Try This book tour starts soon

Just a few days to go till I collect my friend, mentor and co-author Tim Taylor from Auckland airport. It’s so exciting to be able to say this after several previous false starts due to Covid. Tim’s coming to teach on the Mantle of the Expert Winter school. He’ll also be joining me for a workshop tour around Te ika a Māui – North Island based on our new teaching resource Try This: Unlocking Learning with imagination.

Try This consists of a selection of forty tried and tested sequences, or ‘keys’ that can be adapted to teach across the curriculum. The keys have been trialled around the world, with great results. Colleagues here in Aotearoa are finding the keys particularly useful for planning with the new Histories curriculum.

Thanks to our generous hosts, we’re offering six Try This workshops – in Whangarei, Hamilton, Palmerston North, Gisborne, Wellington and Auckland. The Hamilton workshop is full but places are still available on the others. We are keen to support Beginner Teachers and Student Teachers to attend  and we know times are tough, so we’re offering places for BTs and Students at half price. If you know anyone who might be keen to take up one of these, please let them know (they can sign up using the standard form and mention the special offer to receive half price).

And if you’ve been waiting for news of the books themselves … they are due to arrive soon – about the same time as Tim! Copies can be pre-ordered at our website www.trythisbook.org or grab one at the workshops. I’ve just received my approval copy and it’s gorgeous … big, hefty, and beautifully designed (thanks to illustrator Virginia, designer Emily and publisher Charlie!) I love looking at it, turning the pages and imagining the planning teachers are going to create with it.

Local history examples in Try This were crafted with input from THEN-Histories of Pāmutana, Virginia Warbrick (Pākeha) and Warren Warbrick (Rangitāne ki Manawatū, Te Arawa), who also provided invaluable cultural guidance.