Reflecting on using Mantle

Likes
The enthusiasm of the kids is infectious. The way they accept taking on adult roles, and stepping in and out of imaginary worlds was an eyeopener. In role they came up with ideas and opinions that I dont believe would have come through in an ordinary inquiry. They lived the topic.
Once I introduced an activity, say maybe a meeting, the kids took over running it  and made decisions after good discussions.
Feedback from the kids about Mantle was really positive. Even from the ones who didn't readily join in with the drama activities
We learnt heaps of interesting things. (Teacher included). I felt we got a more in depth coverage of the topic. Some kids took it beyond school and got their parents involved in what they had learnt.  Hey, I even chuck weeds into my smoothies, after finding out  about and eating edible weeds.
 The planning made you really think about all the different ways you could extend a topic, and look at it from different viewpoints. although it takes time I think it broadens the topic.
Creating tensions also gets the creative juices running.
Drama activities that we used were fun and hey I can teach that stuff!!
Going to Hamilton uni and doing the course was like a breath of fresh air for me. Inquiry came alive again.
The self belief bit of building up a company makes everyone feel that they belong, and the commission given is owned by all.

Things that niggled

For me it was juggling the timetable. I still havent worked out teaching all the subjects through the Mantle Medium. Felt I needed stand alone writing and spelling time, as well as doing writing during Mantle. Need to talk to Yvette about this.
The interruptions of school activities, or kids withdrawn for  sports events, extension, etc  often meant there would be a few days before we could get back into role and work on our inquiry or commission.
Have to carefully intro a topic with the hooks. My Pay it Forward looked great on paper, but the hook I used really revealed every thing we were going to do, plus the questioning I did at the start really left us nowhere much to go and after about 10 days it fell flat and we decided to wind up the company and head off on holiday! Instead of fufiling the commission how we had planned we boxed up new toys and sent them to Starship.

Where to next.
I will continue to use the Mantle of the Expert approach and hope to be flexible enough to slot all the subject areas into the plan.
Will start Space Mantle in Term 2 as only 8 full weeks in Term 1, with a week for Science Burst, plus senior camp. hope to put together a mini mantle on Laws, rules, respect, responsibility  and how we learn for Term !. Eeek!