Taha Māori Folder

1. Taha Māori Folder Te Kete

2. Taha / Perspective

3. Perspective Shopping You need to take your clock and make appointments with different people in the room. You should have a mixture of people from different areas of the school. This is about collecting perspectives. If anyone is left out one group of three is allowed. Make sure you both write each others names in the same space so you don’t double book yourself.

4. Wā Kōrero With your hoa from ‘Poupoutangaote rā’(12 o’clock), discuss… Your perspective about why? Why is it important for us to teach from a Māori perspective? Why is te reo me tikanga Māori important? Make sure both partners share their perspectives.

5. Wā Kōrero With your hoa from ‘He ono karaka’ (six o’clock), discuss… Who are our learners of Māori at GSNS? What are their needs? What prior knowledge and experiences do they bring to school about te reo and tikanga Māori?

6. Wā Korero With your hoa from ‘He toru karaka’ discuss… In what ways do you offer a Māori flavour in your classroom in meaningful and authentic ways? What ideas do you have that could help you to increase this more this year

7. Sharing Practice • Language boxes, books, games in reading corner. • He purapura, Tupu series • Labels, vocabulary for topics • Always add some Māori link if you can, information is only a google search away, there are so many links for Maths, Science, Technology, Social Studies and Language. Use the + sign in your search. • TKI, Māori Community, Teaching and Resources • Use Māori in your classroom, start with some nouns within an English sentence • If you are going to learn anything start with pronunciation- It is so important!

8. Some notes about the folder • I’ve tried to keep it very modern and relevant, so many resources for Māori are old and I think children often get the message that Māori is very much a part of the past not the present or future. • There are lots of ICT resources and notes on how to put macrons on vowels, it is a spelling mistake if you don’t use these correctly. If any child has a symbol on their name you can use the same tool. • The point of meaningful integration is that Māori is seen as a part of everyday life in NZ, and in our classrooms and schools.

9. The most important thing… He aha te mea nuioteao? He tangata! He tangata! He tangata! What is the most important thing in the world? It is people! It is people! It is people!

10. Te Kotahitanga Research to investigate how Māori student achievement in mainstream schools could be improved. “The teacher I liked best wasn’t Māori but he could have been. He knew all about our stuff. Like he knew how to say my name. He never did dumb things like sit on tables or patting you on the head. He knew about fantails in a room. He knew about tangis…He never made a fuss…He expected us to work and behave well. We went on picnics and class trips and the whānau came along. We planned our lessons together. “

11. A different style of teaching communicates a different philosophy. I knew I was in a Māori classroom because… Emotional learning. Storytelling. Humour and sharing personal information. Strong Relationships between everyone. Connections. Discovery Learning Support and Challenge Teaching to the needs of students, not what was always planned. Mindreading. The bigger picture, connections. Thinking for yourself, sharing perspectives. Everyone has a time to speak and all opinions are listened to. Co-operative learning- shared responsibility- Belonging. Motivation- Real life learning- Māori for me was learning about life. There is always time- especially for the most important things.

12. Some more student perspectives “Let us co-operate about the work. Yeah we have good ideas, good sensible ideas about how to do things. Just ask us.” “Good teachers give you a say in how things are done around the school and in the classroom. They listen to you. You can suggest another way of doing something and they don’t put you down.”

13. “Good teachers know where we are coming from. They recognise that I am Māori and I have things to bring with me to school. They take you for what you are and that stuff…They want to know how I’m thinking about things. Good teachers really listen to you. They listen to your opinion. They find positive ways to make us learn.” “When I first started school I had a Māori name but none of the teachers could say it. So now I am T” “Mostly everywhere we go the teachers tell us a bit and then make us write a lot. It’s like they pour the stuff into us.”

14. “If you don’t like something we’re doing tell us quietly…If we muck up then warn us and if we are too thick to listen then move us.” “Situations from our own experiences, experiences that are important to us. I think that will make it easier for students to learn from.” “They have to laugh with you instead of just sitting there, but still keeping us in line. Keep the class in order, but still laughing with you…that helps you like the subject.” “He always came and saw our whānau at home, more than once during the year. He invited the whānau into our room anytime…He was choice.”

15. Last Hui Has your thinking changed or become clearer today? Has someone else perspective help you access anything you didn’t know that you didn’t know? What will you do in your classroom this year to inject some Māori style?