a rush of excitement because she is a person that makes sense to me.

What made it more exciting was the anticipation of getting our Herrmann Brain Dominance Results. I love these kinds of things! She made us wait though by starting with a card swap game related to the colours and characteristics of each quadrant. From that game I was predicting I was going to come out mostly blue with a little green and yellow. Red didn't seem to come out too strongly. It was interesting to see when I got the results that it was pretty close. I'm actually a slightly more green (practical, organised, detailed), with a little less blue (rational, logical, analytical, factual) and yellow (experiemental, visual, conceptual) and even less red (relational, emotional, expressing), but not too much. I would say that this is a reasonably accurate description of me. 

The fascinating thing about this survey is that it also shows the qualities that are likely to be enhanced under stress - for me: blue and green, no surprises there!

The idea is that within a team, it is good to have a balance across the colours. Of course, some professions come out predominately in one or two colours, but teaching (and nursing) is different. My profile looks quite square on the diagram and another colleague with a similar shape wondered 'well, what do I actually bring?' At that point I hadn't considered it but upon reflection I could see where they were coming from. I was neither one thing or the other. However, it usually means we are good mediators. It can also mean we are a little indecisive because we can see all side. Anyone who knows me well, will also know this to be true of me - I'm not usually a fan of making big, on-the-spot decisions. 

But what does all this mean? It means developing an understanding of ourselves, our team, other associates, and most of the children. Teaching them to be aware of their internal processing and be flexible in their thinking. It's really important for children, especially those that haven't reached a natural cognitive connection to a concept, to do the talking about the thinking process.

Part of Julia's mission was to facilitate us through the 'nitty gritty' of a school set up - the values and learning process. She has an amazing ability to stretch your mind more than you thought possible. In fact one day I went home completely unsure why nothing made sense and how to sort it out. I was 'in the pit'!

However, using personal stories and her 'WHY? tool' we got through with a much clearer outlook. I came to realise very quickly that WHY is the most important question you can ask. And you have to ask it first. You have to know the value in doing something. So often, without thought, people put into practice a system that has been put in place - perhaps it's "always been that way," but if there is no value and belief behind it, then it is an unnecessary practice. The rule: you can't argue about practices - you can only argue about if the practices live out the value.

Values v Beliefs

You value something because you have an underpinning belief.

It was an amazing privilege to work with Julia and she has left me with many questions - mostly WHYs! I look forward to the continuing work we will be doing leading on from this mentally exhausting but stimulating week.