Primary School Teacher

Wanwan: Nǐ hǎo, wǒ jiào Wanwan. Hello my name is Wanwan. I am a Primary School Teacher and this is Newtown school.

The job that teachers do is very important. We have to make sure the children are happy because when they’re happy they learn.

Welcome to waitangi. This is a Year Five and Six classroom. We have a hundred and twenty-two children, and four teachers.

This environment is called an innovative learning environment. We co-teach, we co-plan. It is a really great environment because teachers and students are interacting on a larger scale. In a space like this it is really easy to learn from each other’s strengths. When the children see that, they can see that working as a team is one of the really important skills to have in life.

My day normally starts at about eight o’clock, replying to some emails, or marking some books, getting ready for my day. One of my favourite times of the day is greeting the children as they come in, in the morning. Sometimes I greet them in their languages and that makes them feel very welcome. The bell goes at nine o’clock.

Wanwan: Halal would you like to start for us? Karakia please.

Wanwan and children: Tutawa mai i runga. Tutawa mai i raro.

Wanwan: After the bell we have a class meeting to make sure that everyone knows what the day looks like. We’ll start our day with a fitness session to make sure the oxygen is in their brain. The nature of our job requires high energy because the children have high energy levels. We’ll just have to balance that energy and pace ourselves for the day.

On a typical day we will do Reading, Writing, and Maths in the morning. Today we are working on our learning record. Students write about their learning experience at school to share with family.

Right now it’s about eleven o’clock and I am on morning tea duty.
After morning tea we come back to do some silent reading. It is a great time to settle down before the next learning. Then we move into enquiry learning. It’s a student driven learning. Today we are finding the commonality between two courageous people.

Then lunch time. Lunch times about an hour. Sometimes I’m on duty. When I’m on duty I put the music on. Music makes people dance and dancing makes people happy.

So after lunch every day is different. Sometime we do P.E, sometimes there is music, drama, te reo and sometime it’s free time. Today we have first language hui. All the students that do speak another language at home, we gather up.

We do some activities together, we play games. We are providing a context for students to be themselves, to share their dual identity or multiple identities.

I was an international student myself. I came to New Zealand when I was seventeen, and I want the children to know that it is really cool to have a super power. Here that means I can speak different languages, and by me role modelling that, the children can be really proud of who they are, what they have, and where they’ve come from.

Teachers don’t finish work at three o’clock. There’s always meetings, emails to reply to, paperwork to complete. Usually we finish at about five o’clock. Unless you’re really organised, maybe you can go home at four.
Being a teacher is full of challenges. You have to be creative. You have to be flexible. You have to have an open mind and you need to be able to enjoy a laugh. You don’t have to be good at the things you think you should be. Children love to know that someone else is learning with them When you are learning together they feel like you are on their team, and the learning outcome is better.

I think at the beginning you feel like you can change the world. You want to make a difference in people's lives, but further on what is most rewarding is that relationship that you have built over time. Not just with the kids, but with the whole whanau and then it becomes the relationship with the whole community and then you feel like you’re part of the community and little things are making a big difference.

That’s what I really love about teaching in Newtown school.

Do you want to be a teacher?