Activity Five: Connection Map

This Connection Map outlines the professional connections I have that impact my practice.

Te Wananga o Aotearoa

This year I have been studying Te Ara Maori Level 2 through Te Wananga o Aotearoa. Not only am I gaining an education in speaking Te Reo (maori language) and understanding tikanga (protocols), I'm also gaining knowledge about different teaching practices and gaining empathy for my students. Our lecturer emphasise the different learning styles of Audio, Visual and Kinaesthetic learning. So when learning new phrase we are asked to visualise the structures, and then we put actions to them to reinforce them. To further reinforce the lesson he might say the phrase and we need to action them or he might action them and we need to say the phrase. I've been able to apply that with certain children in my class to reinforce learning, especially those who need extra teacher time. If a visual way of teaching a concept doesn't work then I try to create an audio way of teaching it etc. Also my empathy for the students in my class has increased. As I sit and try to converse with other students in Maori I sometimes get a sense of how some children in my class might feel; confused! So many times I become confused and I think of certain children in my class.I try to use this experience to remind myself that I don't need to get frustrated with a learner, because sometimes learning is difficult. I would like to further this and see how I can apply these learning principals to literacy and numeracy to reinforce learning. 

Teacher Colleagues at other schools

Conversing with teaching colleagues from other schools can be refreshing. It's healthy for my personal growth because you discuss different practices and gain fresh ideas. Moreover, it benefits the class as they build relationships via blog and skype with other children outside of the school. It has also benefited visiting other schools over the last few years as we get to see what other schools are doing on a practical level as we watch the children working. I find talking about theory difficult because making it practical is hard, so looking at other schools is beneficial for me. You also create a bigger learning network as you meet other teachers. An extension of this is our Learning Network that our school is apart of. We've utilised the expertise of others to help us with certain aspects of our practice e.g Project Based Learning. To further this I would like to get in touch with other teachers on a global scale through our learning network to see what others are doing.