We started by introducing ourselves via our pepeha and it was great to see everyone giving it a go whether in Te Reo or English.
The biggest part of the day that I found helped me was the sharing of ideas with other teachers, finding out what they do and how they do it - and best of all - did it actually WORK?! I was fortunate enough to be with two kaiako who teach at an immersion Te Reo Māori school so they gave me new kupu to use in class. My goal is to use more Māori in class for my Māori learners - I will be cultivating these relationships.
We started using the planner and a large part of the session was learning how to use it properly. We focused on the WHY tamariki exhibit certain behaviours; what lay behind that behaviour. Being able to identify the reason for the behaviour (not that they had a bad day prior to this, or something has happened at home) made it easier to figure out how to handle that behaviour. If they want attention from others in the class, getting attention from the kaiako is not going to help them necessarily to overcome this.
Although it is a programme from the USA, I feel that its relevancy to a New Zealand setting is going to be good. Psychological behaviours are of course influenced by the culture it is centred in or comes from, but the brains of humans are a universal constant across the world. We certainly also do not need to reinvent the wheel. As long as we tailor it to each CHILD then we are doing right by them, whether the programme comes from the US or Timbuktu.
I am really looking forward to the rest of the course. There is a large amount of reading but since I love to read - I can't wait!
