We’re delighted to let you know that Tim Taylor (author of Beginner’s Guide to Mantle of the Expert) will be visiting Aotearoa in July – August 2020, with a series of one-day professional development workshops in Mantle of the Expert around the country.
Tim will also be collaborating with Viv Aitken to offer a Winter School for experienced practitioners. This will be 17-19th July at Bayswater school in Auckland.
Anyone who has worked with Tim will tell you it’s a great experience: he’s an inspiring practitioner and a warm and encouraging mentor with an absolute wealth of knowledge and skills in Mantle of the Expert. Whether you are an absolute beginner or an experienced practitioner you will take away so much from his sessions.
Detailed information about both the winter school and the workshops will be circulated really soon – but here are the workshop dates so you can save them in your diary. Most schools are booking up their PLD now, so make sure you don’t miss out on this one! Costs to be confirmed, but will be around $150 per person for a full day including catered lunch.
NORTHLAND – Otaika Valley School, 22nd July
AUCKLAND – Bayswater School, 24th July
HAMILTON – Knighton School, 27th July
HAWKES BAY – venue tbc, 29th July
WELLINGTON – Island Bay school, 31st July
CHRISTCHURCH – Waitakiri school, 3rd August
For further information on the workshops or to express interest in the winter school please email mantleoftheexpertnz@gmail.com
These workshops are offered as not-for-profit events: any funds raised will be invested in future courses and professional development in New Zealand. Many thanks to the host schools for support.
Winter school 2020
You may have seen a recent post advertising Tim Taylor’s workshop tour in July – August 2020. In conjunction with this, we are also offering a three day Winter School.
This is designed for more experienced Mantle of the Expert practitioners, especially those in leadership roles in schools.
Enrolment is by invitation with limited places available. PLEASE CLICK HERE to fill in an expression of interest form. Or email for more information.
Winter School 2020 will be co-facilitated by Tim Taylor and Viv Aitken.
Tim Taylor workshop tour July – August 2020
Enrolments are now open for the one-day workshops in Northland 22nd July, Auckland 24th July, Hamilton 27th July, Hawkes Bay 29th July, Wellington 31st July and Christchurch 3rd August. CLICK HERE to go straight to the enrolment form.
Cluster meeting in Wellington – 16th December
Our next cluster gathering in Wellington is coming up soon!
What: An opportunity to meet like minded teachers with an interest in dramatic inquiry, and get some informal PLD. This time as requested we will run through a process drama based on a picture book.
When: 16th December from 3.30 pm – 5.30pm. Don’t worry if you’re a little late – we’ll be pleased to see you whenever you arrive!
Where: St Theresa’s school in Plimmerton. Apparently some people had trouble with GPS playing up last time, so here are directions –
St Theresa’s School, 1 James Street, Plimmerton. From Wellington pass St Theresa’s Church and take the 3rd exit at the roundabout. From North, turn left at Plimmerton roundabout just before Palmers Garden Centre.
What to bring: A friend! As always, cluster meetings are free of charge but please email Pauline at the school if you are keen to attend: pauline-maclean@st-theresas.school.nz
These sessions are always great fun… looking forward to seeing Wellington colleagues again and hearing what you have been up to in your classrooms.
Ka kite – Viv
Auckland Theatre Company – Storyworlds project
Auckland theatre company has a long history of creating quality theatre for adults and young people. Now it’s developing a brand new programme for young children from years 1-3 called ‘Storyworlds.’ In this approach, children are taken on a creative adventure by actor-teachers, who use a range of dramatic inquiry strategies (including teacher in role, drama conventions, storytelling and significant artefacts) to bring storybooks to life. Children are involved as active participants in the adventure; helping to solve problems and decide the direction for the story to take.
A really exciting thing about the programme is that it is tailored for each school and also involves professional development in dramatic inquiry. Teachers are involved in the planning – which is different for every setting. They are also given opportunities to co-teach in the dramatic inquiry aspects of the programme and are supported to continue to use the strategies and conventions of drama after the project has finished. That’s such a rich and unique model, bringing together expertise in theatre-making and education for the benefit of children and teachers.
Here’s a short video about Storyworlds. If you’d be interested in finding out more or hosting a Storyworlds adventure in your school, please email lynne at Auckland Theatre Company: lynne@atc.co.nz
Origins: A three day arts adventure with Owhango school
This learning story comes from Owhango school – a small rural school in King Country. Owhango school has 47 children, 2 teachers (Emma and Jessie) and a principal (Ewan) with a real passion for the arts. Ewan applied for funding for PLD and that’s how come I got to spend the last two years visiting the school and working with them to deepen their classroom practice in drama, dance and music – what a joy! We finished up our time together last month with this three day adventure based around the Māori creation story.
While it’s not an example of mantle of the expert, our teaching and learning did include some dramatic inquiry moments and shows how drama can be integrated with other arts and with literacy so I thought I’d post for your interest (mostly I just want to record the rosy times spent with this lovely school!)
