“If you want to fly, give up everything that weighs you down (Buddha).” After all these years of teaching on an LAT-Limited Authority to Teach, I will finally be starting my journey to become a registered, full-time teacher in 2024. My journey as a teacher in Aotearoa New Zealand started in July 2008. I was hired for a short-term contract (six months actually) as a Teaching Fellow at the University of Waikato. That was my entry point to this big, beautiful country. Before my contract ended, I was hired as a Media Studies teacher in an all girls high school. Since I wasn’t an NZ-registered teacher, I was given an LAT to be able to teach.

All of my teaching life from then on has always been on an LAT. That is if I was teaching in a mainstream school. However, I didn’t need any registration, when I got the wonderful opportunity to join a pioneering educational projects in 2017 to teach youth and adults with intellectual disabilities. That gig was the most fulfilling one for me as a teacher. But all good things must come to an end, for I was made redundant in August 2022.

That was a fortunate separation because I got hired right away as a Media Studies teacher, still on an LAT, in a mainstream school. My contract was only up to the end of the year, with no provision for renewal. It was then when I got hold of information about the Ako Mātātupu: Teach First NZ teacher training programme. I applied and went to the process of evaluation, presentation, and demo teaching. I was able to join a cohort of 60 teacher-trainees, went to boot camp, summer intensive, and now in my first year of this two-year programme to become a qualified, registered teacher. It has begun!