Understanding Behaviour, Responding Safely (UBRS)...what I have not yet learned could fill a library.
In February this year our staff had the MOE come and give some staff PD. It involved whole school staff groups and focused mainly on prevention and de-escalation strategies. It was a timely reminder of our responsibilities to ourselves and our students. There were two sessions.
Understanding Behaviour, Responding Safely (UBRS)
Session 1: How the brain works.
This was not the most informative session I have ever been asked to attend. Luckily our school went to a day with kiwi speaker Nathan Wallis (that looked into the developing brain the first 1000 days) in 2018 so most of our staff had been previously exposed to this quick lesson in brain development and anatomy. It certainly doesn't hurt to hear things again - it wasn't interesting but no one died. And, it was a good reminder of what we have learned previously.
Session 2: Dealing with extreme behaviour.
This session was about how schools can best manage challenging student behaviours.
Six months on I'm not sure what I remember from this.
Moving forward I think there should be more snippits of this in edu-magazines we read such as the Gazette. It is a bit like CPR and to make something a habit you need to have a pocket guide, posters or even a weekly meme to remind everyone of what the guidelines are..or what rules may have changed or even real life examples to get teachers talking and to reflect on their own biases.
Like so many other things that are rolled out during the year in staff meetings. I know they are all important, they matter and they impact our daily teaching. But there is a lot to manage and with so much content about everything it is hard to focus on one thing or to even makes links to other important ideas.
We have had similar PD around PB4L. There are heaps of good resources being shared in the couple of meetings we have had as a staff. There are a lot of procedures and rules to be followed. It all seems like a good idea. I agree with most of it as I am fed the information. But outside this 75 minutes... what's next? Who is talking about it? Who has failures or successes? I'm pretty sure I should be doing something with it...but deadlines for planning, assessments, marking and reporting are always looming. Oh and I have to have time to mow my lawn and walk the dog sometime...right?
If I ruled the world there were be more connecting the PD dots together so that much of the relevant teacher PD isn't lost to the noise of competing areas of the curriculum, teaching as inquiry, teacher inquiry, technology...this list could be 1000 ideas long....My point may be that I can find the common threads...but there is no time to dig deep on these issues and expose what I know or have discovered. It is overwhelming and simply knowing isn't enough.
As I reflect back after the nearly nine months that have passed since this UBRS PD...what has changed? It is like watching a TV programme on how to eat a healthy lifestyle....but figuring out that no one can agree on the specifics and then deciding in the end it is just easier to grab a burger from Maccas instead.
Oh and I have a nifty certificate somewhere to prove that attended the sessions. I will insert here when I find it.
Understanding Behaviour, Responding Safely (UBRS)
Session 1: How the brain works.
This was not the most informative session I have ever been asked to attend. Luckily our school went to a day with kiwi speaker Nathan Wallis (that looked into the developing brain the first 1000 days) in 2018 so most of our staff had been previously exposed to this quick lesson in brain development and anatomy. It certainly doesn't hurt to hear things again - it wasn't interesting but no one died. And, it was a good reminder of what we have learned previously.
Session 2: Dealing with extreme behaviour.
This session was about how schools can best manage challenging student behaviours.
Six months on I'm not sure what I remember from this.
Moving forward I think there should be more snippits of this in edu-magazines we read such as the Gazette. It is a bit like CPR and to make something a habit you need to have a pocket guide, posters or even a weekly meme to remind everyone of what the guidelines are..or what rules may have changed or even real life examples to get teachers talking and to reflect on their own biases.
Like so many other things that are rolled out during the year in staff meetings. I know they are all important, they matter and they impact our daily teaching. But there is a lot to manage and with so much content about everything it is hard to focus on one thing or to even makes links to other important ideas.
We have had similar PD around PB4L. There are heaps of good resources being shared in the couple of meetings we have had as a staff. There are a lot of procedures and rules to be followed. It all seems like a good idea. I agree with most of it as I am fed the information. But outside this 75 minutes... what's next? Who is talking about it? Who has failures or successes? I'm pretty sure I should be doing something with it...but deadlines for planning, assessments, marking and reporting are always looming. Oh and I have to have time to mow my lawn and walk the dog sometime...right?
If I ruled the world there were be more connecting the PD dots together so that much of the relevant teacher PD isn't lost to the noise of competing areas of the curriculum, teaching as inquiry, teacher inquiry, technology...this list could be 1000 ideas long....My point may be that I can find the common threads...but there is no time to dig deep on these issues and expose what I know or have discovered. It is overwhelming and simply knowing isn't enough.
As I reflect back after the nearly nine months that have passed since this UBRS PD...what has changed? It is like watching a TV programme on how to eat a healthy lifestyle....but figuring out that no one can agree on the specifics and then deciding in the end it is just easier to grab a burger from Maccas instead.
Oh and I have a nifty certificate somewhere to prove that attended the sessions. I will insert here when I find it.
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