Teaching Portfolio

As part of boosting Maori literacy in the school one of my student has been selected to join a focus group. He attends a Tuakana Teina session four afternoons a week focusing on literacy and seems to really enjoy this time. The school decided to organise a Whanau Hui to give parents an opportunity to comment on how the school is going with the Maori journey. I found this an interesting meeting with a diverse group of parents and has caused me to reflect on several things in my classroom. Firstly I was impressed with the turnout of parents that attended. The afternoon was relaxed and enjoyable and the parents really seemed to enjoy networking with each other and the school. Something that made me think were two conversations I had with two different mothers. One mother talked to me in great detail about how she appreciates the school ‘giving it a go’ and encouraging our Maori students to get in touch with their heritage. She also spoke about extra-curricular Maori classes her child i...

This week we held a community consultation evening with Dr Cheryl Doig to discuss the future modern learning changes to education. As a school we have been trialling a variety of modern learning mindsets and environments and it was great to get parent feedback on this. I found this evening really interesting as a wide variety of parents attended and I got to hear lots of different thoughts and opinions. I found it really useful to talk to parents of children in room 20/21 as they felt the teaching and learning environment here was a perfect transition from early-childhood to primary school. They also expressed disappointment that their children may not be in a similar set-up next year. This led me to think about our continuity as a school and how we cater to the range of needs and wants our community put forward. These particular parents were keen to see their children remain in a collaborative classroom next year however other parents were a bit hesitant. I am excited about the poss...