For this Mantle of the Expert adventure, I will be working alongside the regular classroom teacher in a year 3 class in a local primary school. As a university lecturer, I am looking for a the chance to model Mantle of the Expert to my student teachers - so for the six weeks that this MOTE runs, the 14 student teachers and myself will hold our classes at the school - in the classroom working alongside the children. We will visit the class once a week, on Tuesdays. Between our visits, the classroom teacher will continue to run the MOTE, teasing out the learning and bringing in cross curricula tasks. The students and I will meet separately to reflect on the experience and to plan the next week's intervention. This is a model I have used two or three times before and found successful.
The whole thing really hinges on the great support I receive from the school's deputy principal. She was the one who invited me in to work this way - and she is fully involved in the planning and takes an active part in the MOTE, both in role and as a support person for the classroom teacher.
The school is a high decile school, with an ethic mix of mostly pakeha and asian children, a small number of children of Maori and Pasifika and an even lower number of other ethnicities. The classroom teacher is a young enthusiastic teacher, who has tried MOTE in a low key way but is keen to learn more and to try sustaining the approach over a number of weeks. This is the first time I have worked with this particular teacher.
It's also the first time I have worked in MOTE with this age level. I've been very comfortable with the year 5-6 students I've taught previously, as I've enjoyed their ability to philosophise and think deeply. However I am greatly looking forward to the sense of 'magic' and the possibilities for play that might arise with this younger group.
I want to use this blog to record the planning and teaching journey and to reflect on learnings I make along the way...
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