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Whangarei Cluster Meeting – March 24th

We will be holding our very first cluster meeting on the 24th of March at 3.30pm.  This will be held at Kaurihohore School.  If you want to know more about MOTE, hear about some of our experiences so far and know more about how to get started we urge you to come along.

Kaurihohore school is located at 71 Apotu Road, Kamo/Kauri, Whangarei.  As this is our first meeting please RSVP with numbers to Leslee Allen at principal@kaurihohoreschool.co.nz for seating purposes.

We look forward to seeing you there and setting up an active group in Whangarei.

 

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BOP Cluster Meeting – Tuesday 18th February

Hi all

Our next BOP Cluster Meeting will be held on Tuesday 18th March at Omokoroa Point School, 37 Hamurana Road, Omokoroa – from 4.30pm for a 5.00pm start – please bring nibbles.

A focus on drama conventions has been suggested and as such we are asked to come armed with what and how we have used them already – Viv is coming with useful stuff from Brian’s recent visit….

For those wishing a ride – Viv and I will be leaving from Windermere Site (main car park) at 4.00pm – please let me know if you would like one.

See you all there I hope.

Cheers

Jon

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Hamilton Cluster Meeting 17th February

Greetings! Just confirming details for the next Hamilton cluster meeting –  MONDAY 17th FEBRUARY, 4.30 – 6.00  pm in the McLaren room,  Faculty of Education, University of Waikato.  Brian Edmiston (visiting professor from the USA) will be joining us, just two days before he leaves NZ, so this is a great opportunity for cluster members old and new to meet and talk with Brian about his wealth of experience in dramatic inquiry approaches.  Tea and coffee will be provided, please bring a little something  to share for afternoon tea.  The topics explored will  be based on inquiry questions posed by cluster group members. So please, email viv on viva@waikato.ac.nz with your current wonderings about Mantle…. No question too big or too small!

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Intermediate teachers talk about MOtE

These natty little film clips have been created by Luke Willis from Melville Intermediate. Here you can see Luke, colleague Jacqui and the school’s DP Sue talk about their explorations in MOtE. As you will see, these teachers were blown away with the student engagement and with the learning outcomes from their first try at MOtE.

In the first clip,  Luke describes how he developed a Mantle adventure based on a movie /novel called “City of Ember”. Students were charged with designing an underground city.

Click here for link

Next, Jacqui talks about how she made links between her mantle (based on a fictional property development company) and the real world enterprise learning project, PrEP.

Click here for link

Finally, Luke has captured these teachers’ answers to my questions  about working in dramatic inquiry with intermediate students.

Click here for link 

Sincere thanks to Luke for producing these very polished clips in record time. There is very little information out there on Mantle at Intermediate – so this is very valuable material.

Enjoy!

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Thanks to cluster group hosts for 2013 – and dates for next year.

Two buzzy cluster meetings this week – Hamilton and Tauranga brought our 2013 get togethers to a close. Great to see familiar colleagues and new faces at both events.

In Hamilton on Thursday a small but enthused group gathered to hear Jacqui, Luke and Sue  share about their successful experiments with MOtE in Melville Intermediate classrooms. The highly ITC savvy Luke has edited  a set of videos of these presentations – which will be shared soon.

Then on Friday it was the turn of BOP teachers who gathered at the Tauranga Steiner school for another small but fascinating session.  This session was focussed on “hooks” – different ways to begin MOtE experiences. The evening culminated with everyone in the group having a go at different ways to kick off a mantle experience based on a transport company. The starting points were the same, but the hooks people came up with were strikingly different. Interesting stuff!

I’m sure everyone who has attended a cluster meeting this year would join with me in extending thanks to the teachers and schools who have hosted our meetings this year. We all know how busy teachers’ lives are and so for  people to take time to host, provide food and prepare presentations for colleagues is deeply appreciated. Dates for our first meetings of next year are as follows: Hamilton 17th Feb, Tauranga 18th March. Venues to be advised.

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Cluster meetings this week – plus a new group for colleagues in the North

Here are two reminders and one bit of news

For Hamilton mantlers, don’t forget our final cluster meeting for 2013, which is tomorrow, Thursday 28th Nov at 4.30 at Melville Intermediate School. Come and hear about the exciting things colleagues at this school have achieved with mantle and process drama. You will be inspired.

