Manaakitanga

Recently I was working in Auckland with several childcare centres. Working away from home, Tauranga, always presents different challenges.  Finding my way around the city, tackling the motorway traffic and being in a place where I don’t see anybody I know.

The week started with an evening workshop and many of the teachers attending were coming straight from work after a long day. Catherine the owner of a St Heliers centre had offered to host the workshop.  When I arrived Catherine had organised food to feed us all - tasty quiches, salads and beautiful breads.  It was an absolute banquet.  Catherine’s kindness and generosity was amazing.

The following day I visited a centre in the morning and had arranged to meet with Judy at a centre in the heart of the city as soon as I had finished at the first centre.  When I arrived Judy had ensured that there was lunch waiting for me which included a lovely flat white coffee.

I came away from Auckland confident the that values of manaakitanga are alive and well in Auckland early childhood.  Manaakitanga is described as hospitality, kindness, generosity - the process of showing respect, generosity and care for others.

Tataiako Cultural Competencies for Teachers of Māori Learners (New Zealand Teachers Council, 2011)  set the standard for centre leaders as:  they support staff to provide a respectful and caring environment.

These two leaders certainly lead by example when thinking about generosity and care of nga manuhiri to their centres. For me early childhood has always been about creating strong relationships with everyone within the sector, sharing information, resources and time - it is a heart commitment.  I meet many wonderful teachers and leaders while I was visiting but Catherine and Judy exemplified the heart felt commitment to manaakitanga.

One hour or five minutes how long is your day?

Last night I was at a gathering of friends and family to celebrate my sister, brother and my birthdays.  As always within kiwi gatherings the conversation turned to what we do for employment.  Present were two accounts, a gym trainer, a technician within the kiwifruit industry and a lawn mowing contractor.  Each one of the them were lamenting over the fact that they do not really enjoy their jobs, when I piped up with a, “I love my job.”  “Alright”, Warren said, “it’s unanimous everyone hates their job except Lynn”.  Today I was revisiting some of those conversations in my head and the enormity of it struck me - imagine hating what you do!!!!!!

Sir Ken Robinson  talks about this on the TED videos  http://video.ted.com/talk/podcast/2010/None/SirKenRobinson_2010.mp4.  He says that people “endure it (their jobs) rather than enjoy it and wait for the weekend.  People who love what they do could not imagine doing anything else because they would say  it is who they are.”  He also talks about passion and how when we are doing something we love 1 hour can seem like 5 minutes or if you hate it 5 minutes can seem like 1 hour.  This video is well worth watching particularly if you feel a slight draining of your enthusiasm or passion for what you do.

I can not think of a day in my teaching career either at St Peters Childcare or with ELP that I have not wanted to go to work.  The enjoyment that I get from being around passionate teachers, meeting parents and working alongside children is just part of who I am and, like Sir Ken Robinson said, I could not imagine doing anything else.

The wonderful thing is that within my work I met many teachers who love their jobs and it shows.  Recently I was at Paddington’s in Hamilton. The teachers within the centre ooze enthusiasm and passion.  They want to know more, they want to do more and they love what they are doing.  Marie was describing part of one families day to me -this knowledge I think - this comes out of teachers really deeply knowing their families as she talked about the emotional struggle of parents.  For whatever reason one of the parents had started off their day in a bad space and this may have been compounded by the fact that they had to go to work and leave their precious child in the hands of someone else.  Marie was aware of the anxiety of the mother and the first opportunity she got she took a photo of the child with her cellphone while he was busy engaged in play and sent this to the mother at work with a personal message.  When the mother came in at the end of the day she said to Marie that this kind act took her day from a very low point into a much better place as she relax in the knowledge that her son was having a great day.    Obviously Marie’s passion as a teacher drives her to provide the best care for children and parents.

Passionate teachers will find ways to connect with children and families.  Bronfenbrenner would encourage us, just like Marie did, to care for, support and encourage the carers(parents, whānau) because this will create better outcomes for the children.

