Melville Intermediate - Learning Maori Online in 2010

Thanks to all of you who have so far responded and are interested in having our students teach some Maori language to your students and your classroom in the coming weeks!

We're currently sorting through everything and should have all the information organized, sorted and posted shortly. We'd love others to be involved around the world in this, if you are interested we'd like to Skype with your classroom from a class in New Zealand and teach you some basic phrases/introductions in the Maori Language. It won't just be Room 8 but also some of the other classrooms from Melville Intermediate School! Should imagine that most of this would be completed with a single Skype Session so if you are interested and haven't already put your name down, please leave a comment on this post!

I am sure the students from Room 8 will be extremely excited to be doing this when they come back to school, as will the students from other classrooms at Melville Intermediate School. I think that it will be an exciting way to introduce a lot of students to online collaboration this year. In the mean time while you are waiting you can have a look at a few things related to Maori Language from last years Room 8 @ Melville Intermediate School class! This is our schools fabulous CPA - Cultural Performing Arts Group, performing a Maori Poi Dance during one of last years concerts night from our School Hall.



For preparation to learn a Mihi have a look at our first posts of 2009 they include the format for the Mihi (Greeting) that Room 8 will be teaching and also a couple of slideshows that the students created last year to help with the learning of them. You can also view this link to Mr Lamsheds Class in Adelaide, Australia, of their students learning last year (remember New Zealand and Australaia are seperate countries!)

You can view some of the Maori Language Videos that were created by Room 8 last year including how to count to 100 in Maori by Arahia. You can also take a trip down memory lane and view material that was created in 2008 by Mr Webb's old classroom before he came to Melville Intermediate, in these lessons the students spoke some Maori Language. Finally you can also click on this link to view a link to Appleby School in Nelson where we had a link for their class to learn a Mihi, their fabulous teacher Allanh K also recorded some of the teaching that we did with her class for their Mihi (although it has a seperate format for what we will be teaching, slightly) and you can view this video by clicking here! We also had the prviledge of conecting and collaborating with our students sharing their culture with other students around the world last year. In probably Mr Webbs favourite video of the year two of our Room 8 students, Destin and Cleveland viewed material on Mr Lamsheds Class of their Haka. The Boys wanted to help them and scripted and produced this video (with help from Tavita a teacher aide at school), it still sends shivers down my spine watching it. Enjoy.

Mr Webb on behalf of Room 8, Melville Intermediate School, Hamilton, Waikato, New Zealand.