"You can't build a great building on a weak foundation" (Gordon B. Hinckley)
I am in the business of working with people. I am in the business of helping people. I work in an industry that is designed on creating, nurturing and building a culture of learning for young people. What I have learnt that it is important that my values, my learners values and the school's values are set as a solid foundation in my classroom and in my pedagogy. Values is defined as "the regard that something is held to deserve; the importance, worth, or usefulness of something" - important, worthy and useful are the key words that define what values are. Samoa has several values, but the three that I want to point out are tautua (service), faaaloalo (respect) and alofa (love). I have spoken about these values, how important they are in my life and how I have used them in my own teaching practice (see Alby's Blog: Entry - 13/06/22). For me, values is something that helps to keep me grounded and it gives me a sense of purpose, it reminds why I am doing what I am doing and at the same time acts as a moral compass especially when I am dealing with challenging students or situations at school.
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| Totara House 2022 |
In my role as a House Dean, I understand that the spirit and overall dynamic of the house is a reflection on how I lead it. I have taken the same approach from how I lead Totara House in 2021 in that the main driver for the House is our values, things that are important to us and this is the sole focus. This year the House Leaders and I spoke to all of the students during the mentoring sessions (Monday morning) and visited other students during class time, to gage with them and see what they wanted Totara House to represent. The leaders lead the discussion and shared what they wanted the House to represent and the students (for the most part) were interested and engaged because they could relate more to the House Leaders.
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| House Leaders Falakika, Lisia + Miracle with 9TNi |
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| House Leaders David, Siale + Maletina with 9TGu |
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| House Leaders Miracle + Siale with 11TKh |
I could have easily given the House a set of values that I thought were relevant. However I know that students are really invested in their learning when they can see themselves in it. I knew that getting them to share and feedback what they thought was important to the House, could be both rewarding and empowering for them. The focus question this year was the same question that we posed to the students in 2021, which was '
What do you want Totara House to represent?'. Here is the feedback from the students (there are some interesting answers here, but that is the nature of student voice - we had a good laugh with it).
9TGu:
Kind
Confident
Identity
Responsibility
Perseverance
Commitment
Positive Attitude
Team work
Participation
Integrity
9TNi:
To come first - Success
RISE Values
Over achievement
Participation
Respect
10TPt:
Confidence
Teamwork
Unity
Dignity
RISE Values
Positivity
Innovation
Not giving/perseverance
Kindness
Responsibility
Encouragement
Respect
Motivation
11TKh:
Respect
Intelligence
Responsibility
Try your best/Try hard
On time
Take a shot
Acceptance
Respect
Attitude
Green - Life/Nature
11TTt:
Unity
Confidence
Reliable
Resilience
Participation
Commitment
Aspiration
Inspiration
12TFn:
Respect
Food (Danny)
Teamwork
Dignity
Purpose to learn
Water (Danny)
Responsibility
Attitude
Ratu (Vanikolo)
Fizzy (Danny)
Loyalty
Mindset
WHY (Purpose)
Have fun
Totara House Leadership Team +Year 13s (13TBk + 13TDs):
Falakika: Resilience
Maletina: Unity
Miracle: Team/family unit
Lakai: Unity - a house that gets along with everyone in it. A house where being comfortable is the main focus. Comfortable coming to see sir and us leaders.
Lisia: I want our house to represent family, where we can all put our BEST into our education and life.
Siale: I want our house to be represented well with whatever they do.
David: Family - I want everyone to come together as a family, as one.
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| Reviewing the feedback with the House Leaders. |
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| Totara House Values 2022 |
Once the feedback was completed, the leaders and I reviewed the student voice. We looked for common values across each class and then found some common themes that the students shared in the discussion. It did not take long for us to identify the values that the students wanted their House to represent. It was clear throughout the feedback that the common values that were echoed from Year 9 to Year 13 were Respect, Family and Resilience. So in honoring what was shared from our students, we revealed our 2022 Totara House Values to the students at our most recent House Assembly (Friday June 17 - Week 7).
The House Leaders will now focus on how to initiate activities that focus on our House Values. Collectively we will work together on how we can address these values (in innovative ways) in our House assemblies. For now, I am happy that we are at a place where we have a value set that we can lean in on. I look forward in documenting Totara House's journey with their values in Term 3. Personally I am excited that we have a moral backbone - something that the students designed and shared - to use a foundation for our House. We look forward to building a House that is grounded in values that is reflected by student voice and I am interested to see how we celebrate these values as a House.
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