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Skype meeting for secondary teachers

A small gathering was held via Skype on January 10th, enabling a conversation between various secondary teachers interested in using Mantle of the Expert in their teaching in 2012.

The group discussed the issues of working within timetable and assessment constraints, how to get started in MOTE with inexperienced children, and some possible planning ideas for building a MOTE experience to incorporate English, Drama and Social studies.

This group of teachers will be meeting again via skype close to the start of Term one. If you are a secondary teacher and would like to join the group, please email Viv for information.

 

 

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Dorothy Heathcote’s life celebration – Pam Bowell’s address

This week the celebration of Dorothy Heathcote’s life was held in Spondon, Derbyshire, UK. It was great that our own Sarah Marino was able to attend, to represent Drama NZ and Mantle of the Expert practitioners from this part of the world.

Pamela Bowell gave a moving address at the ceremony and she has given permission for this to be reproduced here. It’s a lovely snapshot of what it was like to work alongside DH, and the legacy she has left behind.

Dorothy-Heathcote-–-a-personal-reflection-by-Pamela-Bowell

 

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Another new blog to enjoy

Natalie and Alex from Puketaha school have provided a link to their classroom blog. Check out the ‘links’ on the right of our home page or click the link below to visit. You might notice that some of the blog is written in role…

Thanks guys for sharing this with us!

http://classof2011room1.wordpress.com

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Mantle of the Expert course in January

A final reminder that enrolments for ALED 515, the University of Waikato’s postgraduate paper in Mantle of the Expert will be closing soon.

This year the paper will be taught through a combination of oncampus classes (16th to 20th January, Windermere Campus, Tauranga) and follow up work online (concluding end of term one).

The paper offers a combination of practical experience, theory and assistance with planning for your own classroom. Past students have included primary, secondary and community educators. The course has been a fantastic experience in the past and looks like shaping up to be a great group this year too…. Further information is on the attached flier.

MantlePaper-web(2)

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10 possible MOTE ideas

Check out the new page just inserted into the website under ‘planning in MOTE – teacher resources’  Or click here.  On this page you will find 10 concept ideas for MOTE plans all very different and all with a distinctly NZ theme.

These concepts for Mantle of the Expert units of work were designed by third year students as part of their learning on TEAL 387 at Waikato University. My thanks to these students for agreeing to allow their ideas to be shared with other teachers. They are loosely categorized according to the main curriculum learning areas that they cover – though the ‘incorporated’ approach of MOTE means that each concept gives opportunities to teach right across the curriculum including opportunities for rich learning in Maths, Literacy and ethics / values. Key competencies are not indicated but are core to any MOTE experience.

Please note, these concepts provide only the broad framework for planning – naturally a great deal of micro-planning would be required for individual lessons and to ensure teaching for learning. It is important to note that the concepts as they stand do NOT include indications of drama conventions and other drama for learning strategies which the teacher would need to use.  And naturally, the direction of the inquiry would flex and change depending on the interests of the children in the class. Nonetheless, I think you will agree that these concepts provide a stimulating set of NZ based ideas for MOTE units – and we really need to start building a collection of those!

Death of John Carroll

Very sad to report the death of another important figure within drama education circles in this part of the world –  Prof. John Carroll. I attach here below an extract from an obituary for John written by Susan Battye. To read the whole thing, visit the drama NZ website….

 

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Professor John Carroll, BA NE, MEd PhD Newcastle(UK) has died. A staunch supporter of Drama New Zealand from its inception, he will be sorely missed by many members for his intelligence, wit, humanity and devotion to the work of Dorothy Heathcote. He has made an enormous contribution to the development of Drama in Education and his death is most untimely.

His friend, Gerry Boland writes: ‘John Carroll died in Bathurst at approximately 12:30am, Thursday, 27 October. His life’s partner Julie Martello, his sister Lee, and son Jack were with him when he expired after making a stalwart fight against cancer over many months.’

T o me he was an Aussie chum who was colloquially known in Drama circles as ‘one of the Johns’. He is immortalised on film working with Primary aged students in Newcastle upon Tyne in role in a Mantle of the Expert drama about Dr Lister. We were fortunate to have been able to see John last year during a presentation to the Drama Symposium organised by the Critical Studies Department at the University of Auckland. Within the world of academia John Carroll paved the way for Drama to enter the brave new world of screen mediated drama. There is no doubt that his pioneering work in Australia has been of  benefit to us all who work in the field of Drama in Education.

