Mantle of the Expert Professional Development

I have been meaning to to this since Tuesday! I have to write this up immediately before another week gets away on me.
I spent Tuesday at Otaika School on a one day PD course. It was brilliant, I got way more out of this than our last Mantle PD in Hamilton. For a start, having a small group of 8, and getting to work with Viv, was just so nice.
When I think about the Mantle Symposium in Hamilton, the only thing that really stuck in my mind was the soundscape (extremely cool, extremely powerful, and I've been waiting for an opportunity to use it with my class). I did gain a few ideas but nothing compared to Tuesday.
We were shown some really great books that I will look into buying, I've got the names of them somewhere with my notes!
We talked about closure, ending a Mantle, and shared ideas on different ways we could do this. Using a metaphor (eg. book) and imagining holding the item in your hands, remembering the beginning of the journey, sharing a favourite memory, writing a message in the back of the book to yourself, sharing the message, closing the book and putting it on the shelf.
We talked about reflecting in all of the different worlds. This was important, reflecting in the world of the expert, the world of the client & the world of content, both the what is and the what if, real and imagined.
While reflecting in all worlds is important, it was also important to build belief in all worlds.
We discussed time shifting, jumping to the end of the story and narrating, making up what has happened, & collecting the ideas/perspectives of others as a way to reflect. Time shifting also allowed the teacher to move things in different directions, just make up a new story as you go to fit with what you need to do, and always speak in 3rd person when narrating.
When building belief, you don't have to design all the rooms in the workspace (this part always seems to take forever and I always end up with indoor pools, helipads, numerous bathrooms and miniature trains in our make believe place of work), creating a company could simply be children imagining and describing a place within the workspace, then explaining why they are there and what it means to them.
I have to remember too that the children can switch between roles in all worlds, I think I am guilty of not allowing enough opportunities to explore different roles within each world. I'm going to make a real effort to do this more.
Another thing I thought relevant for mentioning was how important it is that the teacher research the topic prior to beginning, owning the content, having the knowledge before starting with the children.
We watched a youtube clip about a school in England where Mantle was implemented so well that they had no separate curriculum areas... only the arts and P.E were separate! I really love this idea! Another thing that I think is awesome, is time shifting both forwards and backwards. It's funny how you get ideas in your head about things, and not remember it's all make believe and you can actually do anything you like in a make believe world. You really can fast forward to the future or travel back in time and pretend things happened, create new stories, events... it really is pretty awesome!
Finally, the work we did with an extract form a story was superb... Yvette is going to try it with my class tomorrow because I've got hers for art and I can't wait (that's a whole another story but I'll do it as a separate post - the art) but I am so going to use it too.
I could write out step by step what we did, but it's probably easier if I were just to find the title of the book in my notes and refer you to the page and lesson... super cool, easy to adapt, and I reckon it would be a wonderful way to get some of my reluctant writers writing. I learnt some new things about hot seating during this activity too, and I am eager to use them.
The best thing about Tuesday was working with Viv, she is just so passionate and enthusiastic about Mantle, it just kind of rubs off on you! Or should I say me? Pretty sure her enthusiasm rubs off on everyone, I just can't believe me though, the least dramatic person I know would be me, and I am so into it since we began a few years ago. I still have so much to learn... but the excitement and enthusiasm and believing that I really can do it are all there for me. I do do it!
I'm waffling again, it's late - oh, no it's not, darn daylight saving ending, but I am tired and my ideas are all over the place. Hope this makes sense. Art tomorrow YAY!!!!