I thoroughly enjoyed the Ministry of Education's recent webinar on Wellbeing with
Chief Education Scientific Advisor Stuart McNaughton, Associate Professor Melinda Webber, Teachers Raiha Johnson (Waverley School), Jason Swann (Otahuhu Primary), and Maya Edmunds the Head Girl at Onehunga High School.
I felt the overall wellbeing themes from the panel today were about re-establishing connections, building on everyone's' learned experiences from Covid19, being patient and kind to one another.
The changes that occurred during the Covid19 Lockdown have significantly impacted all of our lives in varying ways. Consequently, work and school life will be different as we move back into Level 2 for teachers, students, support staff and the wider community. Forgive the cliché ‘it won't be business as usual’ but we're not going back to what we had before.
I see this as a prime opportunity for schools to re-evaluate how they do things, what's working, what we should keep and what we should change.
First and foremost when schools reopen on Monday, it will be important to focus on rebuilding connections with teachers, students and the supportive wider community of our schools. We'll need to be patient and focused on the positive. We also need to be offering reassurance to our students and above all to empathise, by being kind with each other. Stuart McNaughton advised, routines will be really important for those returning to school and will give students a sense of normality and stability which will help them reintegrate back into school life. Being adaptable, agile and responsive to students’ needs will be key to developing a connected and supportive culture.
McNaughton also pointed out that some students will have experienced significant stress during the lockdown period and may continue to do so as they come back to school. Some will be impacted by the digital divide and may feel excluded from learning, particularly if they did not have access to a device or the internet. Let's remove those assumptions that every student has been able to access their learning through technology and be prepared to catch some students up.
Spend time inviting students to share their experiences. Helping them to find connections with one another will encourage them to feel a sense of belonging and acceptance. What can we learn from our student's whanau and how can we make our learning more inclusive with families? Nurturing connections with whanau and including them in future planning will help develop a strong community based on shared principles.
How can we turbo-charge technology to connect with whanau? Visible learning through class sites, class and individual student blogs is one way parents can keep up to date with what’s happening at school.
Melinda Webber reminded us to look for what gains students have made during this time. What key competencies would have happened at home? Things like resilience within whanau, communication skills built with one another and the opportunity for students' to observe other people's perspectives. How timely that the Covid19 Lockdown occurred in the lead up to Matariki. This is often a time of reflection, so ask students, what did they learn about their whanau during this time of social distancing? What are they grateful for? What are their goals for the year? Who can they work with to achieve their goals?
For those students who did participate in online classes, what was their experience of learning online like? Many of our students were engaging in an online class in Google Meet for the first time. What new skills did they learn, what did they struggle with? Shared experiences provide purposeful conversation starters that will hopefully encourage students to open up and feel connected.
In the virtual classes I was involved in, I found many of the high school students were reluctant to have their camera on, some were shy to talk or share their learning via screen-sharing. Spending time developing student's confidence for communicating in video conferencing is something we’ll have to include in our lessons. Manaiakalani's Cybsermart programme helps students develop these skills and gives them opportunities to learn about the differences between public-private sharing.
Maya Edmunds, the Head Girl of Onehunga High School spoke so well about her own experiences and encouraged teachers to show they care about their students. Let them know you value their opinions and ask them to contribute to the design of your lessons.
It’s a really valuable time to be gathering student voices about what they enjoyed and what they found challenging to help us evaluate and make improvements.
I have enjoyed my time working from home supporting teachers within the Manaiakalani Outreach programme. My days have been packed with Google Hangout Meets all over the country facilitating with the Manaiakalani Digital Fluency Intensive and providing professional development for my individual teachers. I work with a dynamic team who have helped me to feel connected, valued and part of a collective that is really making a difference in people's lives.
In terms of my own well being during this time, I've been able to develop a better life/work balance. For me that has meant, spending more time with my husband, being able to exercise every day and take time out in the fresh air. I've come to appreciate what I treasure most and what I can live without and I'm looking forward to seeing a positive change in education, one that is more inclusive for everyone.
Covid19 Wellbeing Guide
