Learning the Culture



This year many of the St Mary's staff completed  a "home" based maori language paper through Te Wananga O Aotearoa.  It was nice to have a group of like minded learners working together to complete the mahi.

 Our tutor was Madrina and she was very helpful and understanding as we completed the set tasks.  The course was an interesting blend of familiar ideas and language as well as delving deeper into some areas of maori that I hadn't yet studied. 
There is a certain satisfaction in completing these courses as it shows that as a staff we are committed to acknowledging we need support.

 The course was very well resourced and the cards and other books were succinct enough that I still use them with my class.  In particular I enjoyed the last module about copyright and how certain ideas that uniquely maori need to be procected even if they are used with the best of intentions.

 Trying to teach maori in an authentic context with in schools that are not predominately maori there are many challenges.  And at times just doing your best is not actually doing your best.  I hope that as a staff we can get more support and as a group move forward in learning more of the language.

 There is much to learn.  Perhaps our next professional development in some STEM related activity can be done from a maori perspective or delivered in te reo maori.  That would be challenging and rewarding and would motivate me to continue to learn.

 When I find my certificate I will post it here.

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