Reflecting on the Year

First of all, I have to post these few photos of the childrens' little information brochures because that is what we ended up doing to complete our entomology study during our Mantle.

They didn't turn out quite as I had imagined, but that was the end result, and the company closed with us actually physically moving our furniture into the old office, in the pouring rain, as the holidays were starting and our classroom was still not ready for us to move into.
If I'd known back in Term 2 that we would spend the remainder of the year in Room 10, I would have done things very differently. I would have planned so that we didn't ever have to rely on internet, or even computers. I would have sent to the National Library for books. I would have demanded that we have the wall space to put up our work. I would have chosen a whole different topic to focus on. I would not have procrastinated, I found that I kept putting things off for most of Term 3, thinking we would get back into it properly once we were back in our own room.
The things I have learnt through teaching in Mantle of the Expert

• It is fun
• The children were  focused and engaged
• It suited me, I love to go off on a tangent!
• Behaviour of children was awesome (but this class were really well behaved anyway)
• My expectations were high and the children usually met them, it was easier for me to insist that work was of the best quality when I was in role as someone else - children had to persevere and go back and redo things frequently, and they didn't complain!
• Study was much more in depth
• I could incorporate all of the other subject areas, we covered everything this year (except P.E, more on that later!)
• maths strands were done in parts where it suited, rather than a whole term focusing on just geometry or statistics or measurement
• I got to do lots of art
• We could switch between roles easily, within 1 session we could be a number of different professional people, operating in different worlds
• I did drama! I can do it!

Things I still can't quite figure out

• Not having to produce/create something, not having something to show for it at the end. I loved making the books, and even though the bug brochures were a bit rushed at the end there, I like to make things and I think the children like this too. If we had had all of our computers up there, and reliable internet access, and space to film etc, we would have made documentaries.
• How I could research P.E games every night, and do P.E every single day for the last 3 weeks of school (this was really hard for me, I had to learn and remember the rules to games even) and they still wanted more! I know that's not Mantle, but I did discover this. 
• How to make time to keep up our class blog, I found that really hard this year. I think maybe because I was doing this one, it was like repeating everything. I know the kids can do it, but then it was like, "the internet's not working," "what computer has the photos loaded on it?" "what is the password?" "can you check the spelling," so it is easier to do it myself. But then I didn't!

I love teaching using Mantle of the Expert approach and I want to use it again next year. I want to be able to set up one for my maths group as well. I love what Leslee does with the little ones in the new entrant class with their Number Agency, and I want to adapt this for the senior school. I am excited about how I can use what I have learnt to make our Inquiry study into the best study ever! And I also know that I will keep learning too.

So that is it for the year. I know I was slack about keeping this up to date towards the end. It is hectic at the end of the year at the best of times, and we had to adapt and change so many plans (even our overnight camp) because of where we were. And the stinky weather didn't help!

I'm now going to finish knitting a tiny little black jumper for grandson number 2 who is due 5 Feb next year, spend some time with George - my cat who has just been diagnosed with cancer, wrap my daughter's birthday present for 25 Dec, wrap my grandson's Christmas present for Christmas, and maybe I will go for a walk, listen to some death metal, bake daughter's birthday cake...
and I'll think about planning for next year, next year.