Nau mai haere mai

Ki te taha o toku Papa

Ko Te Kuri a Paoa te Maunga

Ko Wherowhero te Awa

Ko Horouta te Waka

Ko Muriwai te Marae

Ko Ngai Tamanuhiri te Iwi

Ki te taha o toku mama

Ko Rangipoua te Maunga

Ko Haparapara te Awa

Ko Mataatua te Waka

Ko Otuwhare te Marae

Ko Te Whanau a Apanui te Iwi

Kia ora koutou and welcome to my reflective portfolio. My name is Ana Devery and I have been a year 7 teacher at Gisborne Intermediate School for the past 15 years. I am an only child, am married to Jason who teaches at Lytton High school and we have a 15 year old son and a 9 year old daughter. I love Gisborne, love my whanau and love my school and the kids who attend. Gisint is a true reflection of our community as it encompasses children from all walks of life and cultures. It is an incredibly supportive school and is constantly evolving to meet the needs of our students and ever changing curriculum. 

Forming positive and meaningful relationships is extremely important to me in my job and I believe without a doubt that if children are happy in themselves then their learning will flourish. I believe that by building up their self esteem and setting high expectations students feel more empowered and driven 
to achieve. I am a firm believer that achievement success is not linked to one explicit area and that it is the role of the teacher to help every student in their class identify and help to foster their individual talent.

I believe that relationships between school, whanau and the student is also imperative to learning as well as sharing our success and failure. Because of this I am happy to invest a lot of time in establishing and maintaining these relationships as the benefits of doing so are invaluable. 

My class whanau are kept well informed of what's going on in our class through our class blog which also has links to each individual student's blog too. My class is currently 1-1 with devices this year which has been an exciting transition. My students have all improved their ICT skills, I am sharing the teaching with them in this area and my lower level learners are achieving a lot more success due to their assistive technology. With the introduction of our Chromebooks and other new technological devices as well as a new adventure on the horizon in 2016 with the establishment of a new syndicate that teaches through Te Ao Maori and Tikanga Maori the classroom has never been more exciting. 

I believe my role far exceeds that of just delivering the core curriculum subjects as I feel I am responsible for ensuring that their Taha Wairua, Taha Hinengaro, Taha Whanau are Taha Tinana are all being nurtured as outlined in Mason Durie's Whare Tapa Wha Model - Roachford (2004).