Today was our last day of this Mantle of the Expert project. We spent the morning filming using our you-tube story board. We were then lucky to have a couple of senior digi kids come and work with us for an hour to turn our footage into a you-tube that we could watch. We were able to choose some background music and see how the digi kids put the scenes together using special scene joining techniques. It was really exciting watching it at the end of the day, seeing our story board come to life! While we could have spent several more days on this, editing it and trying out some different things (the wind was a bit of a problem and covers up the voices sometimes), it was the process that was important and we enjoyed getting a product at the end.
We ended the day with a celebration shared lunch and some reflection on learning through Mantle of the Expert. Being 'in role' and learning some new team building games, such as Ah Soh Gi, were highlights for this group. It is amazing how much this group has learnt over only 8 sessions, I was particularly impressed by how much tikanga Maori the children took on board so quickly given the meaningful context of our camp organisation. The images and moving statue that the children came up with was very impressive and showed a good understanding of ideas that were completely new to them only two weeks ago. Writing in role was also impressive with some fabulous language being adopted both spontaneously in role work and in brochure and diary writing. Listening to the children, and reading what they wrote, was at times very convincing - you would think you were really in a room of adults who worked as camp organisers!
We hope to get a copy of our you-tube uploaded here soon, so keep watching this space!
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Day Seven
MAKING A MOVING STATUE FOR OUR CAMP
Today started with a team meeting and a new commission from management:
“I have been in a meeting with the camp management team and they would like a statue to go out the front of our camp, by our welcome sign, to represent what our camp is about. They particularly want us to show our new understandings of kaupapa Maori and how our camp can meet those needs. Something like this might help us win the job of hosting school camps for kura kaupapa schools as well as other mainstream schools…”
We had a go at creating drawn images last week to show our learning, this week we had a go at making a statue to show those same ideas. We decided to create a moving statue where one person at a time moved into a space to make a shape and speak aloud what they were representing. As each person joined the space they built on the statue, ending with a frozen statue/freeze frame. We decided to make a statue using the idea of a tree, which was an image we had come up with last week.
This is a photo of our finished statue and what each person said as they moved into the space.
Lucy: “I am whenua, we are connected to the land”
Charlotte: “I am tangata, the people – working together”
Zoe: “I am Ora – health and wellbeing. I have four sides”
Luca: “I am Tinana – healthy body”
Alexander and Pablo: “Our soccer game helps make friends and healthy body”
Daniel: “I am wairua – spirituality and connection to the land”
Noah: “This is really fun sliding down the sand dunes”
Macey: “I am hinengaro – happy and positive mind and feelings”
Evie: “Diary writing helps you reflect back on your day”.
Hugo: “I am whanau – belonging to groups, family and friends”
Helena and Alice: “music and singing with friends”
After we had created our moving statue we decided to make a promotional you-tube to advertise our camp. Using all our written material from the topic so far, including our brochure writing, drawn maps, slogans we had written, and photos of freeze frames, we set to work designing a story board that could be used to film a you tube.
MAKING A STORY BOARD FOR A YOU TUBE
Lucy: “Hi I’m Lucy and welcome to Lake Adventure Challenge. This camp is all about stepping out of your comfort zone, pushing your limits, and making new friends. Come and check out the activities and our awesome environment!”
Our Story Board
As part of our you tube story board some of us wrote interviews with some of the camp leaders, wrote scripts to use for an introduction, used the brochure writing to come up with a talk about the camp environment, and came up with scripts for children describing camp highlights. Here is some of the script writing we did for children talking about their experiences at Lake Adventure Challenge.
Alex and Pablo – playing soccer - Alex talking “Well, we really like Lake Adventure Challenge because its helped us make new friends and have a healthy body like in this soccer game….GOAL!”
Evie and Charlotte – mud sliding – Evie talking “Wow! I just went down the mud slide. It was so scary and fun but I am so glad I did it. This is the best camp I have ever been to. I had to step out of my comfort zone loads but I still really enjoyed it! I really want to do everything again, this has been such a great experience. I love Lake Adventure Challenge!”
Noah - playing drums with Macey and Daniel in band behind and others listening and singing along “we will we will rock you”. Noah talking - “This is my first day at Lake Adventure Challenge and I have learnt so much already about how music can bring people together to have a good time”.
Hugo: driving a boat on the lake. - “I never thought I would be driving my own boat. This is awesome!”
Charlotte and Evie – kayaking – Charlotte talking “Wow, I love kayaking. It’s scary but at least I’m pushing my comfort zone. It’s so good I love Lake Adventure Challenge, it’s the best camp and I have made heaps of friends.”
Zoe – team rowing with Helena, Lucy, Alice, and Pablo – Zoe talking “I’ve only been here for 5 days and I’ve already learned to work in a team like team rowing – you have to row at the same time as the others or it doesn’t work!”
Daniel – on flying fox – Daniel talking “I know this will be fun….wooooh. I like it. This is fun. This is cool, I’m going to do it again!”.
Today started with a team meeting and a new commission from management:
“I have been in a meeting with the camp management team and they would like a statue to go out the front of our camp, by our welcome sign, to represent what our camp is about. They particularly want us to show our new understandings of kaupapa Maori and how our camp can meet those needs. Something like this might help us win the job of hosting school camps for kura kaupapa schools as well as other mainstream schools…”
We had a go at creating drawn images last week to show our learning, this week we had a go at making a statue to show those same ideas. We decided to create a moving statue where one person at a time moved into a space to make a shape and speak aloud what they were representing. As each person joined the space they built on the statue, ending with a frozen statue/freeze frame. We decided to make a statue using the idea of a tree, which was an image we had come up with last week.
This is a photo of our finished statue and what each person said as they moved into the space.
Lucy: “I am whenua, we are connected to the land”
Charlotte: “I am tangata, the people – working together”
Zoe: “I am Ora – health and wellbeing. I have four sides”
Luca: “I am Tinana – healthy body”
Alexander and Pablo: “Our soccer game helps make friends and healthy body”
Daniel: “I am wairua – spirituality and connection to the land”
Noah: “This is really fun sliding down the sand dunes”
Macey: “I am hinengaro – happy and positive mind and feelings”
Evie: “Diary writing helps you reflect back on your day”.
Hugo: “I am whanau – belonging to groups, family and friends”
Helena and Alice: “music and singing with friends”
After we had created our moving statue we decided to make a promotional you-tube to advertise our camp. Using all our written material from the topic so far, including our brochure writing, drawn maps, slogans we had written, and photos of freeze frames, we set to work designing a story board that could be used to film a you tube.
MAKING A STORY BOARD FOR A YOU TUBE
Lucy: “Hi I’m Lucy and welcome to Lake Adventure Challenge. This camp is all about stepping out of your comfort zone, pushing your limits, and making new friends. Come and check out the activities and our awesome environment!”
Our Story Board
As part of our you tube story board some of us wrote interviews with some of the camp leaders, wrote scripts to use for an introduction, used the brochure writing to come up with a talk about the camp environment, and came up with scripts for children describing camp highlights. Here is some of the script writing we did for children talking about their experiences at Lake Adventure Challenge.
Alex and Pablo – playing soccer - Alex talking “Well, we really like Lake Adventure Challenge because its helped us make new friends and have a healthy body like in this soccer game….GOAL!”
Evie and Charlotte – mud sliding – Evie talking “Wow! I just went down the mud slide. It was so scary and fun but I am so glad I did it. This is the best camp I have ever been to. I had to step out of my comfort zone loads but I still really enjoyed it! I really want to do everything again, this has been such a great experience. I love Lake Adventure Challenge!”
