Greetings! A friendly reminder of two things: Thursday 11th April is our next cluster meeting – 4.30 pm at Hillcrest Normal School. All most welcome… The focus will be on use of Heathcote’s role conventions…. Also a reminder that if you have not already done so, now is the time to get your registration in for Te Kore – the Drama NZ national conference, 26-28 April at University of Waikato. The conference is three days of fantastic presentations and workshops on drama including a number specifically related to Mantle of the Expert. Process drama expert Pam Bowell is one of the keynotes. It’s a great opportunity and very reasonably priced – with special deals for students and day registrations also available Click here to download registration form
Tag Archives | cluster meeting
2 recent cluster meetings – and more coming up
Two MOTE cluster meetings were held within two days in February!
The secondary skype group held a very successful chat (despite some mild technical issues) in which ideas were shared about MOTE and NCEA assessment. We were pleased to welcome some newcomers to that conversation, with participants ranging from the far North to Wellington. The next secondary skype discussion will be held Tuesday 17th April at 7pm
The other meeting as held at St Thomas More school in Mt Maunganui. This one was attended by teachers and student teachers from Bay of Plenty Primary schools and hosted by Elicia Pirini. We shared experiences of teacher in role and discussed ways of working in MOTE to successfully build belief in the company. Thanks Elicia, for writing up your notes and reflections on this event. A brief extract is shown below – full notes can be found within the teacher’s discussion forum.
Establishing the company takes time, it needs to ripen slowly and the student’s role and identity within the company needs to be deliberately grown. I liken it to a marae when there is a major event being held. Many roles need to be fulfilled; these roles often come from a historical reputation and traditional protocols that have been handed down from previous generations. People have been groomed into a particular role. There is an air of expectation that all roles must be fulfilled so that the marae has a high reputation of manaakitanga. (hosting and looking after others). All roles are considered vital for the common good of those involved in and with the marae. There is an understanding of belonging and contributing that occurs when roles and purpose transform to a culture/a way of being.
The next meeting of the Tauranga cluster group will take place on the Wednesday 2nd May at 5pm at St Thomas More
For more information about these cluster groups, please contact Viv or Elicia or place a comment on this message.
Cluster meetings in January / February
2012 is off to a flying start. A number of teachers at primary and secondary are plotting great things in their classrooms for term 1 or term 2. The summer school paper in Tauranga is going really well, and a bunch of new teachers is coming through all enthused and ready to try the approach.
We have already held a small skype call for secondary teachers around the country in which we discussed some planning ideas. This group meets again (over skype) on Weds 22nd Feb at 7pm. Meantime, the conversations continue via the MOODLE discussion forum on the website. Check out this link for more.
If you are a secondary teacher and would like to join this group, please let Viv know.
The next face to face cluster meeting in Waikato will be Tuesday 7th Feb at 5pm at The Education Leadership centre, downstairs at the rear of the Faculty of Education building, University of Waikato. All are welcome.
The suggestion is that we look at different ways to establish and build belief in a MOTE company / enterprise. Some new ideas have come through teachers’ work recently which would be great to share. Please bring your ideas / questions about this crucial stage of planning for a MOTE. Please also bring a plate of food to share.
The other focus for the gathering will be planning for our open evening, coming up in March.
Planning for term four
By Viv Aitken on October 25, 2011 in Classroom examples – Primary, Classroom examples – Secondary, Cluster meetings, News
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!
Next cluster meeting in Waikato
The Waikato cluster group will be holding its next meeting on Thursday 19th May at Hillcrest Normal School (Cambridge road, Hamilton) Start time: 4pm.
The focus for this get together will be a presentation by PhD student Carrie Swanson. Carrie will be sharing the planning she has done for for a science-based MOTE written for senior primary students based around the extreme weather events of the Wahine disaster. A nice opportunity to hear about Mantle of the Expert planning principles used to explore a NZ historical theme.
All are welcome to attend – bring a plate!