Leadership Teaching

I begun my teaching and learning career 13 years ago. Beginning as a very excited beginning teacher in a Year 5 and 6 class. After 4 years of being a classroom teacher I became involved in the senior management team at our school. 2 years after my initial induction into our senior management team I become DP, Team leader and SENCO. Throughout this time I taught across the entire school From Year 6 to Year 2. 

I have been a DP, a team leader, SENCO over the past 9 years and during these years I have adapted my leadership style and the approaches.

Recently I have been thinking about the cultural toolkit that I bring to my leadership areas especially as I have been Acting Principal for the past 5 weeks. 

PLD on Cultural Responsiveness and Relational Pedagogy has provided me with the opportunity to reflect through a lense that values relationships and cultural. With this as a focus  I'm thinking about balancing the need to support staff growth vs celebrating staff success and meet individual needs vs school wide objectives and how this can become a juggling act. 

While I don't know the answers I have made some observations and I have some questions...

Staff that play together stays together. 

(Will develop a team that enjoys things beyond a work place relate to each as people not just colleagues)

Collaborative communication is paramount.

(Will develop a team that has trusting, respectful communication is a team where learning is honest and real) 

Shared direction and vision.

(Will develop a team that understanding where they are heading and willing supports everyone to get there) 

Cultural Responsiveness and Relational Pegagogy

Coming out of the closet

Recently I have been involved in the Cultural Responsive & Relational Pedagogy team at Allandale School. This team consists of different members of staff from Allandale School. Our team is Tania Doherty, Wendy, Ashton, Aroha, Cilla, Wiremu, Dianne, Teresa and myself.This teams focus is to forge strong links between staff, our children and our families. It is about lifting practice in order to lift the success for all our children.

At our last discussion a team member suggested that once you believe in this thinking and you 'come out of the closet' and can never go back. While I didn't fully understand nor grasp the magnitude of what she was saying to us back then I totally understand now!

Research tell us that to be successful educators of Maori students we, the professionals, need to be Culturally responsive and demonstrate a high level of understanding around relational pedagogy.  And while I understand that when some of our teachers were being trained this thinking may not have been seen as important I believe that is is still our responsibility to address it now.  

Being Culturally Responsive and showing Relational Pedagogy is not hard, as it is celebrating and respecting the basic needs of our children. As I come out of the closet I see it everywhere. I see it in the faces of the children at Allandale School. I see it when children are playing and when children are learning. I see it when children are learning how to read and write and when they are learning about playing together. What is incredibly interesting to me at the moment is the more I see it the more it become clearer and the more important I feel about it and the more I want to grow it. 

I see it not only in the faces of our children but in the faces of our teachers. I see it in the faces of teachers when our children are teaching us. I see it in the faces of teachers when they are talked with a growth mind set to each other. I see it in the faces of our teachers when they are talking about amazing things that have happened to them during the learning day. 

I see it EVERYWHERE in our school and I want to see it MORE! I want to see it where I don't see it. I am so hungry for all our children, our families and our staff to feel it and see what I see and feel. I want them to feel the warmth of being Culturally Responsive and being shown Relational Pedagogy. I want them to feel to inspiration of showing Culturally Responsiveness and showing Relational Pedagogy.

I love Allandale School and I am passionate about this school, our children, our families, and our staff and I am so excited about developing my knowledge and the combined knowledge of us all.