7 habits of highly effective people

Recently, Tara sent Mikaela and me to go on the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People Leadership course. 

This was held in Christchurch and was a two-day event. Needless to say, I was nervous going into it as I wasn't entirely sure what this would be about, even though I had sent out a 360 to the team.

Walking in, it was clear that this was a small group of teachers, most of who were principals. I sat down to wait. The first day was about intrinsic things, character, roots of the tree stuff. Who we are and what makes us up. Very confronting, even for someone who has been working on their inner self for many years. 

Needing to honest with yourself and try and pull out all of those things that make you tick is quite hard, but oh so worth it. 

So let's start with the start:

These are the 7 habits. 

Working from dependence to independence, and then to interdependence through the private victory (mastery of one's self), or who you are, through the public victory(effective relationships with others), the way you hold yourself.

Now a little summary of each Habit, but first, the see, do, get model:

This is the key model that flows through all of the habits. 

See  - our paradigms or how we see the world.

Do - our practices and habits are formed.

Get - results, or what you get.

Results show an ineffective paradigm. 

What do I mean by paradigm? It's the way we see, understand, and interpret the world - our mental map. 

So the question is, what are the essential paradigms in my life and how can I support them? That is truly a question I am still trying to figure out. I know that there are things that I believe in, but it will take a while to work through the habits for me to secure the paradigms that are the most important to me. 

 15th August 2024

Stephen R. Covey - 7 habits of highly effective people - Good book

BSLA - PD day Waikouaiti School

 BSLA PD - Waikouaiti School

NE/Year 1 class - Louise

Start of the day - Whole class

Start the day with the read-aloud - The Paper Bag Princess

A special word on the page, 'expensive.' 

Tell them one thing that you remember from the story. Keeping the book open for the children to look at. 

Move from the read-aloud to the new sound, ensuring the student has the correct mouth formation. Then, move on to the words, focusing on where the sound is. 

From the new sound move into word chains, they were writing on a whiteboard, but I think that having them in a book would be more helpful for the children, maybe like a book that they can use as a dictionary so that they can revisit them when they are writing and reading.

They read the 'th' book from word chains in a clear file so that the children could underline the 'th' sound. 

- I could copy the book onto A3, then laminate and bind so they can be reused. 

All up, the whole class lesson was 50 minutes long. 

Small group lesson

Start with the small tiles, 

Give the children their own letter folder, with all the letters inside but the ones they need on the form.

Go through the words and get the children to make them.

This is also a crucial part of orthographic mapping; as the teacher, you make it with the wooden tiles, so help the children see what they are doing. Hence, the scaffolding of this task.

When reading the book, you tell them the words that you need to 'just remember'. 

TOD - 29th October

 New Curriculum

With Amy-Lee from Core Education

The new govt has a new focus, sounding a lot like national standards in another form.

They have a focus on:

Achievement, Assessment, and Attendance

Draft number (number ?)

Kept the Whakapapa of Te Mātaiaho and the weaving of it all together. 

At the start of every learning area, it has a vision for young people, which means it will link our learning to the children. 

Science of learning:

It's not about the buzzword 'structured' but about the building blocks of learning in a curriculum area. 

Understanding the processes of learning and how we learn is crucial. The new curriculum emphasizes this more. 

The NZC of 2007 is about what we learn rather than how which is Te Mātaiaho. 

The science of learning is good at understanding that learning also involves contextual factors, like whether you have food or an argument with a parent or sibling. 

When using the word 'structured,' it's not about taking a' one-size-fits-all' approach; it's about understanding what you are teaching.

Good blog post - https://core-ed.org/en_NZ/free-resources/blog/structured-literacy-where-do-i-start/

The learning trajectory - 

Dr. Nina Hood, founder of the Education Hub, will give you a quick introduction to the science of learning, explain what the research tells us about the cognitive processes that inform the learning process, and discuss the implications of this for pedagogy and curriculum.

Video of Nina Hood

Te Mātaiaho has teaching considerations that you can take into account when teaching. 

Brian Poncy talks about Math Fluency Matters.

What does the new curric require for rolling out?

It's about the framework of understanding, knowing, and doing. 

The thinking is that we want children to have a deep understanding of the key learning areas.

Know is the rich context about the big ideas, it's the stuff that we are teaching and the nitty gritty of the stuff that we teach.

Do is the practical side. 

If they can know and do, they will understand what we are teaching them. When we combine these three aspects, they all work together. 

How do we make this come to life in the classroom?

What we want the children to understand, it deepens as you go across the curriculum. 