For those based in the Bay of Plenty, our final meeting for the year is the following day  Friday 29th Nov at the Tauranga Steiner school – also at 4.30 for 5pm. Our focus will be “hooks”. Come and explore some of the different methods used to engage students at the start of a mantle experience. You might be surprised at the variety of ‘ways in’ that have been found to be effective.

For both these gatherings, as always, we ask you to please bring a contribution to shared afternoon tea and, if you can – an interested friend! Huge thanks to all those schools who have hosted us through 2013.  We look forward to more next year.

And now the news – after a very inspiring inservice day with teachers from three primary schools in the Whangarei region, we are looking at beginning a cluster group for Northland teachers in 2014. If you are keen to be involved in this group, please contact Leslee at Kaurihohore school. Her email is principal@kaurihohoreschool.co.nz.

Wow – so much happening – clearly the mantle flame is very much alight!

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BOP MOTE Cluster Meeting 29th November

Reminder

BOP MOTE Cluster Meeting on 29th November, 4.30pm for a 5pm start in Class 1 – please bring nibbles and a smile. Viv running a session on hooks amongst other good stuff.

Location – Tauranga Waldorf School, Welcome Bay Road – if coming from town end of Welcome Bay Rd go past the shops on right (and a Caltex servo) and school is about 1km past there on right (big sign) – if coming from other end – just past Welcome Bay Hot Pools on opposite side of road.

See you’ll there…..

Jon

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Confirming date for next Hamilton Cluster meeting

Hi folks

Date for the next Hamilton cluster group will be Thursday  28th November 4.30pm for 5pm at Melville Intermediate School

Visiting Sue Bleaken’s school will give us the opportunity to hear about how she uses mantle / process drama to develop restorative processes across the school. Inspiring stuff! Other possible topics for the evening are assessment methods within MOTE and ways to use different teacher in role status positions…. Another important topic for discussion at this gathering  is how we might spend our network funding…. Please bring ideas, enthusiasm, stories, interested friends and snacks for the table ….        See you there!

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Hamilton cluster

Thanks Michelle and colleagues at Aberdeen school for making everyone so welcome on Thursday evening. As always, an energizing and reinspiring couple of hours.  We had good numbers attending including several first timers – always good to see! Our focus this time was “hooks” – different ways to start a MOTE experience and build engagement. Experienced teachers shared their favourite ideas and we tried some out in groups. Some of the group’s ideas for hooks are shown below (with specific examples in brackets).

  • Letter or message from someone in need (message in a bottle from Spinifex the alchemist, asking for advice)
  • Teacher in role as someone with a problem (elderly gentleman who has taken in too many stray animals)
  • Teacher as ‘effigy’ (poacher holding an ivory tusk)
  • Vignette or short scene created in advance (Villagers discussing Maui the trickster’s latest trick)
  • Artefact or object (box marked ‘fragile, kiwi eggs’ – found upside down with broken shells nearby)
  • Sound effect or You Tube clip (the talking crab)
  • Partly created setting  (the undersea rainbow cave – children invited to complete the setting before meeting the wise octopus)
  • Transformed classroom or school space (classroom trashed by monster) (school field taped off as possible gold mine site)
  • Taped outline on the floor (human body – crime scene)
  • Symbolic picture drawn in front of the children (tall ship) (whale with netting around the tail)
  • Symbol prepared in advance  (large red blot – paint? blood?)
  • Puzzle pieces (pieces of tuatara)

We spent some time exploring the theatrical aspects of these hooks, and through workshopping we made discoveries about what kind of teaching strategies can help  (ritual, conscious use of pace, genuine questioning, parsimony, spacial signalling). It was certainly interesting to focus in such detail on just one aspect of Mantle of the Expert. There’s so much to explore!

Next cluster meeting will be at Melville Intermediate at the end of November / early December. Date will be confirmed soon.

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First Hamilton cluster meeting for term 4

Greetings colleagues – for those teaching in schools, I hope you have enjoyed a restorative couple of weeks out of the classroom.

A reminder that our next cluster meeting is a few days away. Thursday 17th Oct 4.30pm at Aberdeen School, Aberdeen Drive, Dinsdale Hamilton. Our focus is on starting points, dramatic starters – “hooks” that can be used to launch exciting experiences in inquiry. Bring your favourite ideas (and nibbles or drinks to share) and be prepared to be inspired by others. New faces always welcome ….. Haere mai!