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Where did the last two weeks go?

It has been two more weeks in class - four classes, so I am behind in my reflection posts. Last week, Mr Science set up a training crime scene. Using the skills they had learned through the fingerprinting professional development, two groups had to collect evidence from the crime scene. Before being allowed to enter past the caution tape, they needed to discuss and come up with plan, which each group did eagerly. There was a table of resources for them outside the crime scene. They discussed they needed their lab coats and name tags, they needed the shoe covers so they would not contaminate the scene. They needed to photograph where all the evidence was. They needed to document and log each piece of evidence. I was impressed with the level of seriousness with which most of the class approached the situation. They were focused and very aware of following some clear, agreed upon procedures. They collected their evidence and sent it away to the labs for testing. The next day, they ...
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Building Belief

Week two in class (week four of school!)   Feeling much better after this week of classes. This week we started back in the company. The two logos that have been designed for The Company are "PROOF" and "TIB: THE INTELLIGENT BUNCH" and so, we decided that these are two divisions of The Company. I know this is branching away from Mantle, in that, I am making the call of what the company is named - but I made a quick, bad decision to have them make logos before we had locked in a name so this was my way of solving it. Hopefully, the two divisions will come to have two specalisations (eg. fingerprint analysis and data analysis) which they need inter-dependency on each for information. Logo Designs  We started class by talking about our office space. The learners were asked what areas we needed in our offices to complete our work to the high level of success we needed. A huge list was created and once it got started, it was hard to hold them back. Learners we...
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PROOF!

Term1, 2018 starts with a new Mantle of the Expert!  I am collaborating with a science teacher for this selected offered to Year 9 students called PROOF! This selected (option class) runs for one term with two sessions of 100x minutes per week. It is based around forensic science - something I know nothing about - and students will learn how to dust for fingerprints, analyse different fibers, analyse information and make conclusions about various crimes that are presented to them. The teacher I am working with experience MOTE last year when I was working on a connected class (check out my previous blogs for my reflections on that) and he is keen to try it again on a smaller scale and now that he has some understanding of the ways of working. In our first class, the students were met by the science teacher taking on a frozen effigy. He was sitting on a stool, with a box beside him (they could see a document with fingerprints on it), looking seriously at a piece of paper he was ...
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Reflection on attempt number one

We have wrapped up our first attempt at Mantle of the Expert as connected teaching team. There have been successes, as well as some points of frustration and uncertainty. To summarize our MOTE; Hook: interned messes up, put the display put in order to send off Company Creation: created office space, wrote about our first day on the job, created artifacts of the company (logo, business cards, vehicle design, website) History of the Company: advertisements, interviews from our successful history  Mini commission: write lesson plans to accompany the display sent away Commission One: create a road show that explores continental drift. We trailed our ideas on local years 6-8 students and gained their feedback. We used this to do some data analysis.  Commission Two: Create a bus stop poster that is informative and interactive showing Polynesian Journey to NZ  Wrap up: imagine you are at the bus stop, what is your reaction to this poster. Write a short social media ...
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Problems and solutions...

It's been awhile since my last post, and I think that it is due to a departure from Mantle as of late within class. We have been having some struggles with maintaining a MOTE approach with 60 students, and with 3 teachers who have never taught in a MOTE before. It has been a big learning curve for all of us. The newest commission that the company received was to create bus stop posters from the Pasifika Komiti that were interactive, engaging and informative about 'Journey's to New Zealand'. The company underwent some professional development to help build their knowledge before creating the posters. In hindsight, I think that that the 'Professional Development' days that were set up to assist in the development of the posters were too teacher driven in terms of the content. There was no questioning of students in terms of what they already knew / wanted to know / questions they had for the development of their poster. I think that if we had have done that, ...
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There's always a few bumps in the road

We had some issues at the start of the week. Looking back on this, this was to do with the lack of connection to the company we had made for learners with the tasks they were doing. The lead into the tasks was too quick and was not framed in a way that allowed the students to re-enter the world of the company, and so they fell back into some routines that are not very conducive to learning. At the end of last week, the students went on a EOTC trip to the museum. They were there to complete an audit on the museum. This came from the question " how can we ensure that our items for display are being treated with respect." Learners created a checklist for the museum and choose an exhibit to further investigate. They also participated in the museum classroom and were told that they were doing this to provide a report to the education officer at the museum, as after their most recent commission of providing lesson plans, they had insight into how these should run. The students...
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The first (mini) commission

The first commission the company received is intended as a 'mini-commission' to cement the belief in the company and tie back into the hook of the first day to develop their learning further around that task. The commission was from a client who received the display from last week. They were very impressed and want to use it as part of their educational tour so they have requested lesson plans for various age groups.  When we started unpacking the commission by asking, W hat have we been asked to do? What do we need to know to do this? What questions do we have? the learners were really focused on the delivery of the lesson as opposed to the content knowledge they might need to deliver this as a lesson. They were asking questions like, " how do we engage the students... how do we know they are enjoying the lesson... how many students will be in a class" and I was unprepared for that line of questioning. We had a brief discussion about it and they started pla...
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