Problem Solving Within my Team

Recently in our leadership team we had been discussing how we help to problem solve issues that may present itself within teams.  (see our notes below)

This discussion made me reflect on how I support my team with problems that they come to me within our syndicate.  I realise now that I will often give a list of possible solutions to others to help solve the problem for them straight away.  The discussion we had at leadership level made me realise is that i need to help facilitate my team to come to the solution themselves.  Making the solution more powerful for the person who came to help.

I was able to put this into practice recently when one of my team came to me about a student they are really struggling with behavior wise in class.  Instead of telling all the things I would try, I listened to her concerns, and then asked her questions such as 'Have you noticed that certain times of the day are worse than others?', 'is his behavior due to seating arrangements' and 'What have you tried already, what worked?'

This conversation went really well, and I felt that she felt better getting her concerns off her chest.  We also decided together that their needed to be some kind of 'cost' incurred for this child, as his actions were very disrespectful and the RP chats she is having individually and as a class weren't resulting a positive change.  So we decided that we would enlist the support our DP to see if he had some ideas that we could adopt to support my team member to work with this student.

Our DP suggested that we adopt the time out strategy. We started this today.  Our DP explained the new process with the student today.  My team member was pleased to report that he had a pretty great day, after hearing their will be consequences for his disrespectful behavior, he tried harder today to do as he is told.  She was really pleased with the outcome and the fact that their are some new things that she can try and implement.  

Notes from our leadership meeting:

1. Problem Solving shared agreement as Leaders of Vardon School

Solution oriented mindset

How do we expect to solve problems or issues that arise at work? with other staff? with children?

Looking at the four R’s and using these in our leadership roles.

Don’ts :

             Trying to solve problem ourselves

             Listen in a public place

             Don’t buy into it

             Don’t take it personally

Do’s:

Ask questions to find out where ‘they’ want to go (to solve the problem)

Role modelling

What do you want to happen?  What do you need?

Find out who owns the problem

Take time to listen

Change venue

Suggest another time when you are better able to support

Define the problem/issue

Make a plan/explore

Remember the RP script

Follow up to show value and support

Young Authors Day - Waikato Literacy Association

One of the events the Waikato Literacy Associate organises every two years is the Young Authors Day.  We held this last Saturday at Morrinsville Intermediate.  The day is designed for students who are keen on writing to spend time working with published authors and illustrators.  

The workshops are designed for children aged 9-13 and were grouped between 15-20, working together with an author or illustrator.    

Each author gives 3 workshop sessions of around 50 minutes, working with a different group of children each time. 

We orgainsed the day as follows:

9.30  am  Students register - Morning Tea for Authors/Illustrators in the staffroom

10.00 am Assemble, Formalities, Introduction 

10.15 am Workshop 1 commences

11.05 am Drink/Snack/Toilet break 

11.25 am Workshop 2 commences

12.15 pm LUNCH

1 pm    Workshop 3 commences

2pm          Assemble in hall for wind up session for everyone, at which each author talks for around 5 minutes, and/or reads from their work.

The children were expected to bring some writing of their own to share with the authors and with others in the group. Generally authors or illustrators talk about aspects of their own work, read passages relevant to what they are saying, or discuss illustrations, and also invite children to contribute to the session. The children also spent some of the session writing.

The children were selected by their school and we found that all students in attendance were highly motivated and enthusiastic about the opportunity to work with people 'real life authors'.

The conference finished with a combined session of half an hour where authors had 10 minutes each, sharing a piece of their own work or an experience they had had.

The expectations for the authors sessions were that they shared their work and the processes involved in producing this with the students. Most authors were keen to get the students involved with writing/revising/creating new work.

Our students loved the day, particularly getting meet authors they knew like Des Hunt. Here are some photos of our Vardon kids enjoying the day: