The Power of Team Meetings

Midway through the last term, we introduced our team whakatauki "He waka eke noa" and alongside this, regular team meetings. This was in an effort to strengthen and bring together our learners and have them recognise the value of their contributions, and the impact their decisions and choices around their learning have on their peers. We felt some of our students needed to hear this from their classmates in order for them to be confronted, reflect and make a conscious change.

I have been impressed by the seriousness with which our learners take these meetings, and the complete honesty expressed in their reflections. Learners are able to identify areas of our classroom culture that have a negative impact on their learning such as:

* people being disrespectful and not listening
* some people being silly with their friends instead of focusing on their learning
* noise levels (a significant issue for many)

I would like to acknowledge that we are a large team with a focus on collaborative teaching and learning, meaning we constantly have a variety of group or pair work on the go. Lower levels of communication are a necessity to ensure safe levels of noise, and although we have definitely made progress with this area, I think many students were taken by surprise at how much of an impact this had on the team as a whole.

They were also able to articulate their part in this, and what they were each going to do moving forward to improve our learning environment for everyone. I believe this ability can be directly attributed to the weekly goal setting each student completes and has done so since the beginning of the year.

Our meetings and team whakatauki are closely tied to our school DRIVER values, which are embedded in our team culture and the daily conversations we have with our learners.

This term we had our first meeting last Wednesday (Week one). This gave learners two days on which to reflect. The vibe was very positive, with students overall happy with the start the team had made to the term. They all identified and verbalised one goal they could contribute to keeping the culture positive and also what was already happening that was giving us this positive feeling. Comments included:

* we are excited about our learning as there are lots of cool things happening
     (DIY badges for inquiry; student-led workshops; coding; student-driven Maths learning and     workshops, SML)
* we are being more mindful of others with our noise level
* people are making better choices about who they sit beside in the meeting space and when learning
* people aren't being silly anymore

The team meetings have become a very powerful tool for everyone. The honest reflection and open communication, recognition of what they can each do to help make our team amazing and the genuine desire to do this is an incredible process to be a part of.  It has certainly improved empathy and recognition that others have needs that we need to value and be mindful of.