Relationship based learning
How do we teach through relationships? What does that even mean? Is it... teachers who have knowledge about their students will be better able to teach them? If this is the case, then most (if not all) of my experiences in the classroom as a student, were based around something completely different. I always saw teaching as a formal affair because most of my teachers growing up were never interested in building any kind of relationship with me. I remember vividly one teacher who made a small group of us feel special and she invited us (all who were Māori) to her house for the weekend. The weekend was spent weeding all her gardens, mowing her lawns and tidying up her garage. It wasn't until later on in life that I realised, she took us home to be her little slaves. My saddest realisation is that the two teachers that I really feel like I connected with, were both Māori and in my final years of schooling. Mr Timoko was the maths teacher who said to me "Girl, you can
