KPMG - DAY 1

Having already made the decision not to travel to Auckland for the KPMG day, due to personal circumstances, I had sorted myself an office space at home and was ready and waiting to sign on to our google Meet.

Connecting in this way was not new for me, having used this for a number of online meetings in the past, as well as during DFI in 2019. What was new, was the reason that we all ended up having to meet in this manner - Covid19. When we met in February for our Hui, I do not think any of us would have predicted the rapid pace with which this virus took over the world, sending countries in to lockdown and instilling fear and uncertainty in to our current space.

With this in mind, and with the way in which the government had been approaching the virus, this was a good opportunity for us to put in to practice some of the potential tools we would be using if the country went in to full lockdown. Of course, when we started meeting in the morning, we were only at Level 2, school was still open and life was going on mostly as per normal. Thinking about what my project might look like in a fully digital environment was an interesting concept and I am still not 100% sure where I am going to head.

This meeting provided us with an opportunity to revisit our ideas, thinking about what impact a lockdown might have on our projects and future meetings. It was also a chance to think about what teaching and learning online might look and feel like. I appreciated the opportunity to break off and connect in a small group, meeting with Alethea to talk about our respective projects, before we broke for lunch. Matt also shared his prototype learning from home page on his class site, which gave some good food for thought about my own site and what I want to do with it.

As we returned from lunch, we were all distracted by the Prime Minister's press conference, where she announced that NZ was moving in to Level 3 for two days, followed immediately by the country moving in to Level 4 lockdown for 4 weeks minimum in order to try and halt this virus within NZ. At that moment, everything felt quite surreal. I felt absolute sadness and regret that I was not at school with my class when they received this news, as well as to give them any resources and materials I could for them to use at home for the period we were in lockdown. I knew that I would not see them face to face again, in person for the for seeable future, and for some of them, this would be an incredibly stressful situation. I also felt incredibly lucky that we are a digital school, and most of our children are well prepared for connecting online.

When we left the hui, to begin reconnecting with school, working out what we needed to do in the next two days and to try and process what was happening, I think we were all thinking of the potential of what we could do, as well as with the prospect of what might come to be.

Crazy 8's - IDEATE

Our final activity for the weekend - the opportunity to think about what our solution might be, with the key proviso that it has to be digital.

This involved us coming up with 8 ideas (Crazy 8s), with no limit on what they could be. Initially this was simple, we all had pre conceived ideas of what we though we might do coming in to the weekend, although mine had changed significantly.

My Crazy 8s

Discussing my Crazy8s with the team

We then had to go and look at the other proposals and vote on their ideas, with a final vote on the one idea we thought was the best one. While we do not have to go with what people have voted on, it is a good indicator of what might work or what other teachers see as a tool that could be valuable for them in their classrooms, with their students.

I had two ideas that came out at an even number of votes. The one that I am leaning towards is the following:

A portal that combines key aspects of my ideas, including:
Online, interactive gratitude journal
daily mood form
rewindable learning
What could you do? (videos and activities)

For me, a portal such as this would enable students and teachers to use the aspects that meet their needs, while having choice.


I would like to say a huge thank you to the amazing team. I am looking forward to continuing this journey alongside you, sharing ideas and having fun along the way! Even though I changed my original proposal, this was met with an assurance that this was ok, and that was a huge relief!

The Team - MIT 2020

Connections & Resource people (who)

So who can we use to support us? Who are the people and where are the resources to support us as we continue on developing our solutions to our challenges?

This was a task that required us to really dig down in to who might support us on our journey. No resource or person was out of the question, as it was an opportunity to think big!


We also followed a thinking key process for this by using the BAR key - Think big, add someone, remove/replace.

This activity encouraged me to think about all of those who could support or assist me with finding information, developing tools and who my key stakeholders are.

We then had the opportunity to briefly present these back to the group, and to gain ideas from others.

How Might We- bringing multiple optimistic viewpoints to the challenge

Our next step was completing a 'How might we..' process in relation to the challenges people had decided on. By this stage, my challenge had changed, and was now:

'Young people develop wellbeing and resilience strategies at different rates, and some require additional support when faced with difficult situations'.

Our reworded challenges were displayed on the wall for all to see. Our task was to then go to everyone else's challenge and ask a 'How might we?' question to try and provoke thinking around our chosen challenges.

I found this an empowering and beneficial process to go through. It enabled us to again see our challenges through the lens of someone else, but in an optimistic, problem solving manner, rather than thinking about the negatives of a challenge.

