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1. Starting out

Welcome to our blog! 

We are Miguel Garcia and Viv Aitken. 

This is what we look like:

                                       

  


Miguel is a beginning teacher at Intermediate level, living the dream in New Plymouth. Viv is a lecturer, research and PLD facilitator based in Palmerston North. We're using this blog to record our planning and reflection conversations about Mantle of the Expert. We're hoping our posts will be of interest to teachers starting out in Mantle. We'd love to get comments, tips and advice from experienced teachers too - all comments welcome! We'll be sharing our ups and downs, mistakes and triumphs and hope to include contributions from children in the class as well.

Viv says:
What brought us to this point? Well, last year Miguel bravely embarked on his first attempt at teaching in Mantle of the Expert. He came to me, his previous lecturer, for advice and support and I was really delighted to walk alongside him through the process. We had regular conversations as his Mantle unfolded and we both heaps learned from the exchanges. Problem was, we didn't write anything down...! This time, we'd like to preserve the conversations and share them with others. Can't wait!

Miguel says:
Hi! Last year I went on a bit of a rollercoaster ride with Viv and my class. She helped me to navigate the ups and downs and we formulated a flowing and flexible plan as we went. Many of my most profound first year teaching moments were to be found in that experience so I decided to continue this adventure with a new set of students in Term 1. Strike while the iron is still hot!

 CLICK 'SUBSCRIBE' IF YOU WANT TO COME ON THE JOURNEY...

Comments

  1. Anonymous3 April 2018 at 01:51

    Wow Miguel this is awesome and such an incredible journey! I have been using some drama this term to encourage my 5 year old students to be independent and have a mind set to push themselves by setting them up as superheros (made their individual personas - my favourtite is Cheetah girl). They come to superhero headquarters for their debrief about upcoming task where they get all the skills they require to be successful in the task. Then get to go and see if they can compete the task (we don't have to be right when we are super but have to try our best). So far it has been quite amazing to see how they have become so confident as writers! Therefore the next steps is to carry this through to our maths but that is still in the ideas stage for next term. I look forward to a catch up with you at some point. Keep up the great work! Jane

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