Yesterday Brenda McPherson Came to chat with us about Te Tiriti o Waitangi. She shared some valuable information about the origin and the implications of the Treaty. It was sad to hear how the Moari people were treated unfairly and what the implication was for them. It hit close to home for me, coming from an unfair system of appartheid.
However, as Brenda emphasized, she did not share the information with us to make us feel heavy-hearted but to highlight the reality and the role we as teachers play in the way moving forward from here, especially as the Ministry of Education is not acting on this.
The question that was left with me to ponder on was, what was I going to change or do next year, to uplift and build our Maori students.
Our students have the right to enjoy their education, make progress and to achieve. Their culture should be respected and acknowledged as much as possible.
So what am I going to do?
I will start of with using the lovely Karakia that Brenda shared on her slide.
Kia ora, e hoa. It's great to see you considering how you can develop a classroom culture that recognises our responsibilities as a treaty partner. A positive first step is karakia and interspersing te reo in the classroom as you build confidence. Remember to use the appropriate karakia for the situation i.e. karakia to open (timatanga), close (whakamutunga) or for kai (mo te kai). Learning and using new kupu each week would be an excellent start, especially if you get the students involved in this learning.
ReplyDeleteThere are a wealth of resources to improve your Te Reo Maori. There's a small selection of these on our school site if you search Te Reo.
Awesome, thank you for the advice, will do!
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