The planning for the drama aspects of this unit of work was adapted from a process drama I created with staff from Knighton School in Hamilton earlier in the year … a great example of sharing practice around. Thanks to both schools. Thanks also Ewan for permission to share these images. Story extracts and the atua puppets were created from Peter Gossage’s picture book In the beginning…
CLICK HERE FOR LINK TO LEARNING STORY
First encounters – A Mantle of the Expert exploration of New Zealand history
Whakarongo Tauranga from Knighton School in Hamilton has generously offered to share this account of some recent work in her classroom. Download the full file below.
During 2019, Whakarongo has led a team of 10 committed folk at Knighton school to explore how dramatic inquiry, including Mantle of the Expert, can be used to teach New Zealand history. The group has used Tamsin Hanly’s Critical Histories of Aotearoa and I had the privilege of supporting them in my role as a Ministry-accredited PLD provider. It’s been a wonderful year of what feels like really significant mahi – and we’re looking forward to more in 2020.
I particularly appreciate how this planning encourages students to explore multiple perspectives on the first encounters between Māori and Cook. It’s great to have the children’s voice included in this account too. Thanks so much Whakarongo!
Please acknowledge Whakarongo as the original author of this planning if you make use of it in future. Also, I’m sure she would welcome any comments or feedback so feel free to add those below.
Tim Taylor is coming in 2020 – save the dates!
We’re delighted to let you know that Tim Taylor (author of Beginner’s Guide to Mantle of the Expert) will be visiting Aotearoa in July – August 2020, with a series of one-day professional development workshops in Mantle of the Expert around the country.
Tim will also be collaborating with Viv Aitken to offer a Winter School for experienced practitioners. This will be 17-19th July at Bayswater school in Auckland.
Anyone who has worked with Tim will tell you it’s a great experience: he’s an inspiring practitioner and a warm and encouraging mentor with an absolute wealth of knowledge and skills in Mantle of the Expert. Whether you are an absolute beginner or an experienced practitioner you will take away so much from his sessions.
Detailed information about both the winter school and the workshops will be circulated really soon – but here are the workshop dates so you can save them in your diary. Most schools are booking up their PLD now, so make sure you don’t miss out on this one! Costs to be confirmed, but will be around $150 per person for a full day including catered lunch.
NORTHLAND – Otaika Valley School, 22nd July
AUCKLAND – Bayswater School, 24th July
HAMILTON – Knighton School, 27th July
HAWKES BAY – venue tbc, 29th July
WELLINGTON – Island Bay school, 31st July
CHRISTCHURCH – Waitakiri school, 3rd August
For further information on the workshops or to express interest in the winter school please email mantleoftheexpertnz@gmail.com
These workshops are offered as not-for-profit events: any funds raised will be invested in future courses and professional development in New Zealand. Many thanks to the host schools for support.
Drama from a picture book – Taniwha
Here’s the planning for a simple process drama based on Robyn Kahukiwa’s beautiful picture book Taniwha. This drama was shared at the Literacy conference and the TRCC course in October 2019, with participants coming up with some really thoughtful responses.
Robyn Kahukiwa’s gorgeous book has enormous potential for rich exploration across the arts and the short lesson offered here only skims the surface of the deeper meanings that could be explored through the text. However, I think it’s a good example of how effective process drama can be created fairly easily using a picture book as pretext.
Here also is the planning framework that was used to create the drama. This handout has been shared on this site before using a different book. It’s amazing how these simple steps can be used to create unique dramas from just about any picture book. Check it out and have a go at writing your own!
Real Learning in Imagined worlds – Dramatic inquiry and literacy
The National Literacy conference was held last week at Rangi Ruru school in Christchurch with the theme of “Arts as a Bridge to Literacy”. As promised, here’s a PDF of slides from Viv’s keynote address with notes to help make sense of the visuals. There are also links you can click to further information.
Many many thanks to the fabulous teachers of Knighton Normal and Hillcrest Normal Schools in Hamilton who contributed clips for the video used during the presentation.
Wellington Cluster meeting 21st October 2019
We’ve had some really buzzy cluster meetings in Wellington this year and this is set to continue with our next get together at Eastern Hutt School on Monday 21st October (from 4pm).
We’ll continue with our exploration of Mantle of the Expert planning and probably learn a few new drama conventions too. This is an informal opportunity to chat about dramatic inquiry, ask questions and meet others who are giving it a go in their classrooms.
Cluster groups are free of charge and everyone is welcome. If you can, bring a plate to contribute to afternoon tea (if that’s too hard, no worries – just turn up!) Whether you are an experienced practitioner or an interested beginner, this is an opportunity to join like-minded colleagues for an enjoyable experience of ako.
Please email Sue Fennell if you’re planning to attend:
sfennell@easternhutt.school.nz