It's a New Term!

Term 4, 2014 begins... TOMORROW!!!!

Well for the kids at least, it probably begun about a month ago for me :) 

One of the things on my mind over the holidays was about being culturally responsive to ALL my students. 

I was very lucky at my last school to have a high proportion of the school being Māori, Tongan and Samoan, so I have had the chance to learn some of their culture... but even in that i've only scratched the surface. 

In my current class I have an absolutely wonderful group of students, and they are such a mix of cultures and backgrounds. Out of my 18 students I have 9 different cultures... how awesome is that!!

Last year some educators from around Canterbury had the chance to go to Samoa to experience school and Island life to better understand their students.

Here is a video about their visit...

Right at the end there is a challenge given, which I'm going to take as my challenge for this term.

Something I started at my last school (but misplaced in the move!) was a list of how to say some classroom directions and praise in the different languages represented in my room... written correctly and phonetically so I could try and learn it.

It was a great list to have, so I'm going to start it up again with the help of my parents... probably as a google doc this time so I can't misplace it!