Noah - playing drums with Macey and Daniel in band behind and others listening and singing along “we will we will rock you”. Noah talking - “This is my first day at Lake Adventure Challenge and I have learnt so much already about how music can bring people together to have a good time”.
Hugo: driving a boat on the lake. - “I never thought I would be driving my own boat. This is awesome!”
Charlotte and Evie – kayaking – Charlotte talking “Wow, I love kayaking. It’s scary but at least I’m pushing my comfort zone. It’s so good I love Lake Adventure Challenge, it’s the best camp and I have made heaps of friends.”
Zoe – team rowing with Helena, Lucy, Alice, and Pablo – Zoe talking “I’ve only been here for 5 days and I’ve already learned to work in a team like team rowing – you have to row at the same time as the others or it doesn’t work!”
Daniel – on flying fox – Daniel talking “I know this will be fun….wooooh. I like it. This is fun. This is cool, I’m going to do it again!”.
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Day Six
MORNING TEAM MEETING - IN ROLE
“Good morning team. We have some mail to look at this morning. I have just received this letter, which has some potentially exciting business in it for us, but we are going to have to think hard about whether we would be up to doing a job like this, whether we have the right skills and knowledge…..”
Friday 25th of March 2011,
Dear Team at Lake Adventure Challenge Confidence Camp,
I am writing to you, and a number of other camps in New Zealand, to do some research for my Maori school, Moana Kura Kaupapa. We are a bilingual school that teaches our students in English and Maori from year 0 to year 8. We are keen for our children, of all ages, to attend a camp as part of their outdoor education programme.
I am doing some research to see which camps will best meet our needs as a Maori school, which has strong Maori values and beliefs. We are looking for a camp that provides more than just outdoor education. We want our children to come to a camp that makes links with Maori values such as the important connection between people and the environment. We are hoping that the camp can provide the children not only with good outdoor learning experiences but also share a knowledge of the history of the land of the camp. We are also looking to find a team of people at the camp who understand Maori ways of learning and teaching so that our students feel comfortable and empowered. We also hope that the camp we attend has a team of people who understand Maori ideas about health and wellbeing.
We hope you can help us. If you think your team at Lake Adventure Challenge can meet our needs we would love to hear from you.
Yours sincerely,
Sarah Paratene
Moana Kura Kaupapa
RESEARCHING
We decided that we would need to do some research – this was all new territory for the team! We divided into research teams to learn about different aspects of Te Ao Maori before coming together to apply all the new knowledge to our outdoor education camp. The three areas of research were:
1. Whenua, Whakapapa, and Whanau (Land, connection between people and land and family)
2. Ora and the Whare Tapa Wha (Health and wellbeing and the four sides to Maori views of health/wellbeing)
3. Ako, Tuakana-Teina, and Co-operative Learning Groups (Maori ways of teaching and learning).
We had a busy morning researching these different areas and answering a number of different research questions. We then used jigsaw discussion groups to come back and share our knowledge with each other, everyone being experts on the different areas they had been researching. It was amazing how quickly, through applying all this new knowledge to our outdoor education camp situation, we became familiar with these new Maori terms, values, and ideas.
Next we had a go at incorporating this new knowledge into visual images, bringing together the new knowledge of Te Ao Maori and our current camp programme, values, and philosophy.
Our Tree Diagram
This is one image the team came up with: presenting the information on a tree, with the roots representing a connection to whenua, (the land), the trunk being the tangata (the people), and four big branches being the 4 sides of ora (wellbeing): whanau (family, friends, relationships, and groups), hinengaro (minds and feelings), tinana (body), wairua (spirituality/connection to the land). Examples of camp activities from our programme were used to illustrate the different Maori ideas of health and wellbeing for example:
Taha Hinengaro:
Having leaders who are encouraging and help the children reach their goals,
Having leaders who are friendly and supportive and nurturing
Not letting children feel stressed by having leaders that you can trust and who talk to you kindly.
Having a Home Group – a small group who comes together with a leader to discuss any problems or fears – a support group.
Having reflecting time – eg. diary writing.
Taha Whanau:
Doing team rowing – waka ama
Sharing kai (food) – hangi, toasting marshmallows around the fire
Sharing tents/camping
Taha Wairua:
Making connections to the land through activities like hangi, birdwatching, bushwalking, lake activities, beach walking…
Taha Tinana:
Rock climbing
Running
Kayaking
Tree Jumping….and all the other physical activities you can do at the camp.
Cooking healthy food
Our Image of Whare Tapa Wha: The Four Walls of Wellbeing
MYTHS AND LEGENDS – CREATING A HISTORY FOR OUR LAND
We then shared a number of Maori myths and legends, such as the creation myth of Ranginui and Papatuanuku, Kupe’s Voyage, and The Two Taniwha of Wellington Harbour. Then some of us had a go at writing our own myths and legends for our fictional camp grounds. Here are some of the beginnings of our legend writing…
"The lake at Lake Adventure Challenge was made when the world was young and no humans were alive. The lake was not there, It was in lands far away…..” Zoe
"Before the sea was made there was a lake that was 10 metres long. 2 taniwha lived there. One was lazy and sunbathed all day. The other one swam all day….." Alexander
"Once upon a time there were 3 taniwha. They lived in the lake at Lake Adventure Challenge Camp. One was very lazy, his name was Poterkeyna. One was kind, her name was Matermater, and one was a worrying thing, his name was Muritai. Muritai wanted to get out of that tiny lake…" Orla.
"How the rivers were created…
A long time ago before the sea and rivers were made, and before peple and dinosaurs, when gods were alive, there lived a god called Tangaroa. Tangaroa lived with his mother Papatuanuku and his brother Tane. One afternoon Tangaroa decied to visit land. Tangaroa packed some kai and his power necklace. His power necklace was very special to him because that used to be his father’s who died a month before his birth. That was the only thing his father left for him, but it was very special and gave him powers that he needed…." Macey
"How the lake, at Lake Adventure Challenge, was created:
Once upon a time Tangaroa had a fight with his brother Tu to see who was strongest. To they stood in a clearing and began to fight. Tu struck but missed and made a huge dent in the land. Tangaroa, the god of the sea, was angered so fought back but Tu, the god of war, was more used to this type of thing and hit Tangaroa in the calf. He screamed in pain and from him wound water flowed and filled the dent with it. Then he slunk back to the sea." Pablo
"Once the two brother, Ruamoko and Tangaroa, wanted to fight because they had both had bad days. Ruamoko made a huge earthquake and there was a huge dent in Papatuanuku. Then Tangaroa was very angry so he made a huge flood and all the water went into the dent. That was how the lake was made." Evie.
“Good morning team. We have some mail to look at this morning. I have just received this letter, which has some potentially exciting business in it for us, but we are going to have to think hard about whether we would be up to doing a job like this, whether we have the right skills and knowledge…..”
Friday 25th of March 2011,
Dear Team at Lake Adventure Challenge Confidence Camp,
I am writing to you, and a number of other camps in New Zealand, to do some research for my Maori school, Moana Kura Kaupapa. We are a bilingual school that teaches our students in English and Maori from year 0 to year 8. We are keen for our children, of all ages, to attend a camp as part of their outdoor education programme.
I am doing some research to see which camps will best meet our needs as a Maori school, which has strong Maori values and beliefs. We are looking for a camp that provides more than just outdoor education. We want our children to come to a camp that makes links with Maori values such as the important connection between people and the environment. We are hoping that the camp can provide the children not only with good outdoor learning experiences but also share a knowledge of the history of the land of the camp. We are also looking to find a team of people at the camp who understand Maori ways of learning and teaching so that our students feel comfortable and empowered. We also hope that the camp we attend has a team of people who understand Maori ideas about health and wellbeing.
