What it means to me to be a New Zealander

You can click here to read a blurb about my identify, or you can keep reading this post (which is also a blurb about my identity... it is slightly different though so you could read them both).

My name is Thomas Undy, and I am a New Zealander. I am the eldest son in a family of four, which moved to Dunedin, from Wellington, when I was three. I attended Arthur Street School, where I was a member of the Montessori classroom. During my time at Arthur Street School, I developed a passion for sport, mainly hockey. This passion followed me to Bayfield High School, where I played for the 1st XI team, as well as the Otago under 15 and under 18 age group teams. After finishing high school I worked for a year in retail before enrolling at the Otago University College of Education, where I am now a final year student. Collectively, these educational, life, and sporting experiences make me who I am today, but how have they done so? And, what does it really mean to be a New Zealander?

For me, being a New Zealander means holding and upholding a set of values that have been shaped by my experiences. Through being educated in environments that promote the values of diversity, excellence, honesty, integrity, self-discipline, and an individual's agency, I have come to hold these as my own. Playing hockey has enabled me to strengthen and uphold these values, especially excellence and self-discipline, as has my work experience in retail. Holding and upholding a set of values is, however, not the only defining feature of what I believe a New Zealander to be. It is also the characteristics we display that make us who we are.

There are a range of characteristics that New Zealanders exhibit. These include modesty, fairness, informality, practicality, and ingenuity (McCrone, 2008). The two I most identify with are modesty and fairness. I do so because my experiences have shaped me into a modest and fair person. For instance, through being chosen to represent Otago over some of my friends, I learnt to play down my achievements to them while at the same time holding onto my own sense of achievement. It is because of such experiences that I believe modesty and fairness to be among the defining features of me as a New Zealander, and what I believe it means to be a New Zealander

According to McCrone (2008), "authenticity matters" (p. 10). He may be writing about branding, but I believe some interesting parallels can be drawn between the way New Zealand markets itself to the world and the way I market myself as a teacher to children. For instance, Tourism New Zealand markets our country as "100% Pure" (p. 9), when a World Health Organisation shows Auckland to be dirtier than New York (Yahoo New Zealand, 2011). If i were to market myself to my students as a 'know it all brain box' would that be beneficial to their learning? No, probably not. As teachers we need to be honest about who we are. For me, that means being modest about my own achievements whilst celebrating theirs, being firm but fair and following through with appropriate consequences, and letting them know that I too am still learning.

Generally I would have made some teaching tips, but in a moment of self-proclaimed brilliance, I have briefly discussed some implications the issue of authenticity will have on my teaching practice in the above paragraph.

Are we really clean and green?
Read this brief news report and you
be the judge.

Kids will be kids... Or will they?

Today's lecture on children's rights reminded me of the phrase, 'kids will be kids'. It also made me think, will kids always be kids? And, do we even consider kids to be kids anymore? Tough questions but they are definitely worth asking.

According to Angus (personal communication, July 21, 2011), children are citizens. That is, he considers them to be active participants within society, agents of their own lives, and rights holders. I tend to agree with him - to an extent. I believe children are citizens, but their participation and agency is facilitated by adults, as are their rights. Children need support from their parents to join a sports team, they need their teacher to provide them with opportunities to build their independence, and they need humanitarians to stand up for their rights. So, will kids always be kids? I believe the answer to be no. Kids are learner citizens. Therefore, I believe children to be learner citizens.

Whilst discussing how to reduce instances of bullying within schools, Boyd (2008) makes a good point. She states that school community needs to "empower [it's] young people" (p. 4). This resonated within me because as learner citizens, children need to be given the opportunity to take control. They need to be able to develop the skills that will enable them to function independently within society, without adult facilitation. Letting children take ownership over their behaviour is a good start (Boyd, 2008), however, I do understand their are other ways children can develop their agency. For instance, providing independent and self-directed learning experiences will allow children to take control of their learning, and develop the skills that will permit them to take control of their lives as citizens.

