TOD Hauora and Behavior Analysis

Our first TOD was run by Denise Simons, who is a life coach from Relate Coaching (www.relatecoaching.co.nz.). The primary purpose of the session was to offer us tools we can use to help manage our stress so that we are not running ourselves down and needing time off. We began by identifying the positive and negative aspects of 2014. By doing this we were beginning the process of letting it go so that we are not carrying old stress into the new year. It was quite cathartic being able to voice the challenges of last year, as it was an exceptionally challenging year in many aspects. Next we listed the positives and negatives we anticipate for this year to help recognise and then manage the stress we are carrying on anticipated future stress. Which when you think of it seems a waste of energy to carry anticipated stress. I liked having the opportunity to express how I feel about the time off I had to have due to my back, as it wasn't only difficult for the school, it made my life extremely difficult and stressful. Next we were introduced to the concept of a Committed Listener. We practiced being a Committed Listener. I like this concept as I am one to talk my issues out and I will often seek out a colleague to bounce off. It's nice to have someone whose role is to be your listener and to be able to offer this back to another colleague. I am always impressed with what a open and communicative staff we are. We are very good  at sharing our views and thoughts and listening to others. Finally she talked to us about our 'skin bag' and our 'wairua'. our skinbag is our physical body and the nagging voice at the back of our mind. Denise talked to us about not letting the skinbag overtake our wairua. Take time to pull our wairua forward and find our center again. Overall I was not sure how the day would go I thought it would be airy fairy and of little use, but in fact it was great! 

The second TOD was run by Robin Harawera. The focus was on functional behavior analysis. We talked about how to identify the trigger to the behavior, what happened next and what was the direct result of the child's behavior. We talked about the need to recognize when a string of behaviors are all still a continued response to a single incident and not to treat them as separate incidents.As a result we have now modified our GGL behaviour tracking sheets to include the functional analysis.