We hope you can help us. If you think your team at Lake Adventure Challenge can meet our needs we would love to hear from you.
Yours sincerely,
Sarah Paratene
Moana Kura Kaupapa
RESEARCHING
We decided that we would need to do some research – this was all new territory for the team! We divided into research teams to learn about different aspects of Te Ao Maori before coming together to apply all the new knowledge to our outdoor education camp. The three areas of research were:
1. Whenua, Whakapapa, and Whanau (Land, connection between people and land and family)
2. Ora and the Whare Tapa Wha (Health and wellbeing and the four sides to Maori views of health/wellbeing)
3. Ako, Tuakana-Teina, and Co-operative Learning Groups (Maori ways of teaching and learning).
We had a busy morning researching these different areas and answering a number of different research questions. We then used jigsaw discussion groups to come back and share our knowledge with each other, everyone being experts on the different areas they had been researching. It was amazing how quickly, through applying all this new knowledge to our outdoor education camp situation, we became familiar with these new Maori terms, values, and ideas.
Next we had a go at incorporating this new knowledge into visual images, bringing together the new knowledge of Te Ao Maori and our current camp programme, values, and philosophy.
Our Tree Diagram
This is one image the team came up with: presenting the information on a tree, with the roots representing a connection to whenua, (the land), the trunk being the tangata (the people), and four big branches being the 4 sides of ora (wellbeing): whanau (family, friends, relationships, and groups), hinengaro (minds and feelings), tinana (body), wairua (spirituality/connection to the land). Examples of camp activities from our programme were used to illustrate the different Maori ideas of health and wellbeing for example:
Taha Hinengaro:
Having leaders who are encouraging and help the children reach their goals,
Having leaders who are friendly and supportive and nurturing
Not letting children feel stressed by having leaders that you can trust and who talk to you kindly.
Having a Home Group – a small group who comes together with a leader to discuss any problems or fears – a support group.
Having reflecting time – eg. diary writing.
Taha Whanau:
Doing team rowing – waka ama
Sharing kai (food) – hangi, toasting marshmallows around the fire
Sharing tents/camping
Taha Wairua:
Making connections to the land through activities like hangi, birdwatching, bushwalking, lake activities, beach walking…
Taha Tinana:
Rock climbing
Running
Kayaking
Tree Jumping….and all the other physical activities you can do at the camp.
Cooking healthy food
Our Image of Whare Tapa Wha: The Four Walls of Wellbeing
MYTHS AND LEGENDS – CREATING A HISTORY FOR OUR LAND
We then shared a number of Maori myths and legends, such as the creation myth of Ranginui and Papatuanuku, Kupe’s Voyage, and The Two Taniwha of Wellington Harbour. Then some of us had a go at writing our own myths and legends for our fictional camp grounds. Here are some of the beginnings of our legend writing…
"The lake at Lake Adventure Challenge was made when the world was young and no humans were alive. The lake was not there, It was in lands far away…..” Zoe
"Before the sea was made there was a lake that was 10 metres long. 2 taniwha lived there. One was lazy and sunbathed all day. The other one swam all day….." Alexander
"Once upon a time there were 3 taniwha. They lived in the lake at Lake Adventure Challenge Camp. One was very lazy, his name was Poterkeyna. One was kind, her name was Matermater, and one was a worrying thing, his name was Muritai. Muritai wanted to get out of that tiny lake…" Orla.
"How the rivers were created…
A long time ago before the sea and rivers were made, and before peple and dinosaurs, when gods were alive, there lived a god called Tangaroa. Tangaroa lived with his mother Papatuanuku and his brother Tane. One afternoon Tangaroa decied to visit land. Tangaroa packed some kai and his power necklace. His power necklace was very special to him because that used to be his father’s who died a month before his birth. That was the only thing his father left for him, but it was very special and gave him powers that he needed…." Macey
"How the lake, at Lake Adventure Challenge, was created:
Once upon a time Tangaroa had a fight with his brother Tu to see who was strongest. To they stood in a clearing and began to fight. Tu struck but missed and made a huge dent in the land. Tangaroa, the god of the sea, was angered so fought back but Tu, the god of war, was more used to this type of thing and hit Tangaroa in the calf. He screamed in pain and from him wound water flowed and filled the dent with it. Then he slunk back to the sea." Pablo
"Once the two brother, Ruamoko and Tangaroa, wanted to fight because they had both had bad days. Ruamoko made a huge earthquake and there was a huge dent in Papatuanuku. Then Tangaroa was very angry so he made a huge flood and all the water went into the dent. That was how the lake was made." Evie.
Day Five
This morning we began IN ROLE in a team meeting.
“We have a bit of a dilemma here at Lake Adventure Challenge today. Last night’s huge rainstorm has hit us pretty hard. We are going to need all hands on deck to re-set everything up and check the safety of our camp before our new group of kids arrive, which is only a couple of days away. We are going to need to split up into small groups and check everything is okay and fix anything that is broken….”
Everyone jumped into action straight away. There was a lot of talk as people reported back damage that they had discovered. Plans were quickly made on what repair jobs needed to be done and what supplies were needed. Gear lists were made as a stocktake of the equipment shed was completed eg. “10 rafts, 18 kayaks, 18 oars, 18 balls….”. Some went off to check food supplies and made lists of what was there and what was needed. Some went off to check the tracks on the island and to look for any fallen trees. Some went off to make a new welcome sign, which turned out to be badly damaged. Some went off to check the cabins, sweep them out and make the beds. Rope courses and tree jumping activities were checked and repaired as necessary – it was a hive of activity at Lake Adventure Challenge Confidence Camp!
Some overheard conversations:
“Lets hop into the boat and head out to the island”
“I brought my toolkit”
“there is quite a lot of damage to some of the gymnasium equipment”
“I’ll check trade me to see if I can find some cheaper metal bars and springs…”
“we just had two calls, one from Zoe’s friend who can come and fix our springs. We also won the placed bid on trade me”
“it is going to cost $50 for the new metal stands”
“there’s some spare carpet in the gear shed left over from when we carpeted our office, we can use that to replace the carpet on the beam”
We stayed in role right up until morning tea (most of an hour), everyone was really engaged and busy as they improvised conversations, phonecalls, made stocktake checklists, gearlists, lists, diagrams, and signs…
There was also a lot of spontaneous maths as people worked out the costs of things and multiplied them as necessary. Some worked out how many supplies would be needed for 24 kids and 9 adult helpers, others worked out what size groups they would have for the different activities etc. One team sorted out the raft building supplies that would be needed. They decided they would do this activity in 6 groups of 4 requiring a gear list of:
12 tyres, 78 nails, 42 wooden boards, 6 anchors, 6 ladders, 6 ropes, 6 saws, and 8 chains…
Team members then reported back to each other on what they had found and how they had responded:
“There was loads of mud and leaves in the cabins that we had to clear”
“we chopped down the tree that had fallen down and we made a new table seat by the wharf on the island”
“we have cleared all the tracks and repaired some signs”
“We found some hinges in the gear cupboard and fixed the doors that had blown open”
“some of the light bulbs in the cabins aren’t working. I have ordered the lightbulbs but they can’t get them till tomorrow, they said they can come in the morning at 11”
“we got some donations, $365, we have used $165 to replace the broken and worn gym equipment so there is still $200 for other people to use….”