When thinking about the 'do' you need to apply rigour to the learning. Meaning the following:

The term “rigor” in education has been a buzzword for at least a decade. It describes the result of work that challenges students' thinking in new and interesting ways. Promoting rigor in the classroom requires expectations and experiences that are academically, intellectually, and personally challenging.

Instead of year levels there are phases

Phase 1 - Yr 0-3

Phase 2 - Yr 4-6

Phase 3 - Yr 7-8

The Math Draft:

Science of learning in Math

Te Mātaiaho - Math & Stats

 4th September 2024

Te Mātaiaho

What is your hook to change?

Begin with experiences, knowledge, and skills in this learning area.

Connecting your experiences, knowledge, and skills with the new shift in this learning area.

Te Mātaiaho - The NZ curriculum.

Having the bi-cultural lens and korero helps with the learning and achievement of the students.

Underpinned by the science of learning

Knowledge rich

Inclusive evidence-informed teaching practices

Clear and easy to use

Internationally comparable

Supporting the development of KC's - Can go to the dos, and they put it into action so that you are showing it to the students.

Important to have a common language that we all talk and that is school wide. 

The Draft - Maths & Stats

Key points from the purpose statement:

In the mathematics and statistics learning area, students study, learn, and appreciate the power and beauty of abstraction, reasoning, and symbolic representation. 

Engaging teaching methods that build confidence through incremental challenges and promote curiosity through the exploration of math concepts help students discover personal enjoyment and satisfaction in the learning area. 

Mathematics and statistics often serve as a universal language fostering collaboration, innovation, and mutual understanding. 

Mathematics and statistics have a history that involves many cultures contributing to innovation and shaping our thinking today.

Through the learning area, students develop fluency and mastery in maths, which leads to pathways into a wide range of industries that rely on maths knowledge and reasoning.

Learning in maths builds both literacy and numeracy. Maths contributes to students’ literacy by developing their oral and written communication, reasoning, and comprehension skills. 

The learning area embodies a structured approach to mathematics that encompasses: › a clearly sequenced year-by-year curriculum › a progressive and cumulative approach to acquiring knowledge, skills, and competencies to build student mastery › teaching guidance on effective practice.

Maths & Stats learning area structure:

As the Overview on the preceding pages shows, there are three elements in the mathematics and statistics learning area: Understand, Know, and Do. › Understand helps connect school maths with the wider world and identifies critical learning in maths. Understand comes alive as students engage in the practices of Do to learn the knowledge embedded in Know. › Know is broken down into six strands that represent the key learning in maths: number, algebra, measurement, geometry, statistics, and probability. › Do includes processes that provide ways of presenting, applying, investigating, manipulating, and connecting the mathematical knowledge in the curriculum. These processes are central to how students learn and apply maths knowledge.

The science of learning: 

https://theeducationhub.org.nz/category/school-resources/science-of-learning/ 

Building the blocks of learning, 

Teaching guidance:

Positive relationships in math - 

Create an inclusive, engaging environment where tamariki can take risks and can use them in everyday life.

Maths mastery and a structured approach to teaching and learning - 

When students have mastered a maths concept, they can accurately and efficiently use it as a foundation for new learning and to solve problems, reason, and make connections between concepts.

Effective use of technology

Explicit teaching

Planning:

These are the times in the day when the children can explore through maths. This is through the daily timetable, whole school etc and ensuring it is intergrated.

Use of standardized assessment tools:

Phase One -Progress outcomes by the end of year 3

In phase 1, students weave together Understand, Know, and Do and use logic and reasoning to investigate, classify, and describe patterns and variations in quantities, shapes, and data. They use materials, number lines, and pictures to visualise these concepts, make connections between representations, and explain their reasoning. They begin to generalise and to understand the properties of numbers and shapes.

It's about keeping the passion that I already have, and then hook them into the new curriculum. Reflect and then look at what I am missing and then ask for help if needed. 

Now is a good time to take stock of what is working well. What is my evidence? 

Math PLD - Day 2 30th June 2025


Year plan

- All statements are covered across the year.

- Order units to build on each other

- Make connections and combine within and across strands.

- Revisit and consolidate

- Consider school or community events for context. 

It is suggested that you cover all strands in one year, but how do you cover all to make it sink in?

Unit Plan

Include information around:

- Understand, know and do,

- Prior knowledge

-teaching sequence by week

- 

Weekly plan

- Balance the componants across the 

Explicit Teaching

Math talk moves

PB4L - Tier 2

Next Tier of the PB4L

There are 4 schools with the intent that we all work together. 

- Bathgate Park

- St Clair

- Mornington School

- Waitati School

Getting started in Tier 2 - 

What might Tier Two systems and practices look like in your school?