The questions others posed for me to think about were:

How might we...

• Provide relatable resources for students to engage with?
• Better understand the 'why' behind the differences?
• Use digital tools to create rewindable learning for those that need more support or repetition?
• Identify and frame up the essential list of strategies needed for this?
• Determine why young people develop coping strategies at different rates?
• Use students who have strengths in resilience to support and guide those with lower resilience capabilities?
• Create a support network for students outside of their whanau?
• Enable students to utilise additional support resources independently?
• Identify which students require additional support? What measurement?

Empathy

Our next session involved us buddying up with our '5 whys' partner, to create a role play that reflected our challenge. As I was in the process of completely reframing my challenge, we focussed on Ange's challenge for our role play. We also spent some time talking about my redefined challenge, and throwing ideas around about this.

Ange's challenge is related to maths and students not choosing maths as a subject, or having a low self esteem about their abilities when related to maths.

This is not just an issue facing students and teachers in maths, but in a range of subject areas and year levels. By role playing what it might be like for both student and teacher, it enables us to put ourselves in someone else's shoes, to try and understand what the issue might be like from their perspective.

This is both eye opening and real, as it allows you to then start thinking of solutions and what you might be able to do to help.

We then completed a visual poster of what our students might experience if they were faced with this issue. What would their needs be? What does it look like for them - actions/words?
I had already begun to think about my new challenge, so did this activity from the perspective of a student experiencing high anxiety, or low self esteem.

Tweaking and Redesigning the Challenge

After the school board hui, we were given the opportunity to 'rethink' our initial achievement challenge and proposal. Coming in to this process, I already knew that my data from my 2020 class, did not support the same achievement challenge, that my 2019 class did. I was starting to rethink my whole proposal, and was told that this was ok (whew!).

What did I think? Well, from the first few weeks of school, and in my role as a pastoral leader, I realised that our students are facing significant challenges around their mental and emotional wellbeing. I had fielded more phone calls and emails from parents about children experiencing anxiety in the first few weeks of this year, than I had over the course of a whole year in 2019. I think this also signals that society is changing as well.

I began to throw ideas around about challenges facing students around wellbeing, anxiety and mental health. This is also an area I have become quite passionate about in recent years, after experiencing the loss of young people within our kura and community, and seeing the impact that this had on so many people.

School Hall scenario bringing a wide range of perspectives to the challenge ( a confronting experience for some!)

Role play...one of my worst nightmares come true, and no chance of getting out of it.

For this scenario, we were all given the roles of parents within a school community. We were invited to a school hui, where the Board Chair wanted feedback on the school's variance report and targets for the Ministry of Education. As we commenced the role play, we we then confronted with our own achievement challenges being presented as the school 'Achievement Challenges' for the variance report.

This was quite confronting, and was an eye opener as to how wordy and confusing some challenges actually were. Hearing people responding with their thoughts and ideas about your proposal, while in role was also thought provoking and made me begin to question my challenge. I wondered how I could reword the challenge to be more relatable and understandable for a wider audience, as we as achievable. This activity also took some of the barriers away when presenting your own ideas in front of an audience. We were all in the same boat, but had to remain in role when we recognised our own challenges being presented. In role, I was able to question my own proposal and it was at this point that I started really rethinking my whole proposal!

The 5 Whys...

After completing our Moonshot proposal, we were buddied with another member of the MIT 2020 team. I was partnered with Angela, whose subject area is Maths (and for those who know me well, they know that this is one of my challenge areas!).

Our challenge involved asking five 'why' questions. This was actually a much harder process than it first appeared, especially when asking about someone else's challenge, in a subject area we were maybe not familiar with. On the flip side, this also enabled us the opportunity to dig that little bit deeper in to our own identified achievement challenge areas, seeing our challenge through the lens of someone else. It made me question my proposal, as well as really think about the 'why' it is such a challenge for students, and background reasons for this.

Moonshot Proposal

Prior to attending the hui in Kuaotunu, we were asked to complete a Moonshot proposal. This required us to share a brief statement on our achievement challenge, any supporting data and some ideas of where we were headed.

Towards the end of 2019, and when applying for MIT, I had a clear idea of what I wanted to do and what my achievement challenge would be. I had plenty of data to back this up, both anecdotal and from our Woolf Fisher data. I wanted my focus to be in the area of literacy, in particular around the area of vocabulary knowledge, as this is something many of my learners were lacking in.

My original Moonshot Proposal is below.