Week Five
Its about confidence in my
class..more children lack confidence than behave badly. Not that I am complaining at all. I know I’m
quite lucky to have minimal behavioural issues in my class however in some ways
I think that building confidence and independence in children is much harder to
do than to manage behaviour. There are
children in my class who are, for want of a better word, pathetic. It is very clear that they have had
everything done for them and are not expected to take responsibility for much
at home. They ask repeated questions and expect to be told every little step
over and over again. They don’t start their work because they don’t have a
pencil and when asked if they have looked for a pencil they say they don’t know
where to look. This is not even a joke
and the child expects that I will find a pencil, put it in his hand and tell
him what to write. Some are so unsure of
themselves that they ask questions they know the answer to just to be sure. I
understand that we are all different and we all come from different backgrounds
and different expectations are laid on us all, by ourselves and by other
people. My challenge is to bring these children to a point that they feel
confident in themselves, confident enough to ask questions and take risks
without fear of getting things wrong and understand that making mistakes is
part of how we move forward in our learning. I often share with the children
when I make a mistake, especially in small groups however I think I need to
spend more time talking to them about the importance of having a go. I’m unsure
as to exactly how I can change things in my class to ensure that children are
more confident. It is something I may have to work with individuals in this
case and spend time with them to find out exactly what it is that is holding
them back. This will be an ongoing goal,
to see all my students comfortable with making mistakes and knowing that it is
ok and it helps them move forward in their learning.
Week 6
Last week we had a
teachers only day that was dedicated to finding better ways to integrate Maori
culture into our school, and how to get more out of our maori and pacific
students. The day was not what I expected at all. These days are professional
development days so my expectation was that we would be talked at for most part
of the day and there would be lots of information thrown our way. While there was information and there was
some talking, it was mostly done by staff, not the facilitator. We had some amazing sharing time and got to
see sides of people in our school that we wouldn’t normally get to see in a
normal school day. Often we are running around busy, even in the break times so
the chance to talk, on a deeper level very rarely comes up. One of the main things that I felt run
through the day was how significant building relationships with our families
within the school is. I’ve always known that, but I guess I’ve always focussed
on the children in my class and not necessarily their parents. Ana shared about the importance of food in
the maori culture and that a simple offer of a cup of tea while talking about a
child's learning could make all the difference. Trying to get these families
into our school to sit down and talk about their learning is hugely
intimidating for them and they would rather not come at all. But if we were to
offer to come to them or just sit over morning tea with them, we may get
further. It has made me think about what
I could do better in terms of relationships with the families in my class.
There are a handful of parents that I
see often outside the classroom but I don’t often stand and chat with
them…maybe this is something I will start.
The interesting part was that overall the Maori students are under achieving
in our school by a long shot. However, in our class we only have two maori
students and they are two of our top students across the board. Why? What is different about them? Is it
ethnicity, is it culture, is it family, is it circumstances? The day was eye opening in many ways and I am
looking forward to doing more in our classroom that lines up with the Maori
culture. I do know that it will be a long slow process for it to become a
natural part of our school and classrooms.
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