A Safety Sign
Diagram for Raft Building Materials
Map Showing Damage on the Island
A Stocktake List of Food Supplies
As the team reported back what they had found the discussion took an interesting turn towards other things that were discovered in the big cleaup…
“I noticed that there is chewing gum on the underside of the beds and seats”
“I noticed a lot of lolly wrappers in the toilets…”
“some of the kids in the last group brought cellphones and they were using them at night…”
“we should have signs in the cabins and toilets saying ‘no lollies, gum, or cellphones allowed’”
“we have activities like toasted marshmallows, so they will have some treats here, they don’t need to bring any lollies etc”
“we should have bag checks when the kids arrive to make sure they are not sneaking in any lollies or gum”
After some discussion we decided we need to come up with a gear list for the children coming to our camp and strict guidelines about what children were not allowed to bring!
TAKING ON A DIFFERENT ROLE – As students in Sophie’s class who have been visiting the camp.
Next we fast forwarded a week and went into role as students in Sophie’s class (From our work earlier with Dick King Smith’s book ‘The Adventures of Sophe’). We imagined that we had just had three days at Lake Adventure Challenge Camp and that we were packing our bags on our last night before leaving for home in the morning. We mimed packing our bags and when we were shoulder tapped by Ms Gain we spoke aloud a thought/reflection that might be going through our heads as we packed. We followed this activity with some diary writing in role as these characters also. Here are some examples from our diary entries:
‘Today we climbed a big climbing wall. I have never had to do this but I did! I jumped, cooked, baked, and rained myself with water bombs…SPLASH!’ Helena
‘After French Toast for brekkie and doing my hair (ponytail), we went straight to raft building. My group was Andrew, Duncan, and me. After we had finished our raft we had to try it out….’ Macey
‘Today I made friends with Dawn when we were making rafts. The most challenging thing was the team bulding and the easiest thing was the rock climbing…’ Zoe
‘It’s the end of the day and I’m wishing that I didn’t have to leave Lake Adventure Challenge. It felt like heaven here biking, playing soccer, kayaking and many more activities. I wish I could live here forever….’ Alexander.
‘I liked today best out of all of the days. We did team rowing and we did raft building….’ Hugo.
‘Today I am quite sad because I have packed my bags […]I am surprised that I am sad because I had to share a cabin with Sophie and Duncan. Today we did the flying fox. I was really scared when I first saw it but once I did it I wasn’t that scared and after I had done it a second time I wasn’t scared at all. We also did raft building. IT was quite hard but I managed to do it, I was in a team with three other people. I got better at team work…..’Evie
‘Today I pushed my limits but kayaking to the island and back again…’ Alice.
Diary Writing in Role
PUBLISHING ON KEYNOTE
The rest of the day was spent publishing writing for our Lake Adventure Camp brochures. We worked on laptops using the programme Keynote. We learnt how to save our files to the desktop for printing. The layout and designs that have been created are starting to look pretty professional!
“We have a bit of a dilemma here at Lake Adventure Challenge today. Last night’s huge rainstorm has hit us pretty hard. We are going to need all hands on deck to re-set everything up and check the safety of our camp before our new group of kids arrive, which is only a couple of days away. We are going to need to split up into small groups and check everything is okay and fix anything that is broken….”
Everyone jumped into action straight away. There was a lot of talk as people reported back damage that they had discovered. Plans were quickly made on what repair jobs needed to be done and what supplies were needed. Gear lists were made as a stocktake of the equipment shed was completed eg. “10 rafts, 18 kayaks, 18 oars, 18 balls….”. Some went off to check food supplies and made lists of what was there and what was needed. Some went off to check the tracks on the island and to look for any fallen trees. Some went off to make a new welcome sign, which turned out to be badly damaged. Some went off to check the cabins, sweep them out and make the beds. Rope courses and tree jumping activities were checked and repaired as necessary – it was a hive of activity at Lake Adventure Challenge Confidence Camp!
Some overheard conversations:
“Lets hop into the boat and head out to the island”
“I brought my toolkit”
“there is quite a lot of damage to some of the gymnasium equipment”
“I’ll check trade me to see if I can find some cheaper metal bars and springs…”
“we just had two calls, one from Zoe’s friend who can come and fix our springs. We also won the placed bid on trade me”
“it is going to cost $50 for the new metal stands”
“there’s some spare carpet in the gear shed left over from when we carpeted our office, we can use that to replace the carpet on the beam”
We stayed in role right up until morning tea (most of an hour), everyone was really engaged and busy as they improvised conversations, phonecalls, made stocktake checklists, gearlists, lists, diagrams, and signs…
There was also a lot of spontaneous maths as people worked out the costs of things and multiplied them as necessary. Some worked out how many supplies would be needed for 24 kids and 9 adult helpers, others worked out what size groups they would have for the different activities etc. One team sorted out the raft building supplies that would be needed. They decided they would do this activity in 6 groups of 4 requiring a gear list of:
12 tyres, 78 nails, 42 wooden boards, 6 anchors, 6 ladders, 6 ropes, 6 saws, and 8 chains…
Team members then reported back to each other on what they had found and how they had responded:
“There was loads of mud and leaves in the cabins that we had to clear”
“we chopped down the tree that had fallen down and we made a new table seat by the wharf on the island”
“we have cleared all the tracks and repaired some signs”
“We found some hinges in the gear cupboard and fixed the doors that had blown open”
“some of the light bulbs in the cabins aren’t working. I have ordered the lightbulbs but they can’t get them till tomorrow, they said they can come in the morning at 11”
“we got some donations, $365, we have used $165 to replace the broken and worn gym equipment so there is still $200 for other people to use….”
A Safety Sign
Diagram for Raft Building Materials
Map Showing Damage on the Island
A Stocktake List of Food Supplies
As the team reported back what they had found the discussion took an interesting turn towards other things that were discovered in the big cleaup…
“I noticed that there is chewing gum on the underside of the beds and seats”
“I noticed a lot of lolly wrappers in the toilets…”
“some of the kids in the last group brought cellphones and they were using them at night…”
“we should have signs in the cabins and toilets saying ‘no lollies, gum, or cellphones allowed’”
“we have activities like toasted marshmallows, so they will have some treats here, they don’t need to bring any lollies etc”
“we should have bag checks when the kids arrive to make sure they are not sneaking in any lollies or gum”
After some discussion we decided we need to come up with a gear list for the children coming to our camp and strict guidelines about what children were not allowed to bring!
TAKING ON A DIFFERENT ROLE – As students in Sophie’s class who have been visiting the camp.
Next we fast forwarded a week and went into role as students in Sophie’s class (From our work earlier with Dick King Smith’s book ‘The Adventures of Sophe’). We imagined that we had just had three days at Lake Adventure Challenge Camp and that we were packing our bags on our last night before leaving for home in the morning. We mimed packing our bags and when we were shoulder tapped by Ms Gain we spoke aloud a thought/reflection that might be going through our heads as we packed. We followed this activity with some diary writing in role as these characters also. Here are some examples from our diary entries:
‘Today we climbed a big climbing wall. I have never had to do this but I did! I jumped, cooked, baked, and rained myself with water bombs…SPLASH!’ Helena
‘After French Toast for brekkie and doing my hair (ponytail), we went straight to raft building. My group was Andrew, Duncan, and me. After we had finished our raft we had to try it out….’ Macey
‘Today I made friends with Dawn when we were making rafts. The most challenging thing was the team bulding and the easiest thing was the rock climbing…’ Zoe
‘It’s the end of the day and I’m wishing that I didn’t have to leave Lake Adventure Challenge. It felt like heaven here biking, playing soccer, kayaking and many more activities. I wish I could live here forever….’ Alexander.
