Tuesdays with Maurie: Warm and Demanding to start the year

 

Every second Tuesday I get to host a morning Kitchen Table (Staff Hui) for our staff from 8 30 - 9 00am so obviously it's called Tuesdays with Maurie. Tomorrow is our first day with the whole school and we have a full day of Learning Hub based activities planned focusing on whanaungatanga and building relationships. As well, we have 14 new or returning staff so such a focus is crucial. The last thing they need to hear from me is 30 minutes of "do this, do that" so I've decided to leave them with one message.

I've never believed in the "Don't smile before Easter" advice many of us used to get when setting out on a new year. I am, however, a firm believer in setting the foundations of an effective and positive teacher/student relationship right from the first minute. So, I thought I'd just speak to these two slides to build on my message at our Noho to start the year and what I covered in my last post.

Right from the very beginning when we are building relationships and then when we move into delivering our curriculum, both academic and dispositional, and while we interact throughout our kura and building in so many ways we have to ensure we are warm AND demanding. Russel Bishop describes this as teaching to the North-East - high relationships AND high teaching skills. He calls upon us to create a family- like context for learning, interact in that environment in ways that we know promote learning and monitor learners' progress. This is a great model of pedagogy for all schools to adopt.

We don't kick off with academic classes until the end of the week as we concentrate on building relationships. But the advice is the same - be warm AND demanding even as we are focusing on whanaungatanga. The Thorsborne and Blood model below is my go-to and is similar to Bishop's. This model supports the operation of restorative practice principles in a school when dealing with misbehaviour or, more accurately, harmed relationships, but is valid for all interactions in a school.

The optimal place to be, on both models, is the top right corner (the north-east). It's too easy to sit in the bottom right corner and go soft on the high expectations and the demandingness. It is my view that staying there is just as ineffective as being in any of the two left quadrants.

My message is that by starting and staying with being warm and demanding is the best strategy, is fairer on the students, and gives them the best opportunity to engage effectively with you. Starting anywhere else makes it tougher to get to the north-east later.

Have a great start to the year.