The title of this post is credited to the amazing Jase Te Patu, (Ngāti Apa, Ngāti Ruanui and Ngāti Tūwharetoa), one of the Keynote Speakers at uLearn21. Jase is a leader in the field of Mindfulness for Children and wellbeing.

Jase helped us to explore Te Whare Tapa Whā and challenged us in such an honest and open way to really look deeply at what we are doing in our lives that stops us from having a balanced Whare. The meaning of Hauora is Hau-o-rā – the “vital essence of the sun.” It is all about energy and balance. 

In 2019, Jase spoke at TEDxWellington. This is the recording from that conference.

A FOCUS ON TE WHARE TAPA WHĀ AT TE KURA

Wellbeing at Te Kura is central to everything we do – not only for our students, but also for ourselves. We have regular PLD around Wellbeing utilising the work of Lucy Hone and Denise Quinlan. Te Whare Tapa Whā is frequently explored at our Huinga Ako and forms an important part of My Korowai. If we don’t focus on our wellbeing, learning and teaching can’t happen successfully for anyone. 

APPLYING NEW LEARNING TO THE CLASSROOM

Each week at Te Kura we have our Huinga Ako. These are usually face-to-face, but are all online at the moment due to the Lockdown in Tāmaki Makaurau. I wanted to be able to take what I’ve been learning over the course of the year at Te Kura and combine what I had learned from Jase.

At today’s Huinga Ako, we used the same activity that Jase did with us. I created the four pou (pillars) on a Jamboard and we discussed what each of the pou could mean for us in terms of our Hauora this Term. What are some of the things we can do to take care of our pou over the course of the Term? We related this to our Ngā Mātāpono. 

Here is what we’ve come up with so far. The most exciting thing for me? The fact that this was a group of students supporting each other’s Te Whare Tapa Whā, and that they were still online tonight adding to their kete of tools to look after Te Whare Tapa Whā. We will continue to revisit this and develop our kete for each one. Jase challenged us to do this. Do we go back to our kete enough? Do we support others enough to revisit their kete? Wellbeing is a team effort. 

A final thought from Jase – and this one really hit home for me:

“We spend two minutes on our dental health but some of us no minutes on our mental health.” 

What are you going to do this Term to balance the pou on your Te Whare Tapa Whā? 

“Make [your] wellbeing a MUST each day.”