Last week I attended the Wellington Area Loop Conference, a one-day PD for area teachers, held at Wellington High School. Michael was kind enough to invite me and take care of making it official so I would have lunch and tea included. It was a great day for a few reasons:
First, I really felt like I belonged. I don't really, but I feel like I finally have enough context to understand most ed conversations I'm in. I ran into teachers whose rooms I had visited earlier this year and I chatted with the teachers I see most often at my host school. I even ran into a woman I saw at roller derby and then later discovered she's married to a man I've met with before. Wellington really is a small city and I could feel that at this conference.
Second, it was just nice to be at a conference run by and for teachers. Teachers ran every session and (online ahead of time) we signed up for where we wanted to visit. The first session for everyone was a subject-area conversation group. I went to a coffee shop with a small group of teachers who are part of the Maori History Project. They debriefed how their first common unit worked out and discussed plans for a unit on Parihaka. I've met these teachers before and I spend a lot of time Michael, who is one of them, so it's been interesting to observe how their summer plans (made before I arrived) have come to fruition. I've been here since the start of their school year and I've visited their schools, so I can see how they are attempting to teach a place-based unit, despite the fact they are teaching in very different contexts. Listening in on their conversation last week made me realize how much I want to find a similar group for myself in Minneapolis. It would be so fun to have a group of like-minded colleagues at various schools come together to brainstorm. Knowing teachers at other schools always makes me feel so much more connected to the teaching profession as a whole and helps me keep petty school issues in perspective.
Finally, it was cool to be at this conference because it started with such clear Maori protocol. I still don't understand most of what's happening, but being here for six months, I at least know to expect a formal introduction and opening of events in Te Reo. The first two speakers did a karakia (prayer or incantation) and something else in Te Reo that I was unsure of (maybe a second karakia?). The third speaker, the principal, began in Te Reo, switched to English, and ended in Te Reo. At this point, all the teachers from the hosting school rose and sang. I'm not sure what this was called, but it was clearly a song they had sung as a faculty many times. It was REALLY beautiful. All I could think of was the time teachers at SLCSE tried to sing and play ukuleles for the students. We were terrible! The entire opening of the conference was such a fascinating example of the extent to which Maori protocol influences formal events here, at least in education.
As for what I learned at the conference? It was more of the intangibles than specific strategies or anything like that. But it did make me really excited to go back to teaching in the fall. I went to mostly tech-related sessions, as I'll be teaching at a 1:1 device school and I was curious to hear what people had to share about using technology in their classrooms.
It's been exactly a year since I finished teaching in Utah and I've been in this liminal space for so long... I can't wait to sit down and do some concrete planning, to know my classroom situation, meet my new colleagues, and begin to figure out how I can apply all that I've learned here.
First, I really felt like I belonged. I don't really, but I feel like I finally have enough context to understand most ed conversations I'm in. I ran into teachers whose rooms I had visited earlier this year and I chatted with the teachers I see most often at my host school. I even ran into a woman I saw at roller derby and then later discovered she's married to a man I've met with before. Wellington really is a small city and I could feel that at this conference.
Second, it was just nice to be at a conference run by and for teachers. Teachers ran every session and (online ahead of time) we signed up for where we wanted to visit. The first session for everyone was a subject-area conversation group. I went to a coffee shop with a small group of teachers who are part of the Maori History Project. They debriefed how their first common unit worked out and discussed plans for a unit on Parihaka. I've met these teachers before and I spend a lot of time Michael, who is one of them, so it's been interesting to observe how their summer plans (made before I arrived) have come to fruition. I've been here since the start of their school year and I've visited their schools, so I can see how they are attempting to teach a place-based unit, despite the fact they are teaching in very different contexts. Listening in on their conversation last week made me realize how much I want to find a similar group for myself in Minneapolis. It would be so fun to have a group of like-minded colleagues at various schools come together to brainstorm. Knowing teachers at other schools always makes me feel so much more connected to the teaching profession as a whole and helps me keep petty school issues in perspective.
Finally, it was cool to be at this conference because it started with such clear Maori protocol. I still don't understand most of what's happening, but being here for six months, I at least know to expect a formal introduction and opening of events in Te Reo. The first two speakers did a karakia (prayer or incantation) and something else in Te Reo that I was unsure of (maybe a second karakia?). The third speaker, the principal, began in Te Reo, switched to English, and ended in Te Reo. At this point, all the teachers from the hosting school rose and sang. I'm not sure what this was called, but it was clearly a song they had sung as a faculty many times. It was REALLY beautiful. All I could think of was the time teachers at SLCSE tried to sing and play ukuleles for the students. We were terrible! The entire opening of the conference was such a fascinating example of the extent to which Maori protocol influences formal events here, at least in education.
As for what I learned at the conference? It was more of the intangibles than specific strategies or anything like that. But it did make me really excited to go back to teaching in the fall. I went to mostly tech-related sessions, as I'll be teaching at a 1:1 device school and I was curious to hear what people had to share about using technology in their classrooms.
It's been exactly a year since I finished teaching in Utah and I've been in this liminal space for so long... I can't wait to sit down and do some concrete planning, to know my classroom situation, meet my new colleagues, and begin to figure out how I can apply all that I've learned here.