Curiosity

Persistence and curiosity may be the most important qualities we possess, yet I'm not sure they are the easiest to access. We are curious about everything as a baby, but seem to bury that away as we get older. What happens? How do we rekindle that curiosity? I try to spark it in my theatre classroom, especially at the middle school. A few students have told me that they would like to try working backstage, or performing, as a result of the class. They would never have wanted to do so before. I wonder: what specifically sparked that curiosity? What keeps us interested enough to feed that curiosity and to continue exploring?
How can that be applied elsewhere?

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Smile!

Look, I know it sounds cheesy, but the more we smile, say "hello", hold the door open for someone, or offer to help, the better off things are going to be. I try to do these things when I can and find that it often makes a difference. Just seeing another person smile can make the day that much better. This is particularly true with students and perhaps especially so in middle school. Give it a try sometime.

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Audience Engagement & Education

This is my third consecutive year teaching in the classroom (not counting the one year immediately after grad school). My journey to this work has been anything but traditional, which I think is one of the biggest benefits that I bring to the position I am in today. And not just content-wise as a theater teacher, but because of what I learned about audience engagement. My daily audience is my students; however, they're not the audience to whom I'm referring. Student engagement is important, of course, but so is engagement with the families and community outside of the school.

Audience engagement is important inside and outside the classroom

Dr. Joe Sanfelippo is the superintendent of Fall Creek School District in Wisconsin. His One Minute Walk to Work videos are a great resource for educators, but also a master class in leadership. In a recent Tweet, Dr. Sanfelippo talked about regularly connecting with parents, not just in the moments where we need them, or need to inform them. I've recently found how important that part of the job is. In the short time I have been in my current job, a number of parents have told me how much they appreciated hearing from me. Building those relationships is important for a child's education. I've taken steps this 3rd quarter to reach out to parents more often, but also emphasized the idea that Theatre is a communication between actors and audience. That skill is at the heart of my curriculum and surprisingly something in need of development in our society of advanced technology meant to bring us closer together. Just two weeks in now and already it seems as if students are creating with each other quicker and with less hesitation than in previous quarters. I hope this will lead to deeper collaboration by the end of our 10-week session.

At the high school, I hope to achieve my goal of expanding the student theatre program's social media presence will have long-term benefits. Our first gauge will be how well increased communication and engagement works with regard to ticket sales for the upcoming musical (Into the Woods - March 12, 13, 14). Perhaps from there, a link can be made to the transferable marketing skills developed in the theatre classroom.

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New Year, New Room, New Journey

In September, I began a new adventure when I was hired as the first ever Theatre teacher for a school district in suburban New Jersey. This was a unique opportunity to fulfill a dream of mine to develop a theatre education program and I could not pass it up. I am based in the middle school with an additional high school class. I am also directing the winter musical at the high school (Into the Woods - details to follow in a future post!). Now that the school year has passed the halfway mark (and done so quickly!), I've had two rotations of the quarterly class on which to reflect and make a series of changes to the curriculum. Just eight days in this has already improved the students' experience.

One thing that helped was the opening of the brand new performing arts studio, I share this space with the part-time dance teacher after we both had been bouncing around between traditional classrooms. I took the opportunity to bring the classes to the high school auditorium (the middle and high schools are attached), but that was always dependent upon the availability of the space. The new room keeps me in one place and is arranged the way I need it to be (even though it is primarily arranged for dance, which has more specific needs than a theatre class). The students and I enjoy the wide open space and the freedom that it brings - though I do miss the auditorium some times; we will return there for a future unit and the final performance project.

Panorama of Studio 205 the day before moving in

The dance teacher and I have been slowly making the room a classroom with furniture and decor. I can't wait for my storage cart to arrive this weekend and am searching for some posters and pictures for the walls. I also need to create some signs for the two mirrored walls, which are more of a distraction to self-conscious middle school students than I had imagined!

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