‘I liked today best out of all of the days. We did team rowing and we did raft building….’ Hugo.
‘Today I am quite sad because I have packed my bags […]I am surprised that I am sad because I had to share a cabin with Sophie and Duncan. Today we did the flying fox. I was really scared when I first saw it but once I did it I wasn’t that scared and after I had done it a second time I wasn’t scared at all. We also did raft building. IT was quite hard but I managed to do it, I was in a team with three other people. I got better at team work…..’Evie
‘Today I pushed my limits but kayaking to the island and back again…’ Alice.
Diary Writing in Role
PUBLISHING ON KEYNOTE
The rest of the day was spent publishing writing for our Lake Adventure Camp brochures. We worked on laptops using the programme Keynote. We learnt how to save our files to the desktop for printing. The layout and designs that have been created are starting to look pretty professional!
Sunday, March 6, 2011
DAY FOUR
RECEIVING A LETTER OF COMMISSION (from Sophie’s classroom teacher - 'Further Adventures of sophie' by Dick King Smith).
Today began with receiving a letter of commission – a job for us to do as school camp organisers!
Evie Reads Aloud the Letter of Commission to the Team:
28th of February 2011
Dear Lake Adventure Challenge Confidence Camp,
I am writing to see if your team would be able to provide a programme for my primary aged class. I have a diverse class of twenty four 7 -8 year olds. In this class there is a big range of abilities and skills, ranging from some very timid and shy students to a couple of very determined and confident students. Some of the children struggle to get on together and we hope that having an experience at your camp would help them develop new friendships and to help them learn how to work together as a team.
Do you think your team would be able to develop and provide an appropriate camp programme for my class? I would appreciate it if you were able to send us an outline of an appropriate camp programme that you would suggest we undertook.
Yours Sincerely,
Sarah Davies,
Cloverlea School.
We went into role as the adult team who works at ‘Lake Adventure Challenge Confidence Camp’ and discussed whether we could design a suitable programme for this class.
As we went into role here are some of things that were discussed. You will see that we have begun to absorb the language and values of school camp organisers – we really sound like we know what we are doing now!
“if we are going to be in role as camp organisers we need to be sensible and reliable”
“we need to do our best to make it happen”
“we are going to be teachers and good confident leaders”
“we would have to be quick thinking and resourceful”
“we would have to be well trained medical people with outdoor first aid to the highest level”
“all leaders would have to have first aid training”
“if someone got really hurt we would call a rescue helipcopter”
“we would be in a sort of staffroom”
“there would be a view over the lake over there….and the mountains”.
And then we were in role….
We decided ‘in role’ to accept the commission. We then divided into smaller groups, in different areas of expertise to discuss the job in more detail – still ‘in role’. Each group decided what aspect of the job they wanted to discuss.
Helena, Lucy, Zoe, and Macey took the role of discussing how to best encourage and support the shy and timid students.
Orla, Charlotte, and Evie took the role of discussing what to do with the already confident children that may come to the camp.
Pablo, Alice, and Alexander took the role of team building activity specialists.
Hugo, Noah, and Luca took the role of the building and property maintenance team.
CIRCULAR DRAMA
We then tried a technique called ‘Circular Drama’. For this we stayed in our small groups and were all frozen until Ms Gain indicated for one group at a time to unfreeze and go into role. This way we were all able to hear a little of what each group was talking about. This activity was a lot of fun and showed how good we are becoming at working ‘in role’.
Circular Drama: The Lake Adventure Challenge Team 'In Role':
BROCHURE MAKING
The last part of our day today was spent writing and designing brochures for our camp. We are all working in pairs to create a brochure for ‘Lake Adventure Challenge Confidence Camp’.
We looked at models of real camp organizations including brochures and information from Staglands, Green Pastures Camp, and Forest Lakes. We developed a shared criteria for our brochures, i.e. what each brochure would include and then worked in our smaller groups to create the brochures.
Our Shared Criteria:
6 pages (A4 paper folded up)
1. A front page with title of camp and an image/logo
2. A written description of the camp encouraging people to come
3. A list of activities offered
4. Cooking, Dining, and Accommodation information – including the different indoor/outdoor options and options for parents/teachers accommodation
5. Images – photos of ‘freeze frames’ or drawings of people enjoying the camp
6. A good copy of our collective map and contact information.
A Team Working on their Brochure:
Brochure Making - Creating photos for brochures:
Today began with receiving a letter of commission – a job for us to do as school camp organisers!
Evie Reads Aloud the Letter of Commission to the Team:
28th of February 2011
Dear Lake Adventure Challenge Confidence Camp,
I am writing to see if your team would be able to provide a programme for my primary aged class. I have a diverse class of twenty four 7 -8 year olds. In this class there is a big range of abilities and skills, ranging from some very timid and shy students to a couple of very determined and confident students. Some of the children struggle to get on together and we hope that having an experience at your camp would help them develop new friendships and to help them learn how to work together as a team.
Do you think your team would be able to develop and provide an appropriate camp programme for my class? I would appreciate it if you were able to send us an outline of an appropriate camp programme that you would suggest we undertook.
Yours Sincerely,
Sarah Davies,
Cloverlea School.
We went into role as the adult team who works at ‘Lake Adventure Challenge Confidence Camp’ and discussed whether we could design a suitable programme for this class.
As we went into role here are some of things that were discussed. You will see that we have begun to absorb the language and values of school camp organisers – we really sound like we know what we are doing now!
“if we are going to be in role as camp organisers we need to be sensible and reliable”
“we need to do our best to make it happen”
“we are going to be teachers and good confident leaders”
“we would have to be quick thinking and resourceful”
“we would have to be well trained medical people with outdoor first aid to the highest level”
“all leaders would have to have first aid training”
“if someone got really hurt we would call a rescue helipcopter”
“we would be in a sort of staffroom”
“there would be a view over the lake over there….and the mountains”.
And then we were in role….
We decided ‘in role’ to accept the commission. We then divided into smaller groups, in different areas of expertise to discuss the job in more detail – still ‘in role’. Each group decided what aspect of the job they wanted to discuss.
Helena, Lucy, Zoe, and Macey took the role of discussing how to best encourage and support the shy and timid students.
Orla, Charlotte, and Evie took the role of discussing what to do with the already confident children that may come to the camp.
Pablo, Alice, and Alexander took the role of team building activity specialists.
Hugo, Noah, and Luca took the role of the building and property maintenance team.
CIRCULAR DRAMA
We then tried a technique called ‘Circular Drama’. For this we stayed in our small groups and were all frozen until Ms Gain indicated for one group at a time to unfreeze and go into role. This way we were all able to hear a little of what each group was talking about. This activity was a lot of fun and showed how good we are becoming at working ‘in role’.
Circular Drama: The Lake Adventure Challenge Team 'In Role':
BROCHURE MAKING
The last part of our day today was spent writing and designing brochures for our camp. We are all working in pairs to create a brochure for ‘Lake Adventure Challenge Confidence Camp’.
We looked at models of real camp organizations including brochures and information from Staglands, Green Pastures Camp, and Forest Lakes. We developed a shared criteria for our brochures, i.e. what each brochure would include and then worked in our smaller groups to create the brochures.
