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.

 

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

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!

A final reminder about two forthcoming seminars with visiting Professor Brian Edmiston at Waikato University.  Not purely MOtE but may be of interest. The first session (hosted by WMIER – blue flyer) is aimed at education researchers and will explore dialogism and positioning theory. NB: This session has been extended to 9-12.

The second event (hosted by TDU – red flyer)  is for tertiary teachers interested in using dramatic and active approaches  in their teaching.

Both are almost full so if you want to attend, please register with the emails shown on the flyers. For the  WMIER session, please email viv on viva@waikato.ac.nz. For the TDU workshop email Lissa (address as shown on flyer)

Brian Edmiston seminar Feb 2104

Prof Brian Edmiston promo flyer 180214

I have had some requests for this article, which was originally published in 2009 but can be hard to find online. It talks about why it is so important to signal the fiction when working in drama.  It’s a long read but hopefully of interest – particularly the later sections on ‘deliberate misframing’ in the classroom. Your comments are welcome.

The article was originally published in the e journal New Zealand Journal of Research in Performing Arts and Education: Nga Mahi a Rehia volume 1, 2009

Borat FINAL copy

Greetings colleagues

At a recent cluster meeting Sue Bleaken (Deputy Principal of Melville Intermediate School) was kind enough to share a list of books she has found particularly useful in planning drama for restorative practice in her school. Sue has provided us with a PDF of this list – attached here. Sincere thanks to Sue for sharing this useful resource.

Contact Sue via the school if you would like more information about her work bringing together drama and restorative practices. Sue also wrote a Master’s thesis on her approach, which can be accessed via the University of Waikato library.

Sue B’s books for drama and restorative practice

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!

Here’s a flyer for a seminar on 13th Feb 2014 by visiting prof Brian Edmiston. As well as being an experienced practitioner in MOTE, Brian has researched and written extensively on positioning theory and dialogism. This seminar (sponsored by the Wilf Malcolm Institute of Educational Research at the University of Waikato) is an opportunity for students, academics or people just plain interested in teaching and learning, to come and hear more about these fascinating theories and how they have informed Brian’s work. Places are limited so please email if you are keen to attend.

Brian Edmiston seminar Feb 2104

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.

If you only click on one internet link today – make it this one… Luke Willis from Melville Intermediate School (a decile 4 school in Hamilton) is 8 weeks in to his first attempt at Mantle of the Expert. His blog charts the amazing success he has had with these students. The journey has also included an impressive array of ITC – lots to inspire here including the innovative use of iphones and artwork to create animations (screen shot below)

To reach the blog click here 

Thanks, Luke for sharing this.

Screen shot 2013-11-29 at 7.29.50 AM