Just to let you know that we now have a Mantle of the Expert NZ facebook group. Originally opened as a ‘community’ page, we have now shifted to a ‘group’ as this allows private discussion between members. So if you are a facebook user, please search for Mantle of the Expert NZ – or send a message to Viv and ask to be added.
On 16th August 2012 7pm – 8pm we have the next in our regular secondary skype
conversations (for secondary teachers using MOTE).
On the agenda: Role based assessment tools, Ideas for Drama NZ conference, Feedback from UK / Eire conferences.
Please email Viv viva@waikato.ac.nz (or use comment button below) if you wish to be included in the skype conversation or if you have any further ideas for discussion.
The next Bay of Plenty regional cluster meeting will be held on Friday 24th August from 6pm at the University of Waikato, Windermere Campus – Room V125. Thanks to Barb and Jon for working on the arrangements!
Amongst other things, we will be talking about: Ways to grow MOTE within a school, Role-based Assessment tools and Drama conventions.
One more thing – for this occasion we will be combining with the Tauranga Curriculum Integration Practitioners Support Group meeting. Many people are members of both groups, so rather than coming out twice in the cold for two events in the winter – we have blended the two meetings into one. The usual CI Practitioners Support Group refreshments will be available from 5.45pm!
Haere Mai – all welcome – if you would like to attend this event, please email Jon Jenner jmj@compassnet.co.nz
Priya Gain from Muritai School has sent the link to her latest blog – a mantle on Ancient Greeks! Have a read… Priya does a really great job at blogging the learning journey in an attractive and accessible way. To visit the blog, click here – or go to links on the right.
http://www.karmatube.org/videos.php?id=1911
This TED talk speech from child speaker Adora Svitak has some important messages for teachers, and adults in general. She’s rather terrifyingly precocious but I like how she challenges us to rethink the teacher-student relationship based on trust. And her call to adults to ‘allow us kids to grow up and blow you away’ rather than become another set of adults just like you…
Viv Aitken and her 14 third year student teachers from Waikato University are working together with classroom teacher Melissa Phillips and Deputy Principal Gay Gilbert on a 6 week Mantle of the Expert adventure children from room 17, Hillcrest Normal School. We are going to be working with these enthusiastic year 3s as a toy museum, charged with caring for a precious and highly valuable set of toys. You can read about this MOTE by following our blog. Click here, or visit ‘links’ on the MOTE website.
The next cluster meeting for Waikato primary teachers (and any interested others) will be THURSDAY 2nd AUGUST at 4pm at Puketaha school. An opportunity to catch up on new Mantles underway this term, learn some new drama conventions for your classroom – and plan ideas for future PD.
This post sent in by Priya Gain from Wellington. You can read in more detail about the Mantles described here by visiting the Murutai school blogs (see ‘links’ on the right)……. Priya writes:
Pre-service primary school teachers, as part of their teacher training
programme at Victoria University of Wellington, are going to be
introduced to the dramatic inquiry learning approach of Mantle of the
Expert.Delia Baskerville, drama lecturer at Victoria University, and Priya
Gain have collaborated to create a lecture and a follow up workshop on
Mantle of the Expert. The lecture and workshop will be co-presented
by Delia and Priya and will be part of the coursework on curriculum
and pedagogical content knowledge for
planning/teaching/assessment/evaluation in the primary school
curriculum.The lecture introduces pre-service teachers to Mantle of the Expert
(MOTE) by taking them through a MOTE unit of work that Priya did with
year 3 and 4 students at MURITAI SCHOOL. Delia was involved in this
unit of work when she visited the classroom in-role to add the key
dramatic tension.The lecture will illustrate:
• how drama was used to build belief and commitment to a fictional
company of sea science researchers,
• the range of curriculum based tasks that students did in order to
successfully complete their commission, and
• how dramatic tension was used to drive an active response from
students and active reflection on their learning.The lecture uses the voices of the students throughout to illustrate
and honour the high level of thinking, creativity, and collaboration
of the students who took part in this Mantle.In the workshop the pre-service teachers will be taken through another
MOTE unit of work that Priya did at MURITAI SCHOOL. This unit was
with a group of new entrants students in-role as garden designers. In
the workshop the teachers will have the opportunity to participate in
three episodes from this MOTE unit including:• entering a fictional space and adding signs to take ownership of this space,
• responding to a simple commission (using a picture book), and
considering how this can drive inquiry learning, and
• experiencing and responding to some dramatic tension to see how this
element drives active learning and reflection.It is exciting to think that these pre-service teachers will have the
opportunity to see how teachers can use drama to teach across all
curriculum learning areas, and take the role of genuine facilitators
in child-led inquiry learning through Mantle of the Expert.
Hopefully these teachers are inspired by the student’s work and take
this inspiration out into more primary schools and share the magic of
MOTE.
Here is an example of what teachers in the D4LC (Drama for Learning and Creativity) project in the UK are achieving with drama. In this example, Patrice Baldwin is seen working with teachers of young children to support learning in Maths through drama.
This moving you tube video is a trailer for a film about education. A compelling addition to the ongoing discussion about the true meaning of education. Well worth a watch…