Occupational Well-Being

In the recent years I am sure we all have come across the word 'Well-Being'. When I first heard it I thought to myself 'Well -Being' -hmmm.... what is it? I knew what being well meant and to me it was about knowing your inner self and knowing what makes you feel well and what makes you feel a bit overwhelmed and being able to develop strategies to regulate one's emotions in order to feel well. 

However, in recent times I have noticed that a large majority of people I know not just in education but in other sectors too have started putting the responsibility of their well-being on outside agencies or factors like their employer or organisations they work in. This has been very fascinating to me as the family and cultural as well as community group I come I always believed that well-being is something that is intrinsic and something a person needs to understand and manage. 

Yesterday, at my school we had a professional from InterLead come in and talk to us about occupational well-being. 

It was interesting to learn about occupational well-being yesterday. There are different types of well-being. like- social, psychological, emotional, physical and occupational. We explored all the different types briefly but occupational well-being was explored in depth. 

What was most interesting to learn was that although it is occupational well-being and the employer has a responsibility to create a safe and healthy work place environment but it is an employees's huge responsibility to make sure that great working relationships are formed and it is us as individuals and team members to maintain these relationships with our colleagues and leadership team. It is actually the responsibility of an employee to make sure they manage their well-being at work. 

For me as an educator it is my job to create a healthy, safe and positive work culture not only for myself but for and with my learners and my colleagues and the leadership team. 

Some wonderings I have at this stage...

What strategies can I consistently use to manage times when I feel a bit overwhelmed at work or lack motivation?

How might I support my team members well-being at work? 

Currently, I do make sure we talk about our well-being during syndicate meetings and it has definitely been of value. I will perhaps discuss this with my team members and seek their guidance so we are really chugging along well in terms of looking after our well-being at work. 

To conclude, 

I would like to share this quote I came across recently that according to me fits in well when we are thinking of our well-being at work or even in our personal lives. 

Inquiry Focus 2022| Wonderings so far...

 

Like a waterfall falls constantly, I have been thinking and thinking and wondering and wondering about what my focus is going to be for my CoL journey. 

Every year brings it's own new challenges for us educators and especially the last two years have been grappling with and making adjustments to not only our teaching programmes but our teaching approaches to cater for the ever changing needs due to the ever changing landscapes in education due to our dear friend Covid. Covid has enabled me to think outside the box not only in my professional life but also in my personal life. 

Since the last two years we all have at some stage felt "oh maybe this Term might be a straight up free flowing (free of covid) Term but it has not been like that and in particular the last two terms of 2021 for us in Auckland were really challenging. However, we all did what we had to do and did our best. For me I think I learnt so much about my learners and their lives. It absolutely enlightened me and has made me a better teacher and person. It has humbled me in life and slowed me down a bit and has made me appreciate the small things more in life both at school and home. 

So, when I sat down to think about what will I be focusing on this year it was apparent to me to consider how our climate has changed in education due to covid. This Term has been all about thinking on your feet the whole time and changing your course like an ever flowing river and cut across the hard rocks and paths and just paving the way. With 80 percent of my class going into isolation and coming back to school from it and I myself have been in isolation with my family this year so it has been challenging to engage learners in different and a variety of not only physical spaces but their individual conscious spaces as well. It has been most important to know and understand , not just know but understand the emotional state of my learners as I believe that if we have our learners emotional wellbeing sorted then learning comes naturally or sometimes easily. 

So my wondering or inquiry focus or question in the current times is - 

How can I engage with my learners and establish relationships with them and their whanau and at the same time engage them in their learning irrespective of the circumstances we are in?  

A few wonderings - 

How can I support my learners and whanau in these current times?

What are some other colleagues of mine at Glen Taylor doing and my colleagues in the wider Manaiakalani cluster?

This is the focus for now but it might change in a few weeks or a Term maybe. Or it might not change but one thing is clear to me that I am passionate about engaging my learners in their learning and do it through building a strong foundation with them that is nurturing and positive relatioships are the key through which everything is unlocked. 

That's it for today. I will be reflecting soon on my inquiry and blog. 

Kia Ora. 

How I can support my colleagues in the Manaiakalani cluster of schools?

Hybrid Teaching and Learning

2022 it is... and who would have thought that we in Aotearoa, New Zealand would still be navigating through the impact of Covid. 

I will be honest thought I did think there will be some impact but never anticipated this massive rise in case numbers at the start of Term 1. 

As a teacher I always strive to keep a positive mindset and when we decided at our school as a collective that we need to do something to continue reaching to and connecting with our students and families who are isolating at home. So we came up with "Hybrid teaching and learning model". 

So, as we do when we are stepping into unknown platforms- I googled the term and came across these images that I found absolutely fitting. That's exactly what we are starting tomorrow at Glen Taylor School. 

Hybrid Teaching and Learning 

There is another element to it that we have added at our school and that's providing students with hard learning packs too (Paper). 

Through hybrid teaching and learning we will make sure that we are connecting with not only our students who are attending school in person but also our students who are self isolating with their families at home. 

You may wonder what was the need for hybrid teaching and learning? 

One simple answer- Relationships and connections. 

There is so much research out there that says that without relationships and connections we as educators will not be able to form strong learning culture within our classrooms. 

Here is a learning site I developed with my colleague for our Year 5 and 6 learners. 

Click here to view our hybrid learning site

We have 24 students in each class and we have about more than 50 percent of our students at home. We are really excited for embarking on this journey of hybrid teaching and learning. 

I will post next week to share with you our experiences, challenges and hopefully wins. 

Kia Ora.

Who Am I?

 Introducing myself as Across CoL Teacher 2022 for Manaiakalani