This is my Teach Meet Midlands 2011 Presentation. After being inspired by the film and the use of social media to share good practice, I decided to post a wall wisher page in order to collect potential ideas that would create a unit of work. A few months later, I discovered a news article about James Cameron supporting an Amazonian Tribe's plight to stop a dam being built near to them. Completely inspired by a new way to look at the topic and with the help from a colleague, The Avatar Project was created. As well as having a lot of scope to improve academic skills, what we found interesting was that my classroom had became a more enriching and harmonious place as a result of this scheme of work. My Class had slowly become a Tribe...

1. The Avatar Project: Turning my Class into a Tribe Peter O’Brien @peter_obrien1

2. Project Background http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/avatar-unit

3. Project Background http://www.davidterron.com/wpmu/?p=722

4. The Real Avatar: James Cameron supports Brazilian indigenous tribe http://bit.ly/al7mFu

5. Collaborative Teaching @mistercmj

6. Planning

7. Home Class

8. Tribal values Live by values rather than rules Reflect on these throughout the year

9. Launch Display

10. Using the Blog forestfields-year6.blogspot.com

11. Writing examples

12. Writing examples

13. Making masks

14. Life size Na’vi

15. Banshee Pop ups

16. Tribal Jewellery (which turned to friendship bracelets)

17. Tribal Symbols TERRATARS! I respect you

18. Tribal Symbols I need guidance I am getting ready to listen YES! I understand

19. Call for Guidance (based on beliefs of the Zulu Tribes) word weaver number bearer language listener the thinker movement maker beauty creator The Spirits of Home Class

20. Haka Activate Other inspirations : Zulu and Navajo dancing

21. Haka Context: This Haka was performed by this group of boys at our Forest Fields’ Got Talent Show. Note the diversity in the group and no matter race, religion or even physical ability they are all very proud to be performing together. Click on the image to view the video

22. Celebration of work

23. The Avatar Project: Reflections Community Circles to discuss their week ‘I feel this way because…’ Raise self esteem from mutual respect (Using the symbol ‘I respect you’ often) Praise and rewards through precious stones Transfer leadership – respect a collective authority. Everyone has their place and space in their tribe and we appreciate them.

24. The Avatar Project: Reflections Sense of community, friendship/preferred working partners seemed to dissolve. Vehicle to move children on creatively especially if your class are not a cohesive unit They reflect on their own learning and identify strengths and weaknesses and look to improve or help others Increases attentiveness as children demonstrated higher order listening skills

25. The Avatar Project: Reflections I really enjoyed the Avatar project. During SATs I got stuck on my writing and I called The Word Weaver to help me. I think it worked too. Member of the Terratar Tribe .