Teaching Maori Students

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One of our Teach First teachers is Māori and ran a great session for the PCTs (Provisionally Certificated Teachers) on how they could introduce biculturalism into their teaching. Criteria 3 of the Practising Teacher Criteria says that fully registered teachers "demonstrate commitment to bicultural partnership in Aotearoa NZ by demonstrating respect for the heritages, languages & cultures of both partners of the Treaty of Waitangi".
The question is how can teachers reflect this in their work?

The best way to start is to make sure that Maori names are pronounced correctly. He showed us a chart that we could use to practise pronounciation and took us through the process of repeating the words after him. There is a version of this here with audio that anyone can use.
This teacher had demonstrated the meaning of a treaty by creating a class treaty based on the RISE values of the school. The students put their own statements into the treaty using their thoughts & their words, something they believed was important and these were agreed on by everybody.
Criteria 10 of the Practising Teacher Criteria states that fully registered teachers "work effectively within the bicultural context of Aotearoa NZ by practising and developing the relevant use of te reo Māori & addressing the educational aspirations of ākonga Maori, displaying high expectations for their learning".

 In the spirit of "ako" we should  all learn some of the language - see the first 50 words that every NZer should know here.

Naku te rourou nau te rourou ka ora ai te iwi

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