End of Term Three - Wellbeing

With the end of another busy term it is important to reflect on the well-being of our colleagues and ourselves.  Many of your may have heard Ian Vickers (Deputy Principal, Sancta Maria Catholic College) speak on this subject.

"We saw a 27- 40% decrease in staff sick days"

Here are some thoughts from Ian around teacher well being:

"The art of looking after one's self, or caring about your own well being is a jigsaw of learnt habits. Teaching is an extremely demanding profession and it is vital that you make sometime for 'you' during each working day".

Triggers

To learn a new positive habit you need to remember to adopt this new activity on a regular basis. We all need reminders, so seeing an aircraft in the sky may be the trigger to remind you to re-hydrate and have a drink of water.

You need to think about a few triggers that will remind you to regularly practice a new approach!

Examples of triggers: Our College is on the Airport flight path so seeing or hearing an aircraft could work for you. Having a special screensaver on your computer could be a trigger. A poem, a photograph on your desk, a treasured item that you frequently see or even the school bell, could be a trigger. It could be the smell from a fragrance from your tissues or a room air freshener.  If could be another external noise such as a distant motorbike or police siren. In essence pick a few things that will constantly remind you to remember to follow a new activity.

“Remember to Remember ”

Resources and Podcast

Here is the teacher wellbeing page for New Zealand teachers and a teacher well being resource Ian had created for schools to adopt.

Ian also participated in a podcast with international leadership consultant Justin Baeder.

Have a fantastic and relaxing Term Three holiday break!

TeachMeet at Villa Maria College - Catholic Education Event

Welcome to the third TeachMeet Christchurch event of the year to be hosted at Villa Maria College on Thursday 17th November in the College library starting at 4:15pm.

For those unsure of what a TeachMeet is, check out the explanation here.

To learn about the first TeachMeet earlier this year, see this summary of it here.  A second TeachMeetwas also run in Term 3 2016.

TeachMeet relies on participants voluntarily presenting.

• Topics can be on anything relevant to teachers across all year levels of Year 1-13 e.g. classroom management, educational theory, learning styles, tech tools, cool websites.
• There is no theme or agenda – present a “wow” moment of something you tried, something you want to try, or something you’re studying about.
• Student voice is welcome – if you want to bring a student to share what is happening in your classroom then feel free.
• We have a strongly non-commercial stance on all presentations.

Connect & Share via #TMChch

Important: we need you to RSVP if you want to present or if you just want to come and enjoy the awesomeness from other teachers. CLICK HERE TO RSVP.

West Coast and Snow!

Last week Cushla and I visited the wonderful schools (St Mary's, St Patrick's and John Paul II High School) located on our beautiful West Coast. We worked in partnership with teachers on:

- Restorative Justice practices
- OneNote and GAFE
- Specific units of work within Religious Education

It was so beautiful in fact we found it hard to leave as you will find out in the video below..........

TH 101 Moodle Filming Day

Today, Sister Eleanor filmed content for her upcoming TH 101 (Introduction to Catholicism) paper which starts on the 26th January. This paper will operate via a blended learning approach of face to face and online learning time. The learning management system (LMS) this paper will operate through is Moodle.  Some of you will have experience of this platform and note how easy it is to use.

Enjoy the short teaser video.