Our Shared Criteria:
6 pages (A4 paper folded up)
1. A front page with title of camp and an image/logo
2. A written description of the camp encouraging people to come
3. A list of activities offered
4. Cooking, Dining, and Accommodation information – including the different indoor/outdoor options and options for parents/teachers accommodation
5. Images – photos of ‘freeze frames’ or drawings of people enjoying the camp
6. A good copy of our collective map and contact information.
A Team Working on their Brochure:
Brochure Making - Creating photos for brochures:
DAY THREE
ROLE ON THE WALL FOR SIR EDMUND HILLARY
Today we began with some reading about Sir Edmund Hillary. We read some articles that had been written about him and we also read some of his well known quotes to try and get an idea of what made Sir Edmund Hillary such a famous role model for Outdoor Education in New Zealand. We made a ‘Role on the Wall’ to record our ideas. Lucy drew an outline of Sir Edmund Hillary and around the outside of this we recorded his numerous achievements and things people had said about him. On the inside of the outline we recorded his skills and attributes that lead to his successes. These included things like “very determined”, “good at problem solving”, “quick thinking”, “very focused”, “set goals and challenged himself (self motivated)”, “kept going”, “sensible and practical”, “humble – thought of himself as an ordinary person”, and “generous”. We learnt that Sir Edmund Hillary was also a philanthropist, which means he spent a lot of his life making money to give to others in need. We reflected that last week we thought that being generous and thinking of others was an important part of being a happy successful adult.
After our think tanks last week and our reflections today, we are starting to get a good idea about what skills and attributes our camp should be encouraging young people to develop in order to grow up into successful happy adults. These ideas are starting to help us further develop and refine our mission statement and values of our camp organisation. We are also starting to absorb and use more sophisticated language in our writing and role work, we are starting to sound like school camp organisers!
COLLECTIVE MAP MAKING
Next we made a collective map of our camp. Using the lists of activities that we had brainstormed last week we identified the different areas and facilities our camp would need. We worked in small groups first and then came together to create a big collective map of our camp. We also brainstormed names for our camp and decided on ‘Lake Adventure Challenge Confidence Camp’.
Creating our collective map together:
DESCRIPTIVE AND PERSUASIVE WRITING
Once we had drawn our map we did some writing to describe our camp. We will use this writing later when we make brochures to encourage people to come and stay at our camp. Here are some examples of our writing.
Lake Adventure Challenge it is a great camp lake that feeds into the nice little rivers that go to the sea. It has big mountains with waterfalls. Charlotte
Come to Lake Adventure Challenge. This beautiful camp has a beautiful blue lake. The cabins have a wonderful view of the lake, beach, mountains and forest. It has a walking and bike riding track around this beautiful place. You can also go and see a beautiful waterfall. Zoe
This beautiful area has a great view of the great lake…Lake Dolphin. A little river runs through the lake surrounded by lots of native trees. Up in the hills you can go for bush walks and bike rides […] We do raft building, making bonfires and toasting marshmallows, learning how to kayak, treasure hunts and more. On the great lake you can go fishing off the wharf, swimming, kayaking, sailing and so on. […] You can either choose to sleep in a cabin or a tent. Macey
Learn how to challenge yourself with exciting experiences. Push your limits until you find you can do something you never thought possible. Improve your confidence. Alexander
There’s a secondary camp on a little island with amazing views and there’s an awesome flying fox into the lake and there are awesome mountains that you can climb. Noah
Lake Adventure Challenge is a wonderful place to come to with its beautiful lake. The cabins have a great view of the lake, beach, mountains, and forest. Evie
Come to our camp you will step out of your comfort zone. It will let you experience new things that you have never done before. Orla
Try new challenges in a chip of paradise overlooking the beautiful beach leading to Cook Strait. Come to Lake Adventure Challenge, to a cabin with a view over the sparkling lake where an island lies over the waves […] When you come to Lake Adventure Challenge you can see beautiful water falls, mountains, and forests. Also watch native birds, cruise along the lake and the boats rock gently on the waves. Pablo
THE ADVENTURES OF SOPHIE BY DICK KING SMITH
We ended the day with Ms Gain reading us some excerpts from a book called ‘The Further Adventures of Sophie’ by Dick King Smith. We read enough to get a good idea of Sophie’s determined confident character and some of the different characters in Sophie’s class at school. Sophie is in a class of 7 – 8 year olds and there is a range of characters from some who are very determined and confident to others who are timid and shy. Sophie is somewhat unkind about some of her classmates for example describing Dawn as ‘ignorant’ and ‘a wimp’. We returned to our discussions from week one about what makes a good leader and decided that Sophie needed some guidance to make the most of her determination and confident approach to life and to help her develop into a positive leader.
Today we began with some reading about Sir Edmund Hillary. We read some articles that had been written about him and we also read some of his well known quotes to try and get an idea of what made Sir Edmund Hillary such a famous role model for Outdoor Education in New Zealand. We made a ‘Role on the Wall’ to record our ideas. Lucy drew an outline of Sir Edmund Hillary and around the outside of this we recorded his numerous achievements and things people had said about him. On the inside of the outline we recorded his skills and attributes that lead to his successes. These included things like “very determined”, “good at problem solving”, “quick thinking”, “very focused”, “set goals and challenged himself (self motivated)”, “kept going”, “sensible and practical”, “humble – thought of himself as an ordinary person”, and “generous”. We learnt that Sir Edmund Hillary was also a philanthropist, which means he spent a lot of his life making money to give to others in need. We reflected that last week we thought that being generous and thinking of others was an important part of being a happy successful adult.
After our think tanks last week and our reflections today, we are starting to get a good idea about what skills and attributes our camp should be encouraging young people to develop in order to grow up into successful happy adults. These ideas are starting to help us further develop and refine our mission statement and values of our camp organisation. We are also starting to absorb and use more sophisticated language in our writing and role work, we are starting to sound like school camp organisers!
COLLECTIVE MAP MAKING
Next we made a collective map of our camp. Using the lists of activities that we had brainstormed last week we identified the different areas and facilities our camp would need. We worked in small groups first and then came together to create a big collective map of our camp. We also brainstormed names for our camp and decided on ‘Lake Adventure Challenge Confidence Camp’.
Creating our collective map together:
DESCRIPTIVE AND PERSUASIVE WRITING
Once we had drawn our map we did some writing to describe our camp. We will use this writing later when we make brochures to encourage people to come and stay at our camp. Here are some examples of our writing.
Lake Adventure Challenge it is a great camp lake that feeds into the nice little rivers that go to the sea. It has big mountains with waterfalls. Charlotte
Come to Lake Adventure Challenge. This beautiful camp has a beautiful blue lake. The cabins have a wonderful view of the lake, beach, mountains and forest. It has a walking and bike riding track around this beautiful place. You can also go and see a beautiful waterfall. Zoe
This beautiful area has a great view of the great lake…Lake Dolphin. A little river runs through the lake surrounded by lots of native trees. Up in the hills you can go for bush walks and bike rides […] We do raft building, making bonfires and toasting marshmallows, learning how to kayak, treasure hunts and more. On the great lake you can go fishing off the wharf, swimming, kayaking, sailing and so on. […] You can either choose to sleep in a cabin or a tent. Macey
Learn how to challenge yourself with exciting experiences. Push your limits until you find you can do something you never thought possible. Improve your confidence. Alexander
There’s a secondary camp on a little island with amazing views and there’s an awesome flying fox into the lake and there are awesome mountains that you can climb. Noah
Lake Adventure Challenge is a wonderful place to come to with its beautiful lake. The cabins have a great view of the lake, beach, mountains, and forest. Evie
Come to our camp you will step out of your comfort zone. It will let you experience new things that you have never done before. Orla
Try new challenges in a chip of paradise overlooking the beautiful beach leading to Cook Strait. Come to Lake Adventure Challenge, to a cabin with a view over the sparkling lake where an island lies over the waves […] When you come to Lake Adventure Challenge you can see beautiful water falls, mountains, and forests. Also watch native birds, cruise along the lake and the boats rock gently on the waves. Pablo
THE ADVENTURES OF SOPHIE BY DICK KING SMITH
We ended the day with Ms Gain reading us some excerpts from a book called ‘The Further Adventures of Sophie’ by Dick King Smith. We read enough to get a good idea of Sophie’s determined confident character and some of the different characters in Sophie’s class at school. Sophie is in a class of 7 – 8 year olds and there is a range of characters from some who are very determined and confident to others who are timid and shy. Sophie is somewhat unkind about some of her classmates for example describing Dawn as ‘ignorant’ and ‘a wimp’. We returned to our discussions from week one about what makes a good leader and decided that Sophie needed some guidance to make the most of her determination and confident approach to life and to help her develop into a positive leader.
