Download this presentation. You can make a copy of the slides if you wish to edit them for your team.

Weaving Te Whāriki and Tapasā

Transcripts for audio files in slides

Slide 23

• Transcript

  Talofa, I am a Samoan student teacher. When I first started teaching I was only a reliever, still figuring out if I wanted to pursue this teaching career. Now I am in my second year of studying and I couldn’t be more happy and lucky to be able to learn and grow in this industry.

  Weaving Tapasā and Te Whāriki within the centre has allowed me to recognise the importance of relationship and the values that they both hold. Being involved in a Pacifika centre we are all about our tamariki and fanau and what we can do to enhance their learning. By doing so we are always finding ways to connect with our community and collaborating with our learners, fanau, and kaiako and have now completed our model design to help young Pacific children understand, grow, and connect with learning surrounded by their culture.

Slide 24

• Transcript

  Kia ora, kia orāna, ni sa bula vinaka, ia ora na, and warm Pacific greetings. Talofa lava, mālō le soifua. When I started teaching, actually I started teaching from a young age. I was teaching as soon as I could help my parents take care of my younger siblings and help with the household responsibilities in our home and extended ainga. That teaching and learning developed my love of being with young children which led to teaching in Sunday school and combined youth group in our church. It was always a dream for me to become a teacher and when I finally realised my childhood dream I was then teaching and parenting our four young children.

  In all teaching contexts, different teaching settings, and teaching experiences, it was always a collaborative process. A relational connection with students and children. A relational connection with parents and extended families, with colleagues, leaders, management, governance, and community. A relational connection based on the Samoan culture and Christian values I was brought up in.

  As a student teacher then becoming a beginning teacher, what a great starting point, I believe, to weave into your new career pathway your identity – who you are and all the cultural values and beliefs that you have. In our teaching practice you will learn, as I learnt and still learning, to strengthen the values and relational connections that define, inspire, and guide us as teachers. The values that underpin our code, our standards of: whakamana of empowering all learners; manaakitanga, creating a welcoming, caring, and creative learning environment; pono showing integrity, whanaungatanga, engaging in positive and collaborative relationships with our learners.

  Now as an experienced kaiako and leader I am reminded that no one can do you, only you can. In the setting of early childhood education I am a hands-on kaiako and leader because in my experience that has made the most positive impact on children's learning outcomes and contributed the most gains with developing and strengthening teachers’ practice. But if it takes a village to raise a child, then key to that kaupapa is engaging our families, fanau, and community with our children's learning. Creating an educationally powerful and relational connection with all members of the village. He aha te mea nui o te ao? What is the most important thing in the world? He tangata, he tangata, he tangata. It is the people, it is the people, it is the people. Fa'afetai.