Whakatauki - 

Me mahi tahi tatou mo te orange o te katoa

We should work together for the wellbeing of everyone

Teachers should discuss what is going well and share ideas to help and encourage change. 

The Feathers are broken down values, and we keep reminding the students. 

The best thing a Tier 2 school can have in a rock-solid Tier 1...

The key is to keep Tier 1 going and not have it drop off. 

MTSS (Multi-Tiered Systems of Support): Ten percent of the students will need this. They aren't separate things; they run together. 

PB4L is responsive to what is happening in our school - it keeps evolving and growing to suit the needs of the students.

Sharing why Tier 2 is needed - Supplying support to the middle 10-15% of those students that will benefit from Tier 2. Will need individual support for the 5% that need that extra.

We need to keep things calm and predictable so that we are all on the same page and so that those children are safe. 

A consistent approach to discipline and focus on the restorative process. 

Next training day: Identify those kids that are on the cusp. 

Reflection:

What are three positive changes we have observed at our school?

School Hui: We remind the children of the values and have a weekly focus. All teachers are doing this now. We are looking for the positive.

- The Waitati Way - The positive phrasing of the way. 

- Restorative practices - natural consequences

- Calm spaces - regulation 

- Mini chats - questioning: Does that match what happened? How can we restore this relationship? 

There is a change in language around Major Minor. Which adult will deal with this? Who is the responder? That's a principal, team leader, and teacher.

What is the most effective response? Change this for the action/child, etc. 

How did you work together to achieve these changes? All adults are involved in this. 

Tokens

Individual, house groups, whole school

Token to the individual for a specific thing, which goes into the house group and then works towards a whole school reward.

Tokens - sales@exquisiteproducts.co.nz

How to keep Tier One strong while we are working on Tier 2

1. Keep a strong team—share the load and keep things alive. (Is there one person who, if they left, would make the systems disappear?) Keep bringing new people to the team.

2. Use your fidelity of information - You should always know what your next step is on your action plan. This is not about getting a certain score. It's about how we can keep improving. 

3. Use your school discipline data—you need to use it for decision-making. When was the last time we shared our data? We should use it monthly or termly (the minimum is termly), which will help with the Big 5 report. What day is it, and who was involved? 

4. Implement PB4L in the classroom. How much of the school day do children spend in the classroom? Where is it working, and how can we extend it to the needed places? (Book - Teaching for positive behavior)

Next steps - 

- Organizing a once-a-month pastoral meeting to review the monthly report and help inform where we are with our hui messages.

- Do the BoQ  with Tara

- Do the EBS with the staff

- Sort out tokens for the individual to school-wide incentives

- Draft a short item for the newsletter on why we are engaging in Tier Two.

What do the Tier Two team do?

- Builds the process of systems and practices

- Provides  Tier Two training and support to all school staff.

- Places  students

Create a system that includes:

- A Process to identify at-risk learners.

- 

Tier 2 Day One workshop with All schools - 31 July 2024

Whakatauki

E hara taki tia i te tia

takitahi engari he toa

takitini

Success is due not to the work of one but to the work of many

The central part is teachers talking to teachers about why these might be happening.

3 new discoveries:

- Our children are responding well to the gem jar

- Like having the positives

- Helps with the Tier 3 children

2 interesting facts:

- Has kept the ones that didn't usually get recognition feeling getting heard and noticed.

1 lingering question:

- At what stage do we put the stuff on Edge? How do we keep it consistent?

Paper written "Stop doing that!" written in 2021

Today we are:

1. Understanding the gist of Tier Two - Why, where, Who, and how?

2. Identifying 'at risk' students/learners

3. Introducing classroom practice teams

Tier Two - The Why?

Developing a culture where the children feel like they have a place in the world and create valuable and socially ok learners/society.

The purpose of Tier Two - 

1. Prevent developing or decreasing the frequency and/or intensity of students' inappropriate behaviors.

2. Provide standardized interventions that effectively and efficiently support students yet do not require the time and resources to develop individual plans.

Tier two is what we can do with groups of students, like identifying students who might need to have more social skills to help develop the skills they need to survive. 

Check-in/check-out - Set up one template and check in with them.

The Continuum of the Behaviour Support - The Where?

When you think of the continuum, there are three zones, Tier One, Tier Two, and Tier Three. Tier One, we are comfortable doing this; Tier Two, we can do it with help; Tier Three, the anxiety comes in, and you don't want to do it, for whatever reason. 



