Our Standards - Reflections

Ti Tiriti o Waitangi partnership is important to me and I think it needs to be at the forefront of my mind as a beginning teacher, and throughout my career. While Aotearoa New Zealand is a multicultural society, first and foremost, we are a bicultural society, as partners to Te Tiriti o Waitangi. One quote that resonated with me early in our course work was a personal communication from Russell Bishop (2008), “What works for ‘everyone’ doesn’t work for Māori, but what works for Māori works for everyone.” This is something that I frequently reflect on and think about while planning lessons and want to foster as I build a culture in my own classroom.

My use of te reo is improving, but I still classify myself as a beginner and am nervous about pronouncing words incorrectly, it is an area I am working on to develop. I am pleased that my son’s school recognises the importance of whānau learning and using te reo by including a whakamahana (warm up activity) in the weekly newsletter and running a monthly learning session for whānau. I am taking advantage of both of these and hope that I end up working in a school with similar values.

I have tried to increase my use of te reo in the classroom, both for myself, and my students. I found doing a ‘word of the day’ during my first and second practicum helped me to learn more vocabulary and introduce it into the classroom in a natural way. Speaking with a teacher on my second practicum who was integrating te reo and tikanga Māori really well in her own classroom, one major takeaway I had was that putting lots of words up on the wall serves as a fantastic reminder for the teacher and it is something I intend to do in my own classroom.

“Finda upholds Māori learners as Māori and provide contexts for learning where the identity, language, and culture of Māori learners and their whānau is acknowledged.” Lesley Blackmore, Associate Teacher

The New Zealand Curriculum’s vision talks about creating lifelong learners who are active seekers, users and creators of knowledge, and I think it is especially important for teachers to live and model this. Through my teaching as inquiry focus, I saw the impact that an inquiry can have, even over a short period of time, and can see myself using this throughout my teaching career as a way to learn more and reflect on my own teaching practices, in order to provide better learning outcomes for my students.

I was privileged to attend professional development for Maths, Literacy and Duty of Care while on my final practicum. I learnt a lot during these sessions and was able to integrate some of this new learning into my teaching. I am aware of how much learning I still have to do.

While attending team and staff meetings, I engaged in discussion and learning activities. I enjoyed working collaboratively on definitions for the school dispositions that worked across the whole school, rather than specific ones for junior, middle and senior school and working on contextualised questions for GloSS tests that could work across all curriculum levels.

I am also aware of how my beliefs and upbringing colour my view of the world, and that the same is true for others. Growing up in a Youth Hostel, with visitors from across the globe, I am conscious of looking at things from the perspective of others. Taking the cultural beliefs, backgrounds, needs and abilities of my students into account when teaching and creating the culture in my classroom is something I consciously think about and reflect on.

“Collaborative colleague discussions have been regularly held both formally and informally to prepare, change or improve classroom learning.” Lesley Blackmore, Associate Teacher

“We had many in-depth discussions about a wide range of educational topics and were able to share and enlighten each other’s ideas.” Lesley Blackmore, Associate Teacher

I worked hard to foster good relationships with my students and their whānau, my teaching colleagues and the other people that contribute to a school, such as the Teacher Aides, Librarian, Caretaker, Cleaner and Office Staff.

I involved myself in school activities, helping out as much as I could. I was privileged to be involved in a school tryathlon, seeing the organisation and cooperation that went into it was illuminating. I stayed out in the playground after the school bell rang, organising bikes for parents who were late so that the other teachers were able to return to their own classes, and helped supervise during the event. While I was on Practicum, we had an evening event where John Parsons spoke to parents while teachers supervised children. I supervised (with my AT) one of the two bouncy castles, as no one came to relieve me, I remained supervising for the whole event. It was a really good opportunity for me to interact with the students and their whānau.

Relationships are key in teaching and ensuring that professional boundaries are maintained is crucial. As part of John Parson’s visit, I was able to attend a professional development session on ‘Duty of Care’ and I found this particularly helpful as a beginning teacher.

