Our Hauora workshop – Supporting Socially at-risk Students took place in Week 7. It was great to see people from across the school profile attending as well as the support from RTLB teachers and Susie Harcourt (Educational Psychologist) from MoE creating rich discussion.

There is always plenty to share in these sessions! Examples of personal concerns, students to consider as ‘at-risk’, and identifying actions taking place within schools. We discussed the complexity of factors affecting student connectedness and how to identify the needs of students using a Social Connectedness flowchart.

There is a good sense of school-wide systems in place to support socially at-risk students, and kaiako led initiatives, but not so much awareness of ‘how’ students support others who are socially ‘isolated’.
What does whakawhanaungatanga look / sound / feel like for your students?
How do students perceive the social inclusiveness of school environments?   
How do we support students to be social inclusive?

These are the slides from the Supporting Socially At-Risk Students slideshow.
​The link to Susie's Tips for Hacking Happy Hormones article is great reading.
The Hauora workshop group notes summarise some of the thoughts, and ideas arising. 

Interesting to note: 

1. the significance of Taha Wairua as a significant part of our personal wellbeing, possibly as a recharge for the busy, socially demanding work of teaching practice - balance is everything! Prompts me to think about the needs of some students regarding this also.
2. a predominance of teacher led actions to support social connection. How do we support students to facilitate social connection more deliberately, and skilfully?

 
We will build upon this work in the Term 3 workshop.

Community of Practice 
Week 7 
​
It was amazing to get together to begin collective mahi in week 7 after term ones Community of Practice was cancelled. We had an amazing session with some very robust discussions about how much Power we kaiako yield in our learning spaces and in our school.

We delved into power being visible, hidden and invisible and were asked to reflect on what our ākonga would say? Integral to this collective mahi is how we are are being culturally responsive. Here are some pātai to reflect upon from the session. 

​AKO: To learn and to teach 

• How do you enable an environment that encourages a reciprocal relationship between learners and teachers?

KOA: Enjoyment and motivation in learning

• How do your teaching approaches encourage your learners to bring their own knowledge, culture, and talents to their teaching?

KAO: Learner voice and agency

• How do you give your learners the opportunity to decide what subject matter is included in their learning?

OKA: Deconstruct and reconstruct learning

• How do you allow your learners to help set the way (tikanga) things are done in the classroom/learning space?

KA - To ignite OA- universal

• How do you let students share their own expert knowledge?

https://altlab.aut.ac.nz/altlab/embedding-ako-into-teaching/