You need to shift away from the whole language. These are our high fliers, Tier Three children. It's not the behavior. It might be the task that needs some extra support in different areas. 
We don't stay in one areas of the triangle, we all have areas of strength and areas where we need support.
Tier Two interventions are for behaviours, not students:
- They are for 'at-risk' students who require additional support
They are not for Tier Two students because there is no such thing.
This requires a change of thinking and language on our part.
Ross Green - Kid do well if they can



Good video to watch:
Ross Greene - Kids do well if they can

What is getting their way? 

If they can do well, they will do well because kids do well if they can. 

Where does Tier Two fit within the continuum?

1. Tier Two students and interventions support the approximately 15% of students who are at risk of developing chronic behavioral problems.

2. These students continue to engage in frequent low-level inappropriate behavior (2-5 major ODRs) and/or would benefit from extra attention and targeted support.

Who is already meeting to talk about at risk students?

What interventions do we already have in place?

PBIS world - good for ideas for Tier 1, 2, & 3

The Tier Two student support model - The what?

Tier One implemented with Fidelity

What would someone new to your school see or hear that indicates PB4L - SW is implemented with fidelity(means the way that it was supposed to be done, but what does it look like in our school)?

- Consistency of the language/expectation/response/recognition

- Conversations about school values

- Explicit teaching around the values/expectations

- Visuals - Around the school, flow charts, where to access

Evidence-based teaching for positive behaviour

"Teachers supporting teachers"

Using a problem-solving approach, groups of teachers develop solutions for problem behavior.

Edutopia - a good website 

Our Foundation is dedicated to transforming pre-K-12 education so all students can acquire and effectively apply the knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to thrive in their studies, careers, and adult lives. Founded by innovative and award-winning filmmaker George Lucas in 1991, we take a strategic approach to improving education.

What 5 things would I place on my bookmark for new teachers/staff?

1. WIN - What's important now?

2. 2x10 - 2 positive comments a day for 10 days

3. Conversations should be calm, respectful, collaborative, and involve mutual listening

4. What happened?

5. What can I do to repair the damage?

6. ABC - Always Be Calm

7. Drop the rope 

8. Values on the bookmark to remind us of the values

9. Be firm, be fair, be gone

10. Zones/calm down tools- breath, meditate

11. WAITATI WAY

12. Connection before correction

13. Stop, Breath, Calm

14. Co-regulate

15. Certainty over severity 

How can we make our gems more cohesive within the school vision?

How do we know that supportive learning environments are created in all spaces?

What supports staff with PLD around this?

What tools do you use to support staff in reflecting on their practice?

Identifying students:

- students who need extra support

Some behaviors will be obvious from what students do (externalising characteristics), whilst others will arise from how students are (internalizing characteristics). These characteristics include anxiety, depression, and withdrawal.

Tier Two is as much for the children that are internalizing as well as externalising these experiences. 

Two main methods of identification:

1. Analysis and regular monitoring of existing school data.

5 groups of data might be useful.

- Behavioural incident referrals

- Attendance data

- Information on progress and achievement 

- formal assessment results, eg, PAT's, e-asttle

- Data on achievement in relation to curriuculm

Data decision rules

Help trigger discussions about 'at risk' students and the supports they made need

- Two major behavioral incidents since the beginning of the school year

- Persistant minor behavioral issues (eg. five in one term?)

- Four instances of unexplained absences or lateness.

- Academic indicators that are well below the average level of achievement for students at the school.

2. Nomination by staff, whanau or students. It goes back to teachers talking to teachers, without the 'moaning' about the behaviour but helping to solve the problem. Can also be the student, whanau or someone else who has noticed. 

How to develop your data-decision rules

1. Review the (see slide show)

How wide will you cast your net?

What data will you use?

Who is going to cast the net?

Who is responsible for checking the net?

What is acceptable 'catch'?

Planned, deliberate and consistent

26th Feb 2025

Tier Two Team Training Day

 We must make it valuable and work for our school, or it won't get done. Needs to be done in the way that it's designed. 

Whakatauki - Comes from the Tier Two manual. Success is due to the work of many.

Tier Two is teachers supporting teachers with the little niggles that happen. 

Last time - 

- Learning how to complete a simple, functional behaviour assessment(FBA)

- Understanding the purpose and organisation of classroom practice teams.

- Developing a simple behaviour support plan for an individual learner. 

FBA -

Step 1 - Describe the behaviour

Step 2 - Identify the antecedent - What is causing the behaviour

Step 3 - Identify the consequence

Step 4 - Identify the function - What is the student trying to obtain or avoid,

Step 5 - Check for the setting events - What's going on outside for the child, things that aren't in the classroom, e.g., family circumstances, pain, etc.