Monday, February 21, 2011
Day Two
Today we began with a team building problem solving activity. We worked in teams to try and build as many bridges as we could between a row of cans/cup that were 20inches apart in 5 minutes. To build the bridges each team had 1 pipe cleaner, 3 sticky mail labels, 5 paper clips, 1 rubber band, and 10 drinking straws.
We then reflected on each team’s success talking about communication, cooperation, and creativity.
Some teams were more successful than others…
Some comments made were:
“there were too many people trying to lead”
“there was a lot of talking and not much listening”
“everyone wanted to be the leader”
“they all had good ideas but they didn’t bring them together”
“there was a lot of listening and getting on with it quickly”
“everyone shared their ideas” (shared leadership).
Next we considered “what if we were to imagine we were a group of adults who organised school camps”. We thought about what our camp would be like, what our company would value, and had a go at writing some mission statements. Here are some of the catchphrases and statements we came up with:
“trying new challenges”
“jumping out of your comfort zone”
“challenging yourself with exciting experiences”
“improve your confidence”
“be the best that you can be”
“push your limits”
“adapt to new situations”
“learn to be confident”
“making friendships”
“we believe that you may be shy but you will come back home more confident”
“be safe but challenge yourself”
“work with a team”
“you get to work by yourself and you get to work with a team”
“have fun”
“trust others”
“lead others and be led”
“be brave”
THINK TANK: WHAT MAKES A HAPPY SUCCESSFUL ADULT?
As we thought about the values and wrote catch phrases for a possible school camp business we reflected on why it was important to give children and young adults experiences like these. We had a think tank discussion followed by some writing about what makes a successful happy adult. Here are some things we said and wrote about successful happy adults that we know.
“My grandma used to be a nurse in India. She did it because India is a very poor country and it has lots of diseases. I admire her because she is a caring and successful person, also because she is very unselfish and understanding. Her skills were to learn a different language, understand a different culture and live in a different lifestyle – stepping out of her comfort zone. She challenged herself by living and working in a different country”. Macey
Chevron talked about his dad and how he has lots of friends and enjoys playing rugby and being part of a team.
Alexander talked about his dad and how he helps people in poorer countries, he described him as ‘unselfish’. “I admire my dad because he thinks about other people, not just his family.”
Pablo talked about how his grandad knows all about native NZ species. He described his grandad as passionate about nature “because he loves being with it”. He also described him as quick thinking, being able to do lots of things really quickly, and witty because he always has an answer ready. He described his grandad as “very very resourceful because he knows everything to do if you are lost in a forest”.
Hugo talked about his Mum and Dad who own a catering business called Blue Carrot.
“Having your own business means you need to be smart, work on computers, share ideas, manage and look after staff, and be creative” Hugo.
Charlotte talked about her mum who is fit and enjoys sports. “my mum challenges herself by going on bigger runs that she’s never gone on before. She is very sporty and that is what she thinks is fun […] she’s a nurse so she’s very good with cuts like when my brother Albert cut his finger with a knife she knew just what to do.”
Noah talked about his dad: “when I cut my toe my dad, me, and Mila went straight to the cabin and my dad bandaged me up. He is a quick thinker. If someone ever needs help he helps them. My dad is resourceful”.
“I admire my mum because she helps children with things they struggle with, things like reading and writing, and also teaches them new things. She is kind and patient and is very creative. She makes the children more confident with their reading and writing. She is good at listening to the children’s ideas. She is happy because she can see the children do something that they couldn’t do before.”
Orla talked about how her dad enjoyed travelling to different countries all around the world. “My dad is generous because he goes to different countries and helps people”.
Alice talked about her mum and how she looks after other people’s children. She talked about how her mum needed to be responsible and reliable. “You also need to be arty and creative and you need to educate the kids. You need to be kind and caring to look after children”.
Helena talked about her mum: “my mum is a translater […] I admire my mum because she knows so many languages, she challenges herself with nobody telling her what to do. She is helpful to others. If there was a letter someone did not know what it meant she would translate it very well.”
After talking and writing about a successful happy adult that we knew we interviewed some of these adults on a panel (by getting into role) to find out even more information about what made these people happy and successful. In role as interviewers some of the questions we asked were: “what do you like about your job?”, “is your job challenging?”, and “what skills do you need to do your job well”. We had to listen carefully to the answers so we could think of more questions to find out more specific information, for example “how did you learn so many languages”, “how do you work and look after your family?”.
OUR PANEL OF HAPPY SUCCESSFUL ADULTS BEING INTERVIEWED
In role as her mum, Helena talked about having studied hard at university, having to be a good listener and enjoy talking with people, and how she enjoyed translating.
In role as his dad, Hugo talked about how he had to be responsible and reliable and had to go to sleep early and get up early for deliveries. He also talked about enjoying his work and being creative.
We then reflected on each team’s success talking about communication, cooperation, and creativity.
Some teams were more successful than others…
Some comments made were:
“there were too many people trying to lead”
“there was a lot of talking and not much listening”
“everyone wanted to be the leader”
“they all had good ideas but they didn’t bring them together”
“there was a lot of listening and getting on with it quickly”
“everyone shared their ideas” (shared leadership).
Next we considered “what if we were to imagine we were a group of adults who organised school camps”. We thought about what our camp would be like, what our company would value, and had a go at writing some mission statements. Here are some of the catchphrases and statements we came up with:
“trying new challenges”
“jumping out of your comfort zone”
“challenging yourself with exciting experiences”
“improve your confidence”
“be the best that you can be”
“push your limits”
“adapt to new situations”
“learn to be confident”
“making friendships”
“we believe that you may be shy but you will come back home more confident”
“be safe but challenge yourself”
“work with a team”
“you get to work by yourself and you get to work with a team”
“have fun”
“trust others”
“lead others and be led”
“be brave”
THINK TANK: WHAT MAKES A HAPPY SUCCESSFUL ADULT?
As we thought about the values and wrote catch phrases for a possible school camp business we reflected on why it was important to give children and young adults experiences like these. We had a think tank discussion followed by some writing about what makes a successful happy adult. Here are some things we said and wrote about successful happy adults that we know.
“My grandma used to be a nurse in India. She did it because India is a very poor country and it has lots of diseases. I admire her because she is a caring and successful person, also because she is very unselfish and understanding. Her skills were to learn a different language, understand a different culture and live in a different lifestyle – stepping out of her comfort zone. She challenged herself by living and working in a different country”. Macey
Chevron talked about his dad and how he has lots of friends and enjoys playing rugby and being part of a team.
Alexander talked about his dad and how he helps people in poorer countries, he described him as ‘unselfish’. “I admire my dad because he thinks about other people, not just his family.”
