Unpacking the Tapasa document

Turu 1 is about teachers knowing and understanding that specific identities, languages and cultures of Pacific learners underpins the way they think and learn.

• Knowing and understanding of the impact it has for students
• Understanding the culture and the relevance
• Building on relationships and knowing the learners, families 
• Giving families opportunities to be involved and share their cultures to us and others. 
• For teachers to teach effectively they need to know their past and background and embracing their journey 
• Teachers being able to understand students learning processes

In practice, the teacher needs to utilise Pacific constructs to engage and collaborate in different and meaningful ways that empower Pacific learners, parents, families and communities -

• The teacher and school need to have knowledge of Pacific constructs - tikanga / ways of doing things 
• Teachers need to use resources, tools, references and conceptual models to enhance the relationships, learning, etc
• Teachers need to incorporate words, songs, activities, and artifacts in the classroom (engagement and prior knowledge)

Turu 2 alludes to the reciprocal notion of collaborative power sharing and relationships -

• The teacher and parents have a positively respectful relationship and work together - understanding and valuing what teachers are doing at school and what parents are doing at home - to empower the child to be their best, most-authentic selves

It is the schools and teachers responsibility to ensure the value of all ethnicities and that the system isn’t favouring and privileging a ‘majority’ culture and knowledge

Teachers should be reflective in their practice to ensure there is balance and power sharing is enhanced (collaborative relationships)

Turu 3 - Effective Pacific pedagogies

• Engaging in ongoing professional development and seeking support to further develop Pacific confidence(research and evidence based)
• Embedding Pacific world views,conceptual models, learning styles etc into teaching pedagogy /planning/ teaching styles
• Understanding Pacific learners as a whole adapting teaching approaches to cater to the learning needs 
• Working with Pacific learners /parents /communities seeking ideas and feedback- Making connections 

In my practice after looking into this document I feel like a goal for me in 2020 would be to make sure I give time to build on my students cultures and where they come from. Getting them to share where they are from and building those relationships at the start of the year. Giving students the opportunity to tell me who they are and what is important to them. This would set them up at the start of the year and let them know that I do care and that I am interested in what they have to say.

Te Reo Maori

This week in class we have read the story of Maui and the Battle of the Mountains. The story is about the mountains of New Zealand and how they ended up in the places they are now.
We looked at the story as a class and discussed the Maori words and meanings in the story.

We then created some art work about the mountains which we think are pretty great. Enjoy our Art as we keep learning about the Maori myths and Legends in New Zealand.

Kapa Haka

Kapa Haka
In our school all of the teachers are required to be in charge of an area of leadership around the school. As Kapa Haka has become such a big area our lead teacher needs another teacher to help with managing juniors and seniors. We have decided as a staff that each term a different teacher can take up this job to help out and also learn the songs, movements and help to improve general Te Reo Maori knowledge.
I feel that this will help me with my standard around Te Tiriti o Waitangi and help me in getting some more evidence around these areas

• Understand and recognise the unique status of tangata whenua in Aotearoa New Zealand.
• Understand and acknowledge the histories, heritages, languages and cultures of partners to Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
• Practise and develop the use of te reo and tikanga Māori.

Celebrating Matariki

We had Paulette and Wiremu come into our classroom to share some Te Reo instruments and traditional objects that make sounds. Our class loved this as they were exposed to something new that they had never seen before. It was great for the students to look into the objects and learn how they make sounds. We even had to listen carefully to hear the pronunciation of the words and how we could say them.
After they had left we wrote down the different objects we enjoyed and discussed their heritages. The standard Te Tiriti O Waitangi Partnership is to understand and acknowledge the histories, heritages, languages and cultures of partners to Te Tiriti o Waitangi. I feel like this activity hugely impacted on this standard and the students loved it.

Learn, Create, Share

We have been involved in Manaiakalani so far this year. One of the main ideas of Maniakalani is to learn and then create something, and then share it online. In the classroom we have been using Ipads to investigate about our learning around oceans which is our inquiry topic. Students love to search for information and use the ICT to help them. One thing that they need to work on is pulling out the main ideas from sites and readings instead of just copying word for word.
Our create activity this week was to create a 3D cube that displayed different pieces of information on each side of the cube. The students loved this activity as they could choose their own sea creature and then display it.
The students then were asked to share a photo of their learning onto Seesaw which is our class learning site until we use blogger. They needed to explain what they did and what the activity was about.
My class is thoroughly enjoying the learn, create, share as they can go back and see what they are learning and they are able to get feedback from other students in the class and feedback from their whanau.
I need to go onto Seesaw and give the students feedback as it will give the task more purpose and meaning for the students.

Learning the new standards

There are now 6 teaching standards

-Te Tiriti o Waitangi partnership: Demonstrate commitment to tangata whenuatanga and Te Tiriti o Waitangi partnership in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Eg: matariki, whakapapa, maori myths and legends, reflections

Professional Learning: Use inquiry,collaborative problem-solving and professional learning to improve professional capability to impact on the learning and achievement of all learners.
Eg: mindlab, literacy leadership, obs and feedback, teaching as inquiry

Professional relationships: Establish and maintain professional relationships and behaviours focused on the learning and wellbeing of each learner.
Eg: site, admin, collaborative planning,

Learning-focused culture: Develop a culture that is focused on learning, and is characterised by respect, inclusion,empathy,collaboration and safety.
Eg: Photos, learning setting(quiet area), group work, why have you set up the classroom that you have, groupings

Design for learning: Design learning based on curriculum and pedagogical knowledge,assessment information and an understanding of each learner’s strengths,interests,needs,identities,languages and cultures. Eg: formative assessment, needs analysis, Te Reo planning, specialist teaching (Alim), planning,

Teaching: Teach and respond to learners in a knowledgeable and adaptive way to progress their learning at an appropriate depth and pace.
AKO
Takes responsibility for their own learning and that of Māori learners
Eg: technologies, learning activities, assessment, same as first 2, need written reflections in each