   

Changing the world

Recently I have heard some amazing stories of kindness in early childhood.  Stories of giving, sharing, care above and beyond anyones expectation.

Who you may ask - was it parents, community support, children or charities.  No these special kind and caring people are the teachers in childcares.  There is a Māori whakatauki which says, "Kaore te kumara e whaakii ana tana reka - The kumara does not say how sweet he is.

This week I have heard of teachers kindness on numerous occasions. Teachers who would not say 'this is what I have done for others' so I would not name them because this would possibly embarass them, however their story still needs to be told.

While visiting a centre this week I heard that one of the teachers there and her husband had spent the weekend transforming a rubbish area in the backyard into a space that the children could use to create a garden of their own.  They did this while in the midst of packing and moving house.  The possible outcomes for the children drove their passion to create a space that the children could use to create wonderment and awe in a magical space.
Another teacher, different centre, spent hours with her husband creating a wonderful display of children's art work for families to view while this was a whole centre project it would not have had the impact if these two had not tireless worked to create awesomeness.
Yet another day in another setting two teachers used their own money to replace the bark surface with a soft fall surface for the up to 2's area.  They had approached the centre owners but they had not received the funding they needed to make their environment better for their children.  Undeterred and convicted of the need to create a safer space for their children they paid for the resurfacing themselves.
Then there are the teachers that put in the extra hours with learning stories, displays, planning, finding resources and never switching off.  These are the teachers that go for walks and think oh that would be good for..... they drag their husband, children, partners to beaches and parks in the weekends to collect natural resources filling pockets and bags as they go.

I am sure that there are many many more stories of passion and conviction of wanting the very best for children and going above and beyond expectations.  I would like to acknowledge all those teachers that have commitment, care, passion and enthusiasm to make a big difference in children's lives.

You Will Go To the Party!!!

I was recently reminded of a learning story written a few years ago now about Molly after talking to her mum Raechel.  Molly is now 7 and at school.  Raechel was telling me that Molly still talks about her time at St Peters Childcare and especially about our trip to the material shop.

It all started with Molly’s love of the butterfly wings within the dress-ups.  The butterfly wings were the favourites of many children and we never seemed to have enough.  So we decided to make some more, with our own design. Molly and I walked down to the material shop to buy some material, cotton and elastic so we could start designing and making butterfly wings. 

When we were in the material shop there was a young lady, Kimberly,  30ish, inquiring about the best way to make a Red Riding Hood custom without having to sew anything up.  You see she was going to a fancy dress party as Red Riding Hood and needed a red cape but could not sew.  Standing waiting to be served it was very hard not to over hear the conversation about the need for a cape.

After a quick discussion with Molly we thought we maybe we were able to help.  “Excuse me”, I said, “we could make a cape for you, if you trust us with your material.”  I explained where we were from and told her that we would love to make the cape so she could go to the party.  It was agreed.  Kimberly gave us her material and cotton we gave Kimberly our phone number and address and told her she could collect the cape the next day.

Upon our return to daycare we got out the sewing machine and Molly and I made a plan for the cape.  Together we sewed the cape up before we started on the butterfly wings.  Molly was so pleased to have completed both the cape and the wings.  With the wings sewn it was time to decorate with their own unique patterns.  The butterfly wings were cherished by Molly who often took them home.

Before Kimberly came to pick up her cape the following day we had discussed about what other things  we have at daycare that Kimberly could use to be Red Riding Hood.  It was decided that we could lend her a basket because Red Riding Hood definitely needed a basket when out and about.

So the Red Riding Hood cape was loving placed into a basket and left for Kimberly to collect the next day.  Kimberley loved her cape and basket.  She was so pleased that we had helped her in her time of need.  Kind of like the mice helping Cinderella go to the ball, “You shall go to the ball Cinderella” only wrong fairy story.

Now Molly several years later still talks about the butterfly wings she made and how we went to the shop, met a stranger, did a random act of kindness and made a friend.