Pablo talked about how his grandad knows all about native NZ species. He described his grandad as passionate about nature “because he loves being with it”. He also described him as quick thinking, being able to do lots of things really quickly, and witty because he always has an answer ready. He described his grandad as “very very resourceful because he knows everything to do if you are lost in a forest”.
Hugo talked about his Mum and Dad who own a catering business called Blue Carrot.
“Having your own business means you need to be smart, work on computers, share ideas, manage and look after staff, and be creative” Hugo.
Charlotte talked about her mum who is fit and enjoys sports. “my mum challenges herself by going on bigger runs that she’s never gone on before. She is very sporty and that is what she thinks is fun […] she’s a nurse so she’s very good with cuts like when my brother Albert cut his finger with a knife she knew just what to do.”
Noah talked about his dad: “when I cut my toe my dad, me, and Mila went straight to the cabin and my dad bandaged me up. He is a quick thinker. If someone ever needs help he helps them. My dad is resourceful”.
“I admire my mum because she helps children with things they struggle with, things like reading and writing, and also teaches them new things. She is kind and patient and is very creative. She makes the children more confident with their reading and writing. She is good at listening to the children’s ideas. She is happy because she can see the children do something that they couldn’t do before.”
Orla talked about how her dad enjoyed travelling to different countries all around the world. “My dad is generous because he goes to different countries and helps people”.
Alice talked about her mum and how she looks after other people’s children. She talked about how her mum needed to be responsible and reliable. “You also need to be arty and creative and you need to educate the kids. You need to be kind and caring to look after children”.
Helena talked about her mum: “my mum is a translater […] I admire my mum because she knows so many languages, she challenges herself with nobody telling her what to do. She is helpful to others. If there was a letter someone did not know what it meant she would translate it very well.”
After talking and writing about a successful happy adult that we knew we interviewed some of these adults on a panel (by getting into role) to find out even more information about what made these people happy and successful. In role as interviewers some of the questions we asked were: “what do you like about your job?”, “is your job challenging?”, and “what skills do you need to do your job well”. We had to listen carefully to the answers so we could think of more questions to find out more specific information, for example “how did you learn so many languages”, “how do you work and look after your family?”.
OUR PANEL OF HAPPY SUCCESSFUL ADULTS BEING INTERVIEWED
In role as her mum, Helena talked about having studied hard at university, having to be a good listener and enjoy talking with people, and how she enjoyed translating.
In role as his dad, Hugo talked about how he had to be responsible and reliable and had to go to sleep early and get up early for deliveries. He also talked about enjoying his work and being creative.
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Day One of Our New Mantle
Today this group of year 3 and 4 students at Muritai School came together to start work in an enrichment programme that will be taught using Mantle of the Expert.
For this Mantle of the Expert work we will be in role as an enterprise that organises school camps. Through this fictional context we will consider whether belonging to groups is important for people, look at the different ways people establish and manage relationships, consider the different impacts of co-operative versus competitive activities, and consider what skills and attitudes are important for establishing group belonging and what kind of activities would best support groups of children to acquire these skills.
These ideas will be explored as we, as part of our work in this fictional role, plan school camp style programmes for a range of different groups. In order to put together these plans we will research real existing outdoor education centres and school camp businesses, trial different activities, and create and design our own activities and tasks.
Today we began our work by looking at some 'You Tube' videos where adults and teenagers reflected on their ‘Outward Bound’ experiences (see link on right hand side tool bar if you would like to view these, we watched the first two videos on this page). We listened carefully to what people said about the programme and had a great discussion around the 2 questions:
‘what do you think the point of a camp/enterprise like this is?’
‘what did people seem to get out of going to a camp like this?’
Here are some of our ideas:
“to meet new people”
“to make friends”
“to be part of a group”
“to be more confident”
“encourages you to try new things”
“to have fun”
“pushing limits which means pushing themselves to do bigger things, things they haven’t done before”
“to go from saying ‘I can’t do this’ to saying ‘I can’”
“to challenge themselves”
We talked about some of the slogans for Outward Bound and what they meant: 'find your true potential - achieve things you never thought possible', 'challenge yourself and push you limits', 'develop your team skills in real situations', and 'step outside your comfort zone'. We learnt what it meant to ‘step out of your comfort zone’ and did some writing about a time when we had stepped out of our comfort zone. Here are some examples of our writing:
‘when I first went kayaking I went out of my comfort zone. But now it is really easy because I have done it before’ Evie
‘when I was lost in the playground I was scared and I was out of my comfort zone’ Daniel
‘when I first went to gym I was so scared. I had completely no idea how to do anything. The hardest thing was doing the splits. And I did not know anyone. But now it is easy. I know lots of people. I like going to gym’ Zoe
‘I went out of my comfort zone when I went to Movie World. Going on the ride called The Wild West really got me out of my comfort zone. I felt good after I did it’. Hugo
‘When I started swimming it was hard to keep afloat. It was hard to kick and stroke. Now I feel comfortable swimming’. Pablo
‘When I first went to gym I was really scared and now I do things really easy. I thought that my coach was going to push me down really far in splits but now I can get down so it isn’t scary and I know I can trust my coach’. Lucy
‘When I started school I was scared because I didn’t know anybody in my class and now I know everybody and the teacher, and it isn’t scary any more’. Luca
‘When I first went wharf jumping I was scared because it was so far […]then I jumped and I felt great and then I kept doing it, it was really fun! It doesn’t seem so far now’ Helena.
Next we looked at a range of images of children involved in outdoor education activities. We brainstormed what we thought each of the activities were about by using post it notes to put our ideas around the outside of the images. Some of the words that were brainstormed were: ‘challenging’, ‘having fun’, ‘trust’, ‘teamwork’, ‘problem solving’, ‘helping others’, and ‘trying hard’.
Brainstorming ideas.
Next we chose some of our favourite images and recreated them as 'freeze frames'. Below are the images followed by the 'freeze frame' that was created. Once we had made a 'freeze frame' the rest of the group acted as the 'voices in the head' of the people in the scene, as they tried to imagine themselves in the scene and what they might be feeling.
Freeze Frames
To finish up we tried out some team building activities. Here are some photos of us playing some different games. After each game we reflected whether the game was co-operative or competitive and discussed the differences between these different types of games.
Team Building Activities
Paper, Scissors, Rock in Teams
Passing the Hula Hoop: around the circle without letting go of anyone's hands.
Friday, February 11, 2011
A New Mantle
This blog is now going to record the learning journey of a group of fifteen year 3 and 4 students who are about to begin on the first Mantle of the Expert programme at Muritai School for 2011. These students will be coming together one day a week, for the next 8 weeks, to learn through Mantle of the Expert. To read more about Mantle of the Expert see the links on the right hand side tool bar on this blog page. See the blog entry below this one to find out where to go to read about our two previous Mantle of the Expert learning journeys at Muritai School, which were run last year. We hope you enjoy reading about our work and look forward to seeing you as a follower on this blog.
Previous Mantle of the Expert Learning Journeys at Muritai School with Ms Gain
Below is the record of the learning journey of twelve year 5 and 6 students who participated in a Mantle of the Expert programme in Term 4 of 2010. To read from the beginning of this learning journey go back to the first blog entry on this blog page by clicking under 'Blog Archive' on the side tool bar. The learning journey of the group of year 3 and 4 students who participated in a Mantle of the Expert programme in Term 2 of 2010 is recorded under a different blog address: www.muritaimantle.blogspot.com. The link to this learning journey is on the side tool bar under 'Sites Related to Mantle of the Expert'. We hope you enjoy reading about both our current Mantle of the Expert work and our previous learning journeys.
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