So, will kids always be kids? I believe the answer to be no. Kids transform from being learner citizens to citizens through adult facilitation.

Check out teaching tips that will help me facilitate my learner citizens' learning.

• I will consider all of my students to be learner citizens who need support to develop their independence. To help them, I will provide them with various independent and self-directed learning experiences across a range of curriculum areas.
• I will involve my students in the planning process. They will help me to identify their needs and wants, and we will work together to develop ways we can all express how we feel about our learning.
• Together, my students and I will create learning contracts that specific their rights and responsibilities within the classroom and the school. This will help them to develop an appreciation for the importance of their own rights within society.

 Is childhood disappearing from contemporary society?

Have a look at this extract to find out about how the boundaries between childhood and adult hood are blurring.

Will kids be kids? Well, accord

Connecting with Māori students

Today's lecture really made me think about my Māori students in the mainstream setting. Are they getting a fair deal? Are they getting taught in a way that reflects their identities and lived experiences? I don't think they are.

Brooking (personal communication, July 28, 2011) suggested Māori students are not a homogenous group, and I tend to agree with her. You cannot group every Māori student under the same umbrella. They bring with them, just like all other students, a range of experiences that need to be recognised by us as teachers and reflected in the pedagogies we use. However, more often than not, the teaching and learning strategies we use fail to connect with Māori students.

The ideas presented by Otrel-Cass, Cowie, and Glynn (2009) are bother pertinent and relevant. They suggest Māori students’ underachievement in mainstream educational settings can be partly understood as an outcome of no-responsive pedagogies. To me, this seems like it is the result of Māori students being grouped under the same umbrella and taught in the same way. Through wider reading I have come to understand that non-responsive pedagogies are characterised by their inability to meet the academic and cultural needs of all students (Bishop & Glynn, 1999); their undervaluing of minority students’ cultural identities and lived experiences (Bishop & Glynn, 1999; Otrel-Cass et al, 2009); and, their contrast to cultural practices at home (Richards, Brown & Forde, 2006). I believe, because such pedagogies displace Māori life experiences in favour of experiences we as teachers deem important - generally from within out own cultural frame of reference - Māori students are not given a fair deal. In fact, according to Otrel-Cass et al. (2009) Māori students feeling uncared for, undervalued, and like their identities and lived experiences are not important.

Check out my teaching tips that will help me connect with my Māori students.

• I will place an emphasis on Ako, or reciprocal learning (Bishop and Glynn, 1999). I am beginning to see myself as both a teacher and a learner and I feel that all students could benefit from sharing their own unique knowledge.
• I will start to integrate more culturally responsive pedagogies into my practice. Using tuakana teina will enable me to draw on the strengths of my learners as they help those in need. This will make all my students feel like their knowledge and experiences are valued Royal-Tangaere (1997).

where do generalisations come from?

I want you to look at these images. What words come to mind when you look at the puppy? What about when you look at the Pit bull? Keep them in mind as I will come back to these shortly.

Cute, happy, friendly, kind, playful

Angry, aggressive, dangerous, mean

Today's lecture made me question the way in which I construct and use generalisations. According to Corkery (personal communication, August 11, 2011), a generalisation is general notion or proposition obtained by induction from a range of sources. That is, it is a broad statement made up of information we gather from the world around us. Reflecting on this definition made me think about where my generalisations come from. Returning to the comparison between the puppy and the Pit bull helped me to clarify this.