“During the practicum, Finda discussed the cultural factors that influence students, whanau and teachers at Central Normal School. Finda worked toward understanding student’s family backgrounds in order to facilitate a positive learning environment and was pleasant and supportive of parent/caregiver/whanau needs. As part of our School’s philosophy and practice, Finda confidently demonstrated support of Tikanga Māori and scaffolded the use of Te Reo Māori on a daily basis” Lesley Blackmore, Associate Teacher

“You have formed a lovely bond with all the children in the class. You are warm and nurturing but also hold a professional boundary.” Jasmine Hansen, Appraiser (Visit 2)

I think that developing an environment or culture where children feel comfortable and empowered fosters learning. I want my classroom to be a safe place for all of my students, one where they can be themselves and can speak and share ideas without being scared of being made to feel stupid or dumb, and be an active participant in their own learning, no matter what their age is. Respecting the beliefs and culture of others is important to me and I want everyone to feel that they don’t need to change who they are at school.

I have seen how having an organised classroom helps to create an environment that is conducive to learning, and I’m already thinking about the equipment I want in my classroom and how I can store it so it is easily accessible but there is lots of space available for learning, activities and play.

During Practicum three, we had a series of maths lessons that involved making treasure maps. We designed the lessons around some other pirate activities, such as making pirate hats (which also introduced symmetry), stories and talking like pirates. We took photos of the children in their hats and made a display with the maps and some photos of their learning and the pirate activities. This was put up on the windows of the classroom and generated interest from children (and adults including whānau and staff) outside the class. I liked the concept of displaying the learning from a maths lesson in a classroom, and the interest that it generated. I feel that this shows a learning-focused culture in action and is the sort of environment that I would like to create in my own classroom.

“Finda made a concerted effort to talk to the learners in the class and find out about their

culture and identity. She made the learners feel valued and comfortable sharing this

information as she made connections with them.” Jess Love, Associate Teacher, Practicum 1 & 2

No two people learn in exactly the same way, and I think it is important to use a variety of different approaches, strategies and resources to ensure that children are able to learn in a way that works for them. I have a strong interest in technology and am conscious of integrating technology with learning in a positive way.

In one of my classes, one of the students was ORS funded. They had a fulltime Teacher Aide and an IEP. While a lot of their learning was done with their Teacher Aide and ORS teacher, I was able to involve them in some of my class lessons. This showed me how important it is to design lessons that work for children who are learning at different stages, both children that need support and children that need to be extended. I was pleased when their teacher asked me to make a copy of some of the work they had done so it could be added into their sharing book and shared with their whānau.

Using a variety of methods to assess learning and identify the next steps is important and an area I want to focus on, to ensure that I am meeting the needs of all learners in my class. I am conscious about providing mastery feedback, connecting it specifically to what is being learnt in the lesson.

As with many of the standards, learning needs to be designed around Te Tiriti o Waitangi and this is something that is important to me.

Throughout my practicums, particularly the third one as I have taken on full control over an extended period of time, I have started to develop a greater range of teaching strategies. I am getting more confident at changing the strategy I am using if I think something isn’t working as effectively as I would like.

Being open to trying different strategies, resources, technology and assessing the learning that comes from these is something that I want to develop throughout my career. Each year I will have a different group of students, and what works for some, won’t work for others, so I need to be willing and able to try different ways of teaching, so that my students are able to learn effectively.

Teaching is a collaborative endeavour, and I want to empower my students to work together and learn from each other. I think it is important to provide opportunities for learning in a variety of ways and contexts so that students can make connections with their prior learning.

Making sure that my class is in a mental space where they are willing and able to learn is important – sometimes things won’t work or the class will be unsettled. I need to read these situations, respond and adjust my teaching accordingly. This may be as simple as getting the class to stand up and move around to help them re-set when they have been sitting for a while or involve stopping what I am doing, starting something else and coming back to the original lesson at a later stage.

I have been working on different strategies to ensure that my teaching environment is calm and conducive to learning, and I am building up a repertoire of these. I found that my class management improved over time, and it was incredibly helpful being involved in setting the culture at the beginning of the year. I can see how important this is to facilitate effective teaching and it will be top of mind when I am setting up my own class.

Having expectations of and belief in my students is important to me. I believe that everyone can learn and make progress and it is my responsibility to find ways of teaching so that all of the children in my class have successful learning journeys.