Te wiki o te reo Maori

This wiki I aimed to bring Maori to the front of the students' roro by embedding kupu I have learnt into everyday teaching and by running activities with my hub:

HUB:

Rāhina- We went over basic greetings and everyday phrases as a hub.

My hublings then selected a feeling in Maori.

We got into a conversation doughnut and students had to ask each partner

'Kei te pehea koe?'

and answer with their emotion...

'Kei te ngenge ahau'.

Rātū- For our 10 minutes check in, I got the students to select a word from the body. We then tried to remember the sequence and then went in a circle to try and list the words in order (like in my shopping basket)

Rāapa- For our 10 minutes check in, I gave the students a four square grid on a piece of paper. This was like bingo but only with wha kupu. I laid out the words from the week and asked the students to write down the maori version. When they had filled their four squares, I called out the English version and they had to mark off the translations. The person to get all four first won.

Rāpare- I divided a special scrabble set consisting of Maori letters in half and got my hub into two groups. They were to have a scrabble race to see how many Maori words they could piece together in 5 minutes. I encouraged the students to share their knowledge during this process.

Rāmere- I was able to find a Kahoot specially prepared for Te wiki o te reo Maori.

Reflection:

Particularly, having not grown up in New Zealand, I have always been keen to embrace the Maori culture, but have been afraid that I would make a terrible blunder, or as I'm from another country, my attempts would be considered unauthentic. There have never been any experiences that have justified this feeling. I've being receptive to te reo Maori since living here, and have participated in classes and engaged in traditional protocols, yet I have found it hard to use what I know within teaching.

Over the past few weeks, I have been studying Maori as part of an online course and finding success and confidence in doing so. During this year's te wiki o te reo Maori, I aimed to introduce this into my teaching and found a positive response from students that also highly valued the language and culture. Although this week is over, I'm keen to maintain my focus on te reo Maori, and hope that my knowledge and new found confidence influences others.

#TeTiritioWaitangipartnership