Tuakana-teina

The tuakana-teina relationship, is a part of traditional Māori socitey, that provided a model for buddy systems. The older or more expert tuakana (the students who have been at school since term 1) helps and guide a younger or less expert teina (the students who have been at school since term 2).  In a learning environment like our classroom these roles can often be reversed depending on what we are learning and who is an expert or has more knowledge to share.  

Each student show strengths in different learning areas so it is great that we can share our knowledge with our friends and peers.  I've attached some photos of this buddy relationship happening in our class.  Our expert learning where teaching the new students how to do our  phonics, math and writing work on the iPads.