Heathcote life celebration and memorial website

This week we received a message from the Heathcote family with information about Dorothy’s Life Celebration, which is to be held on 11th December at St. Werburgh’s Church, Church Street, Spondon, DERBY DE21 7LL in the UK. The celebration will be followed by a party.
If there is anyone from NZ who is able to attend this celebration that would be great – you would be representing many of us who would like to be there. You are asked to  RSVP to mariannekevin@yahoo.co.uk (or by post, but not telephone) so numbers attending can be catered for. In lieu of flowers, or for those unable to attend, you might like to consider a charitable donation to the Dorothy Heathcote Drama Award at www.justgiving.com/dorothyheathcote This website will accept donations from the UK and abroad.
In advance of the Life Celebration, Marianne is very keen for many people who have photographs and written memories of Dorothy to mail hard copies to her,  ideally with photographs labelled on the back with names/approximate dates.
Marianne says “This is something that will be very special to us as a family and we would like to treasure it and pass it on to Anna and future generations.”
Marianne also invites us all to visit www.dorothyheathcote.org which has just been launched as the only official website endorsed by the family and dedicated to the life and work of Dorothy, to be used as the international meeting place where all memories of Dorothy and her work can be shared, and her practice carried forward. There is a special ‘affected by DH’ page where you can add your name to a list of all those who knew or were touched by Dorothy. For those who haven’t already read it, Dorothy’s official obituary and photograph are also on this website.
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Planning for term four

A successful planning session was held in Hamilton last week where local teachers came together to brainstorm ideas and share advice for term four:

Amongst others, we generated the following ideas:

  • A Mantle of the expert approach to the story Jack and the Beanstalk, for year two primary students. In this case, the teacher has decided to place a strong emphasis on the drama for learning / process drama side with teacher going into role as the giant’s wife, very distressed at the stealing of her golden hen…. The teacher really wanted to work with this theme after experiencing some petty theft within the classroom.
  • A MOTE for senior high school students involving a company that regulates new technologies in the marketplace [this one can be seen as working in the ‘regulatory’ mode from Heathcote’s list]. This one is going to be used as a starting point for a senior drama unit and the students will be challenged to explore ethical and political issues arising from secretive surveillence in society. Students’ ideas will be used as the basis for a devised performance.
  • For a senior primary class, a mantle of the expert exploration of the environmental damage from ‘Rena’ (the cargo ship currently aground off the Bay of Plenty). We discussed how important it would be with this one to take care with ‘frame distance’, as this is a real life issue, currently unfolding. We talked about how we could enrol the students as a company commissioned to clean out and recycle the shipping containers that have floated off the ship… this will take the class into science, design and math learning.

The gathering was useful not only to touch base with other teachers but also to remind ourselves of some of planning steps and guiding principles of planning in MOTE. Again, it was impressive to see primary, early years and secondary teachers sharing ideas. Kia Ora team!

Changes to the MOTE NZ website

Visitors to this site may have noticed a few updates to the way the site is being used.

Responding to teachers’ requests for a less ‘public’ space for discussion and asking questions, we have now added a “Moodle” discussion forum. This will allow users to interact directly with each other, post questions, offer advice etc. Questions and answers will no longer be posted to the ‘front page’ of the site.

Subscribing to the discussion forum takes a few little steps but I do hope you will take a moment to join as the forum needs members to make it work!

  • First click on the link (on the right of the www.mantleofttheexpert.co.nz website page)
  • You will be prompted to set up an account (NB: This is a different account from your subscription to the mantleoftheexpert.co.nz website)
  • Discussion forums are called ‘courses’ (because we are using the university’s moodle system). Click on the one you wish to join.
  • If you are prompted for a ‘key’ then please email viva@waikato.ac.nz for more information

There are already a few discussions underway – check it out!

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Link to blog added

A new link has been added to Robin Mills’ blog about room 5’s adventures at Puketaha school.

Thanks Robin –

Check out the blog here

http://puketaha5.wordpress.com