Last night I had the pleasure of presenting and sharing in the Manaiakalani Toolkit Session about Well-being - Supporting Our Educators through the Covid19 Pandemic.
Following our icebreaker activity, I proceeded to share a snapshot of the journey that I have taken the Technology Department through, to address our well-being throughout the Covid19 pandemic.
Knowing Your Team
Knowing Your Team - Connecting on the morning that our first lockdown was announced
Reflective Questions for Myself at this stage of the pandemic
- How do my staff feel about what’s happening around us (at the time), and how are we engaging with each other about ourselves and our households?
- How are we sharing this information in our team?
- How am I acknowledging and supporting the staff through this process?
Developing Staff Capabilities
Developing Staff Capabilities - Actively helping staff build skills to transition into remote teaching
As the Head of Technology I recognised the need, and invested time developing staff capability and technical know-how to support staff to be able to teach remotely.
Reflective Questions for Myself at this stage of the pandemic
- How do my staff feel about the need to upskill in order to teach remotely?
- How are we sharing this information in our team?
- How am I acknowledging and supporting the challenges they have experienced and overcome?
Growth Mindset
Growth Mindset - Encourage and normalise “mistake-making”
At the very beginning of the pandemic I encouraged my staff often, to get comfortable making mistakes. Being in a pandemic at the beginning of the pandemic, meant that we were not planning for this scenario, it wasn’t a situation that we were dealing with hypothetically, we were in it, and we were in it now. Because of this, we didn’t have the luxury to have a hui about every minor detail. We had to trial things, help each other, use it or lose, and move onto the next thing. And repeat this constantly.
Reflective Questions for Myself at this stage of the pandemic
- How do my staff feel about mistake making and normalising this as positive teacher practice?
- How are we sharing this information in our team?
- How am I acknowledging and supporting my staff to feel comfortable with this process?
Whanaungatanga
Whanaungatanga - Providing ways to connect; Offsite (Tech dinners) Onsite (at TC) Online (Meets) and also via Instant Messaging (Viber Chat)
Reflective Questions for Myself at this stage of the pandemic
- How do my staff feel about connecting socially, onsite, offsite, online and through IM?
- How are we sharing this information in our team?
- How am I acknowledging and supporting my staff to feel comfortable with this process?
Well-being and Celebrating Success
Well-being - Promoting positive mental health during lockdown
Celebrating Success - Acknowledging and celebrating the Journey
A really important aspect of coping with ‘change in a crisis’ was the support for staff in the Technology Department, and staff wellbeing. This was crucial; not only in terms of enabling staff to do their best with the changes that we were all faced with, but just connecting with the team as people, as parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters, aunties, uncles, and reassuring the team that, irrespective of dealing with the unknown, as long as we have each other, we’ll be okay.
It was also extremely important for us to celebrate our successes in terms of how we were overcoming obstacles, showing resilience, engaging our learners, and retaining our sanity levels.
It was also extremely important for us to celebrate our successes in terms of how we were overcoming obstacles, showing resilience, engaging our learners, and retaining our sanity levels.
Reflective Questions for Myself at this stage of the pandemic
- How do my staff feel about the challenges they have experienced and overcome?
- How are we sharing this information in our team?
- How am I acknowledging and supporting the challenges they have experienced and overcome?
Adapting to Covid19
Adapting to Covid19 - Onsite and Online
The Techies have been experimenting with all forms of teaching in the past two years to enable our students to learn. We’ve adapted our teaching environments, and run with the situation as best as possible to keep our learning spaces safe, engaging and functional; whether that be onsite, online or otherwise.
Reflective Questions for Myself at this stage of the pandemic
- How do my staff feel about the changes to our work environments?
- How are we sharing this information in our team?
- How am I acknowledging and supporting the changes and adaptations that my team is experiencing?
Hybrid Learning
Hybrid Learning - Online, Remote, Face-to-Face, Onsite
Hybrid Learning is the vehicle for approaching Teaching and Learning in our current climate, and it is a term that educators are becoming more and more familiar with as the pandemic unfolds. For the Techies, we may not know all of the answers, but we’re in a really good space to move forward with Hybrid Learning to Elevate Student Engagement, and Accelerate Student Achievement.
Reflective Questions for Myself at this stage of the pandemic
- How do my staff feel about the changes to hybrid learning?
- How are we sharing this information in our team?
- How am I acknowledging and supporting the trials and tribulations that my team is experiencing with hybrid learning?
Nurturing Relationships
Nurturing Relationships - Valuing Staff, Impact on Self, Staff and Students
Reflective Questions for Myself at this stage of the pandemic
- How do my staff feel about their own teaching and learning practices?
- How are we sharing this information in our team?
- How am I acknowledging and supporting my team to share their teaching and learning practices?
Key takeouts from the Journey that I’ve shared
- Constantly and consistently being aware of my staff, how they are feeling and also anticipating what their emotional, their mental and their professional needs might be, at different points of the pandemic. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t get this right all of the time, but I try
- Providing my team with various platforms and means, to share in our team
- Self awareness as a leader for my part in every step of the journey, and me making and taking deliberate actions to support my team.
- Something that I feel is essential for my leadership style, is that I am leading from the front, and walking side by side with my team, both at the same time.
Conclusion
There may be elements of our Well-being journey that are relatable and worth trying out.
It doesn’t matter where we are in the pandemic, or where we are in our own journeys of supporting the well-being of our teams and our staff, the main thing is that we’re doing something 🦄
It doesn’t matter where we are in the pandemic, or where we are in our own journeys of supporting the well-being of our teams and our staff, the main thing is that we’re doing something 🦄