Classroom practices teams process - (12mins)

- Clarify and summarise the current problem behaviour (2mins)

- Identify a replacement behaviour (2 mins)

- Identify strategies to support behaviour change (4 mins)

- Plan how to monitor the progress ( 2 mins)

- Set a follow-up date ( 2 mins)

Remember the twelve mines to the process. Wanting the teacher that is at the centre, to not talk for the 4 mins (Identifying the strategies to support behavior change)

Strengthening the Tier One practices - helps those students, possibly Tier Two, fall back to Tier One. 

Remember to notice positive behavior. 

Tier Two is for those people that are internilising their issues, the team needs to see what's happening for the children. How do you build a system for those children who are internilsing these feelings, who is picking them up and having the conversation with them?

DO THE MARCH CATCH!

Look at all the children that are on the systems so that they either don't exculate or become a major. 

One thing more to do - Who are those kids that are opting out of class more than 5 times? What is the issue around the thing that they children don't want to do? 

Strenghtening the classroom practice is a large part of Tier Two, as is decision making, they are a constant circle that you can go back through many times so that they can choose to make a change to their actions, if. they are struggling them we can there to the intervention for Teir Two. 

Tier Two interventions:

- Check in/Check out

- Small Group Social Skills

- Academic support - We are good at doing this. 

- Check and connect - One to one support for individual children

- Newcomers club - How are they recognised for doing the right thing? 

It's more of a challenge when putting behaviour supports involved. 

Key Feature of Tier Two interventions:

Trying to create a sense of something special for Tier Two - Got to supply mana enhancing activities that require minimal effort and time commitment from teachers. 

Consistant with universal school-wide expectations - keep them the same across the board. 

Keep in voluntary and sell it so that they want to do it. For example playing boards game with those kids that need extra social skills to help them gain those skills. Even if it's just once a week, it gives them the chance to interact with other children and you can coach them through. 

Pastoral Support - Make a visual with descriptions so that the staff can see what is happening around the school and then they know who it is open too and them when it is and who is running it. 

Check in/Check out - These support positive adult attention through calling out, talking back, being off-task etc. 

Most effective for students who enjoy positive adult attention and are willing to participate in the intervention. 

Check in/Check out

Want them to get as many points as possible. 

- Create a check in/check out form to use. A consistent form to use with across the school. 

- Link to the school wide expectations/values

- Descriptors can be individualized eg Hand and feet to yourself, follow directions, use materials appropriatly.

- Monitor for success

Only recording a score on the reminder that they needed to follow the expectation.

Key Elements of a successful CICO process

The form is only one part of the process, it generates the conversation and the positive conversation. 

 Checking in - Participating students 'chech in' with a facilitator each morning.

Regular teacher feedback - Students receive specific feedback about their behaviour from their teacher at the end of each class period or natural transistion.

Checking out - The student returns to the facilitator to 'check out' at the end of each day.

Parent and whānau involvement - the student takes their positive progress record card home with them and the parents can sign if it comes back.

Data collection and progress monitoring -  The factilitor captures the percentage score earned by the student in their CICO excel file

A well-considered exit strategy - The core componant of CICO are gradually faded rather than abruptly ended. Try to fade rather than suddenly stop. 

They should only be on CICO for no longer than 6 weeks, if it doesn't work then you need to try another strategy. 

When they are ready to move out of the CICO process you need to knowledge that for the students. There is an info sheet for the parents, that can be sent home at the beginning. At the of the process the children 'graduate' from the process, you can have a wee party or afternoon tea and can receive a certificate of completion.

Remember to thank the staff for their participation in the CICO process, you can also pair it alongside a coffee voucher or chocolate. 

Tangible acknowledgments for the kids with our Waitati Way on it. 

Maybe create a new beginning of the day, a celebration of the day before where we can give out the tangible things and remember the positives. 

Monitoring student Progress - 

What are we going to do with the data that we are collecting each day? Is the CICO having an effect on the behaviour?

Remember to collect and analysis the data - 

Before the student begins the intervention(Baseline phase) - While the intervention is in place - After the student has finished the intervention

Assessing the effectiveness of CICO is a large part of the part of it, means that we can change the intervention if needed. 

How are they reacting to the CICO?? It's how we respond to the process. 

Six top CICO tips

- choose your CICO facilitor carefully

- CICO is likely to be most successful when learners who like adult attention.

- Standardise your CICO daily progress reports

- Use your data to monitor the impact of the intervention

- Have a plan for 'fading' learners off CICO

Next Steps:

1. Develop a form

2, assign a CICO coordinator to oversee and implement

3. Use your data decision rules to choose three or four students that would be willing to take part. 

4. Create a pastoral support sheet

It's about putting more supports in for these children. 

Creating a sense of buy-in and ownership for the children