Charlotte Verity Professional Learning (School Based)

Over the last fortnight, I have looked at how I can increase Te Reo in my practise.  I have done this by: * Making more use of Te Reo for instructions e.g. "Kia tere!";  "Homai te...(pene etc)"; "E noho."  * Using Te Reo more for greetings with students' whaanau and students themselves * Ensuring there are more Te Reo books in our class library shelf * Observing and utilising Sherilee's (weekly Te Reo teacher) examples, and checking my pronunciation with her  * Including more waiata in class e.g. Matariki waiata, Ka Kite waiata * Allowing for more output  opportunities e.g. practising our greeting during roll call * Ensuring we say the karakia every day I found information on providing students with ooportunities for input  and output informed my practice: http://hereoora.tki.org.nz/Teachers-notes/Teaching-te-reo-Maori-effectively and great resources for Te Reo Week 2-10 July here:  http://www.tetaurawhiri.govt.nz/what-we-do/events-a...

The Treaty - Why is it important? * We need to understand the past to understand the present * Bi-cultural practise = treaty-based practice * All students should have opportunity to learn about Te Reo,  Māori culture  * Teachers have a role in helping the future generation understand their past and each other (students) * Our country's history (and ours) is a woven mix of  Māori and European culture  Assimilation European migration carried a social policy known as 'assimilation', or that races were hierarchically from 'savage' to civilised races. The British government of the time saw themselves and their culture as superior, and that other cultures should be taught how to 'be' British. Native schools were established to 'assimilate  Māori to the habits and usages of the European' (Consedine, R & Consedine, J (2001) Healing Our History: The Challenge of the Treaty of Waitangi ). The Treaty Debate 'Māori seek justi...

Inquiry into the  Māori migration to NZ - 'Getting there Together' Term 2, 2015 During Term 2, students learnt about how the early  Māori worked together on the migration to NZ and in early Pa life. This aligned well with our school value of 'we get there together'. We also explored the flora and fauna of NZ at the time the  Māori arrived, and reflected on how it had changed since. Students then took this learning and practised 'getting there together' by forming small groups and worked collaboratively. Students planned to create an aspect of early  Māori life; planned and collected their resources to do so; and then problem solved situations together. One of the highlights of this learning was having parents in class to work with the students. One father came and taught a small group of boys about carving. He brought cultural knowledge and experience far beyond anything I could offer the students as a teacher, and having a different personality in the roo...