Bursts & Bubbles 2022

 Malo ‘e lelei, my name is Christine Tupou-Fonua.

My Inquiry focus for 2022 is: 

TEACHER & STUDENT WELL-BEING - HOW DOES IT INFLUENCE ACHIEVEMENT, ENGAGEMENT & ENJOYMENT?

What was happening for my learners?

• The speaking frame we are provided asks us to inquire into the learners. I inquired into my teacher practice, and what changes I should make to positively impact student learning.

• The beginning of the year was rough. We transitioned from face-to-face teaching and learning, to virtual learning and then to hybrid learning.

• My thoughts were: Is this another new norm? How are the students feeling? What about the teachers and staff? Some voiced they were nervous, excited, anxious. Some just wanted to come back to the classroom. 

What evidence do I have to support this?

• To name a few : Teacher, Student & Voice, Assessment Data, Student attendance summary, staff attendance and my own recollections of talanoa with teachers within my school and across the cluster.

• From this I was able to analyse the findings, and identify some common key concepts that were evidently important in students and teacher well being. 

• These key concepts included: Well-Being, Collaboration, Adaptability, Empathy and Patience. 

• The process also highlighted important factors that included “Relationships, Mental-Health and Resilience”, to name just some.

What changes did I make?

• The planning of this intervention was co-constructed by my team of teachers and our Y7&8 students. It was practical, authentic and culturally relevant to all.

• It involved changes in Teacher Practice, driven by student agency and the primary importance of Well-Being.

• It included weekly sessions of talanoa for students and teachers, collaborative planning, cross-group teaching for the learning areas, flexible learning spaces, Multi-modal resources and culturally authentic learning experiences. 

• It improved interpersonal interactions and relationships between teachers & students, enhanced empathy, collaboration and adaptability throughout the school.

• This holistic approach has actually enhanced delivery of the academic outcome and attendance for our Senior students this year. 

Some literature that helped me along the way were:

• Tapasa, Ka Hikitia & Tataiako Cultural Competencies Framework

• Scholarly articles on Teacher Well-Being

• Pasifika methodologies

• Scholarly articles on student agency, assessments & Teacher Practice

The hardest things for me to change was:

• Myself. Changing my mindset from what we considered important to teach - to something more in-depth and powerful, a way of practice to motivate and engage learners, students and colleagues, to promote their own agency.

My wonderings?

• How do I ensure that my practice uplifts and prepares my fellow kaiako, kahui ako, whanau and communities for the challenges of today and tomorrow?

Blogpost #10: Aspects of the intervention...

 Collaboration!

Here's a video of my Team Tui Tongan Language Week arts collaboration. Students were given the choice to choose out of 3 options - Tapa Making, Fan Making and Lose Making (Tongan accessories). The 3 teachers in my team taught the above option for a week long and produced some amazing artefacts.

This video shows what the students created during a fun week of authentic learning with cultural relevance to most of the students. Non-Tongan students also voiced that learning about Tonga and it's culture makes them want to learn more about their own culture and others, because they enjoy the new knowledge, the cultural food, the performances and more.

#StudentAgency #Collaboration 

Blogpost #9 - Monitoring of new approaches continued

My Journey with this Inquiry so far...

This years inquiry was very complex! I struggled to think of what else I could further inquire into based on evidence of student learning. Let's be honest, the beginning of 2022 was unprecedented...yet again. Schools went into Hybrid Learning as students and staff fell victim to covid, again.

I was one of the few who struggled all year round with my health. I had finished with Covid BUT some of its symptoms chose to stay with me much longer than I'd anticipated. I was "diagnosed" with Long covid and I coughed for months on end. 

I started to think to myself "I am unwell, I've missed school quite a bit, some of my students attendance has dropped also (due to covid & the flu), what am I to do to ensure these kids are still learning and I am doing my job?" For the last couple of years,  Teacher "Well-being" plummeted. One of the major consequences of covid-19 in educational settings has been the transition from face-to-face instruction to home learning and now hybrid learning, in order to maintain teaching and learning quality standards.

Studies have shown an increase in stress and burnout in school teachers (Pellerone, 2021). Teaching staff are not coming back to what was considered a "normal" teaching environment. I therefore decided to refine my inquiry and focus it on Teacher & Student Well-Being - How does it influence achievement, engagement & enjoyment?

My intervention looks at how we can ensure our teacher practice involves practical strategies that improves interpersonal interactions. These include emotional intelligence, empathy, assertiveness, compassion etc, which can influence socio-emotional classroom environment and improve relationships between teachers, staff & students, eventually leading to an environment that fosters accelerated achievement, engagement and enjoyment of learning,

Changes were made in my usual "way of Teaching". The depth of collaboration and flexible learning spaces became a new normal at school and both teacher and student relationships soared. Our team took on the pedagogy of cross-grouping between the 3 classes in my team. Maths & Literacy were taught at the same time, and students would move to their designated classrooms with different teacher for the learning areas.

When teaching Maths & Literacy, we took on a Reciprocal Teaching approach and fostered Multi-Modal resources in our planning. We would often start each week with a school Karakia, then we'd meet as a Team to go through our learning for the week. We'd often start our meetings with an inspirational video, sharing the message that reinforces our PB4L focus for the week, along with some mindfulness sessions.

 The students also requested the weekly meetings because they were front-loaded with information on what was to come. Our teaching assistants were also present and liked knowing in advance, what the week ahead looked like.

The changes we made to our practice helped put teachers and students at ease. No panic, no stress if a teacher was down, because the learning content was the same across the syndicate. Anyhow, I will continue to share evidence of how my inquiry intervention has helped both teacher & student (occupational) well-being and it's impacts on the learning this year.

Intervention in progress...

Reference:

Pellerone, M. (2021). Self-perceived instructional competence, self-efficacy and burnout during the covid-19 pandemic: a study of a group of Italian school teachers. Eur. J. Invest. Health Psychol. Educ. 11, 496–512. doi: 10.3390/ejihpe11020035