Inclusive practice- valuing the importance of recognising a teacher's passions through collaboration

This week, I have been working quite hard at promoting the use of New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) to celebrate NZSL week. Prior to this week, I thought about how I would celebrate this week with the children in my class as well as the school. I thought about an idea that each day of the week, a video of a child signing a basic sign will be shared with everyone at school through the use of  the 10am news doc. This way, everyone will have access to the information.

Our children are familiar with New Zealand Sign Language as I talk a lot about it and use it through songs. Having many children are ELL means that signs can help children understand and communicate. They know basic signs like 'eat', 'drink', and 'toilet'. Our children can sing a few songs like 'Te Aroha' and 'One call away' and we are practising 'Count on me'.

Once we filed a video of a child signing, I uploaded the video on our blog so people can go and have a look at it. This was also shared in the Hamilton East School Facebook page which was so fantastic to spread the awareness of the NZSL week and how important to learn one of the NZ's official languages.

The children were so engaged with this sign language learning, and they were eager to learn new signs. It was so great that each morning, we would show the signing video that we filmed the day before so that they know what sign we are learning, and it really empowered our children. I also talked about our blog and how people can go and have a look at the video. We had a comment on our blog, so reading the comment let our children know that there is audience of our blog.

On Thursday morning, we went to the gateway and sang and signed 'One call away' and filmed it and I again uploaded this on our blog and Pippa also uploaded it on the school's Facebook page. The response from parents, whānau, and teachers were just amazing.

On Friday morning, we have decided to do a little concert using NZSL on our deck. Many children and teachers turned up to watch our performance which our children did an amazing job of. They were just so excited about putting a concert on. What was more amazing was that the school's senior children also performed one song in NZSL.

So what does this experience tell me?

To watch all the senior children perform showed that they cared about what we were celebrating and the importance of learning this beautiful language. It showed me how much the leaders of the school valued my passions in learning and teaching NZSL with my class and school. It meant that we are able to practise inclusive practice by learning something new, valuing NZSL/deaf culture, and developing understanding that having access to this language enables to communicate with more people.
I also thought about what our children have learnt through these experiences, and I recognised how confident our children were at performing the song and how engaged and excited they were through the week. In fact, our children are so keen to learn all of the alphabet signs so that they can finger-spell their own names. I like that it has brought a purpose and an aim, and I have to say that our children have achieved so much by performing in front of so many people.

While listening to the senior children perform, it made me feel so grateful to be at this workplace where they value people's unique differences/needs. I feel that when we are able to do this, we are able to support them fully with appropriate support. To me, inclusive practice means knowing the differences between 'equality' and 'equity', and changing our environment to support the child's unique needs before changing the child.

I would just like to thank all the people who have helped me this week celebrate New Zealand Sign Language Week.

Classroom that reflects bicultural practice

In the PL meeting today, we watched this video on the importance of bicultural practice in Aotearoa school by Janelle Riki-Waaka.

Watching this video really inspired me and made me think about what I do as a teacher to ensure that there is bicultural practice in my classroom, and how much I value and use tikanga and te reo Māori.
In the video, she asks "How would I know that I am in school in Aotearoa?"

Interestingly, I was thinking and reflecting about new Maori children visiting my classroom this morning with their mum. They were participating in our morning at time where I sang many Māori songs and did some dances as usual. I was thinking how the mother felt listening to the songs and watching our children really enjoyed singing and dancing to our kapahaka song. For me, as a teacher, I want to make sure that I create a learning environment that respects and value our Māori heritage by practicing it. On our wall, it is obvious to know that this classroom reflects the biculturalism as our wall display include many Māori words/phrases, and children have understanding of what these represent and the importance of it.

Our children know the school whakatauki "Stand tall, Reach high, Tū tangata, Tū māia", and its meaning and significant linking to the beautiful redwood tree at school. Our children are learning about their pepeha and some of them introduce themselves confidently.

Our children are familiar with ngā ātua Māori, and love listening to 'In the beginning' stories. They have great curiosity in Maori legends' stories and have great understanding of Maui.

I use te reo Māori as much as possible in my class, but I think there is room to strengthen my te reo as well.

Reflecting on this video, what Janelle discusses has really inspired me and really encouraged me to think more reflectively on my bicultural practice and move further within my practice.

I will keep working on an increased use of te reo in my class, introducing new waiata to the children, read te reo Maori books (which our children really enjoy especially the books written by Peter Gossage), and adding more sentences for our pepeha.

Changing the learning environment

Throughout teaching in ECE settings, we have always said that the environment is the third teacher. I have always believed in this statement as I know how important our learning environment is for our children.

It is so important to set up our environment so that it is inviting for our children. I want the children to feel that they are comfortable in the environment and that they want to play and explore with the materials and resources that are set up in the classroom.

During the term 1, I really struggled with the fact that we did not really have an inviting reading area. Due to the limited space, I placed some books on top of the puzzle shelf. I never really saw children reading or looking through books, so I would display a couple of books in a basket so it would look a little more inviting, and this seemed to work as I saw a couple of children reading or looking through the books.

I thought that this really needed to be changed as I felt that it was really important for me and the children to have a reading corner.

With the help of our school care taker, I was able to make some space in the corner of the classroom. The bookshelf that we have is a little hard to use for our small children, but it still looks inviting. I placed a couch in front of it as well so they can sit and read books there.

I also wanted this place to be a calm area where children can come and have their own space. It is important to create a space where their privacy is respected, but also at the same time the children know how to manage themselves in this area as it can be hard to see when I am at the jellybean table teaching a group of children.
I placed a doll house with new dolls in this area too.

As we came back in Term 2, some girls were immediately drawn to this area and really enjoy spending time here. I saw our teaching assistant spending time with some children reading, and many children love this area to play with dolls in the doll house, or little teddy bears that I got recently.

I would like to place a mat on the floor for comfort and possibly put some cushions around so that it can be comfortable for the children.

I feel that this change of the environment was quite successful as I see children utilise this area much more than before. I will provide a mat and some cushions in this area to see if that changes anything. I hope to see more children engaged in reading as well.