Mantle re-think

During the holidays I started envisioning and planning a framework for a Mantle experience for room 1 focussed on creating a collaborative art exhibition.

I was thinking during week 2-3 we would be making a start.  I've now put this on hold...

One reason is the behaviour and the focus on teaching behaviour skills that's been required at present. 
I need to be careful to remind myself though that Mantle may actually have a positive effect on this, and remember the atmosphere in the class when we did our 3 little pigs mini-mantle.  I need to be brave as this could be the thing that helps improve the social health of the class.

The art focus would have involved having equipment and resources in class that needed to be looked after.  And also people's 'works in progress' would need space and respect.  This could be tricky at the moment to manage and also tricky in a shared teacher space.

now what?

This weekend I've referred myself back to Leslee Allen's Number Agents book which I've had for a while. [all page references following refer to this book] 
I'd been thinking to myself 'But I want to do something different - I don't just want to do what someone else has done'.  Which is sort of a bit arrogant.  I'm a beginner at Mantle.  Leslee has been doing this for a while now and she is having great success with this approach to maths.  I'm responsible for maths teaching in room 1.  It makes sense that Mantle has maths as a focus curriculum area. 
Leslee is also very supportive and makes her teaching and learning visible on Facebook. I follow her Number Agents page and have joined her Number Agents group - where there are others talking and supporting each other in this approach.  Also during our mini-mantle in room 1 last term, we referred to ourselves as agents so this would be something we can build on and not completely new.

My teaching inquiry is to do with using dramatic inquiry to increase participation and communication.  On pages 26-27 Leslee outlines how she using drama conventions within a Number Agents approach.

And a key aspect of Mantle is the importance of talking/communicating.  I've also heard this from Susan our Science PD person and also from Jacinta (Developing in Digital Worlds). 
Lesley writes about students and Number Agents (page 15): They become the experts and therefore they believe they have something to offer and are much more confident in expressing themselves.  This use of oral language allows a greater processing of the knowledge and strategies they are learning and I believe this cements their learning in an authentic and memorable context.

So - some next steps for me will be:

• to include Number Agents preparatory work this week (week 4).  We need to be playing games that require us to use our imaginations (suggestions on p28).  We need to further work on creating a culture of acceptance and feeling safe to take risks.  (I saw this happen this week when Neo chose to dance for us and the other students were so accepting, gave him compliments and in the following days I heard them talking about what a good dancer Neo was.  So there is much to build on.)
• to set up our Agency.  This will mean planning 'hook' activities and building belief - establishing a 'we' voice.