As I sat down to write this post today (after procrastinating with any number of other oh-so-important jobs), I was unsurprised to discover that I have done nothing blog worthy in ages. My job continues to challenge me mentally, physically, and emotionally every day. When I'm not at work I'm pretty focused on relaxing effectively enough to allow me to recharge and hopefully even be able convince my brain that it can take a break from work while I'm sleeping, rather than construct unreasonably realistic work days in their entirety, such that I wake up feeling like I already worked all day. This means that I've done a lot of reading and a fair bit of Netflixing, as well as enjoying long lunches and Skype dates with friends. All of which is wonderful, but not an interesting blog post.
What I'm learning at work is fascinating and fulfilling, but also largely not appropriate for a blog, due to a mixture of confidentiality (for parents, children, and teachers) and lack of context (for you, my lovely readers). I have decided for the near future to switch to monthly posts instead of biweekly posts, in the hopes that I will have more interesting things to say, and also to give myself the gift of one less thing to accomplish. I may post more than once a month if something fun comes up, but I also might not. We shall see.
Anyway, for today I would like to share something from work that doesn't breach confidentiality and hopefully will be informative even without too much context. It is a waiata (song) that I learned from a colleague at my last job, and that I've now taught my children at my new job. It's one of my favourites, and I was excited to teach it to my new children (and teachers) because they have the knowledge of Māori language to learn and understand it easily and enjoy it even more than my other children did (and let's be clear, they enjoyed it a lot).
When we learn a new song at Te Puna Reo, we usually make a big sign with the words on it to help everyone learn it, and to support relievers to be able to join in. I decided to have some of the older children who are interested in writing write the words, and it's been such a fun project. Māori is an amazing language to write in, because it's completely phonetic. It wasn't a written language until Europeans came, and then they did their best to write down the sounds they heard, so there aren't any silent letters or letters that can make drastically different sounds in different words. (Side note: There are lots of issues with things having been written down incorrectly, but that's a different story). The point is, when you spell out in Māori, you actually make the sound of each letter, rather than the name of the letter like we do in English. This was my first experience teaching writing in Māori, and I discovered it was wonderful, as we could sound out/spell each word so logically, and the result was correct spelling without me having to say things like, "Yeah, it sounds like it could be a 'k' but in this case it's a 'c'." Anyway, it was lots of fun.
And here is the result:
Translation (in case you couldn't tell by the drawings):
These are the signs (evidence) of Tāwhirimātea (the guardian of weather)
The sun is shining
Rain is dripping
Lightening
The wind is blowing
Cloudy
Snowing/Frosty
These are the signs of Tāwhirimātea
It's a call and response song, so I sing each line, and then the children sing it back. Once they know it really well (and some are already almost there) then the children can take turns leading it, which is a wonderful experience of empowerment.
I added my own drawing of each type of weather. I debated having the children do it, but I wanted each bit to be easily recognizable to anyone, such that new people could more confidently join in with the song. This is often a cognitive conflict in Early Childhood, because we want children to be empowered to do real jobs and to celebrate their work, but we also know that children want beautiful, high-quality things around them, and it can't always be both. So we do what we can to choose the right side of that line for each individual project, and to compromise where we can. I feel, in this case, that the writing strongly celebrates their contribution, so the drawings can be focused on efficacy.
I have learned so many new songs in Māori since I've started, and am thrilled with that! Songs are an incredible way to support language acquisition, and also I just love singing with children!
