Attitude

What?
Today we were lucky enough to have Attitude come in and deliver sessions to the students on 'Friendship and Relationships' and 'Tackling Technology'. Not only were these insightful for the students but they were excellent for teachers.

So what?
Two issues we find when teaching in Year 8 are how the students handle their friendships and also how they use technology. This has especially been an issue this year among our classes. We felt we needed to get an outside agency in to support what we were trying to say and give the message from a different point of view. It is always valuable getting someone else in - especially someone who can relate well with the students and bring some humor to their presentation. This is exactly what Lex from Attitude did.

With the changing times it is important to help teach the students about how to deal with friends and technology, especially heading into high school. NZ has the highest youth suicide rate in the world and we need to ensure we help equip students with different strategies to deal with situations they may find themselves in.


Now what?
We have got lots of new ideas and strategies we can discuss with our future students. Students came away feeling positive and inspired and most were able to discuss different strategies that came out of the session. If I encounter 'friendship' problems I now feel more comfortable with how to deal with it and know what advice I can offer. We have also started the conversation of having sessions each year, we just now need to decide what time of the year is best to have them.

LINK TO NOTES

This shows evidence against:

Professional Relationships 

Establish and maintain professional relationships and behaviours focused on the learning and well-being of each learner.

• Engage in reciprocal, collaborative learning-focused relationships with: 
• learners, families and whānau 
• teaching colleagues, support staff and other professionals 
•  agencies, groups and individuals in the community.  

• Communicate effectively with others.  

• Actively contribute, and work collegially, in the pursuit of improving my own and organisational practice, showing leadership, particularly in areas of responsibility.  

• Communicate clear and accurate assessment for learning and achievement information.

Professional learning 

Use inquiry, collaborative problem solving and professional learning to improve professional capability to impact on the learning and achievement of all learners. 

• Inquire into and reflect on the effectiveness of practice in an ongoing way, using evidence from a range of sources. 

• Critically examine how my own assumptions and beliefs, including cultural beliefs, impact on practice and the achievement of learners with different abilities and needs, backgrounds, genders, identities, languages and cultures. 

• Engage in professional learning and adaptively apply this learning in practice. 

• Be informed by research and innovations related to: content disciplines; pedagogy; teaching for diverse learners, including learners with disabilities and learning support needs; and wider education matters. 

• Seek and respond to feedback from learners, colleagues and other education professionals, and engage in collaborative problem solving and learningfocused collegial discussions.