Reflection on Te Tiriti o Waitangi Partnership

Here is a reflection I did for James in a Google form reflecting on Term 2. I felt that I should share it here as it is a good representation of how I meet professional standard number 1. It also means that I can come back to it if I need to.

Reflect & Comment on professional standard 1: (Te Tiriti o Waitangi Partnership) Demonstrate commitment to tangata whenuatanga and Tiriti o Waitangi partnership in Aotearoa New Zealand. *

Reflection
Te Ao Maori is something that I am often thinking about in my day to day life as a Maori person and I often think of ways to reflect this in my classroom. I actually only have one Maori student in my class, but this makes no difference to me. Part of the treaty refers to protecting taonga such as te reo and tikanga etc. In order to preserve this precious taonga for future generations, this needs to be shared with our rangatahi so that they can continue to pass it on and share it.

I have been studying this year Te Ara Re Maori Level 4 and each week I share my learning with my class in the form of vocabulary, activities and games.
Te Reo Maori is something I am excited to be learning and it helps me when I share it with the class. Some of the ways I do this are...
I call the roll in Maori each day and my students respond in Maori.
I speak in Maori and then immediately translate what I just said in English.
I use Maori vocabulary when teaching new things.  We are going to use our ta porowhita (compass) to draw the circle.
I use Maori instructions and kupu to praise students e.g. tino pai etc.
Here is an example of an assessment task I completed during my course, that I shared with my class. It is a picture book I wrote in Maori and I read it to my students. I also read it to the staff at our staff meeting to help prepare me to read it to my Wananga class.

Te Roopu Takitaki- The Avengers (Picture Book)

I am responsible for teaching new waiata to the school. This year I taught Nga Tane, Tukua atu ra and I have more to teach. One of my goals is to write an original song for the school too.
I'd also like to teach them some new karakia to increase their bank of karakia to use.
Next term I will be leading kapahaka and I will be in charge of Maori as a curriculum area. I am looking forward to supporting the development of my colleagues in this area.

In class I have put a large focus on Maori stories and in particular the creation story and stories about the Maori Atua. We used this learning to create a performance for the Kainui Concert at the end of Term 2.

Another thing that is important to me and links to this professional standard, is my connection with my whanau. I am great at communicating regularly via email, text, phone and See Saw. They are well informed about everything that happens in the class and know they are welcome in the class any time.
I make a point of sharing positive things about children with home and don't just ring up to tell a parent about problems with their child. That's not how I work. I see it as a team effort when teaching children and the connections with home are extremely important to me. I have to admit that Seesaw has been a really great tool to share with parents.