I consider puppies to cute, happy, friendly, kind, and playful because I have owned one. I also have relatives that have puppies that display the same characteristics. Therefore, I believe that my experiences with puppies have influenced the way in which I construct my generalisations about them. With Pit bulls, on the other hand, this is all I know:

It is through reading and seeing articles and news stories such as these that have influenced my construction of Pit bulls as aggressive, angry, dangerous, and mean dogs. However, I do understand that my view is tainted by what I see in the media and that owners of Pit bulls describe their dogs like I describe puppies. This article is an example:

I now know that I need to be careful when I construct generalisations, and when I use them. I must consider both sides of the story and look beyond the media. The text Hate Hurts, written by Stern-La Rosa & Bettman (2000), has also helped me to understand this. Ethnic jokes, that are based on generalisations, are the basis of considerable controversy. They often construct groups within our society as one-dimensional, much like our generalisations about puppies and Pit bulls. Some argue that such jokes ease the tension between groups, and I would agree to some extent as I believe we do rely on generalisations to inform us about groups we know little about. However, before making these I would suggest looking beyond what we think we know about the subject of our jokes as we will often find our generalisations lack substance.

Check out these teaching tips that will help look past any generalisations that may be made about my students:

• I will get know my learners by uncovering their individual strengths, needs, and interests. Conversation will be a major part of my classroom practice.
• I wont just assume. I will find evidence to support my assumptions, or to disprove them.
• Promote diversity through celebrating the different strengths and interests of my learners. Displaying their work and having them demonstrate specific skills will enable everyone in the class to check if their assumptions match up.

Working with Parents

Parents have a major role to play in the education of their child/children (Marsh, 2004). Today's lecture reinforced this idea for me. However, it also highlighted how important building and maintaining effective relationships are in retain parent support.


I can really connect with the idea of building and maintaining effective relationships. This is because I make it a priority to build rapport with parents and to communicate with them on a regular basis. I think the reason why I place such an emphasis on relationships with parents is because the support that they can provide in the classroom is invaluable. Upon reflecting on my time at Columba College I can identify several occasions where the children were supported by parent helpers. Having parent help enabled those children to fully benefit from the activities they were participating in. The children's success and their genuine appreciation of the help they received also made the parents feel like valued members of the classroom.

In Becoming a Teacher  Marsh (2004) has asked a great question - "how do you react to the claim that teachers are too busy to get involved with parents; that teachers are typically exhausted without having phone calls or emails from parents to deal?" (p. 261). I for one would like to challenge that claim. Having just finished a five week practicum at Columba College I am exhausted! But I didn't let that get in the way of me building and maintaining some fantastic relationships with parents. Yes, I did have a lot of work to do after school, but that did not stop me from taking half an hour to talk with parents outside the classroom. I believe it is important to remember that you can always make time to talk, and it should be a priority to inform your students' parents of what is happening in the classroom. The stronger the lines of communication, the better the outcomes for everyone.

Another way of looking at this question would be that parents are sometimes too busy to communicate with teachers. As more and more parents are working longer hours they are finding less time to come and talk to the classroom teacher. So, it seems, there are to sides to the story, however this should not stop us as teachers from making an effort to communicate with parents.

Check out my teaching tips:

• I will always strive to keep the lines of communication open between home and school. Building rapport with parents a priority.
• If I can't talk to parents after school, I will make an effort to ring them.
• I will actively seek parent help and involve them within my class programme wherever possible.
  

Working with Teacher Aides

During today's lecture I really reflected on how teacher aides are seen/used in the classroom. I believe their is almost a continuum for how well a teacher aide is integrated into a classroom. At one end there is no integration, where the teacher aide works solely with their assigned child with little to no support from the classroom teacher. At the other end there is full integration, where the teacher aide works with their assigned and other members of the classroom with full support from the teacher. It is critical as classroom teachers that we work with teacher aides at the integrated end of the continuum as it benefits every child in the class.

This page from My Bright Orange Vest shows a teacher aide floundering her responsibility with no support from the classroom teacher.

Thinking back to the lecture, it was interesting to note that often teacher aides have little to no training, and that they often receive minimal support from teachers. That means that students who are paired with them have little to no meaningful access to the curriculum (Rutherford, 2009).

Here are my teaching tips for working with teacher aides.

• Communicate with them! In my classroom I will ensure that I hold regular meetings with my aide so that he/she is comfortable with providing meaningful access to the curriculum.
• Provide them with support when needed! sometimes aides need a break and letting them take over group while you work with their assigned child let them have a rest.