The Gifts of Planning & Collaboration

This school year presented a unique opportunity to direct plays on both sides of the MS/HS complex. At the end of January, we closed the middle school musical production of Rock of Ages: Youth Edition while the high school production of Oklahoma! was in full swing. Having collaborators on both projects made this a smoother transition than one might expect. I am grateful for their flexibility while I swung back and forth between the two projects.

It seems this arrangement may continue into next year with additional directing opportunities. It sounds like a lot of work (and it is), but an incredible way to further develop the theatre programs in both schools. An added benefit will be the time I've been given to plan.

Choose any number of quotes about the importance of planning here. The most difficult challenge in the process this year was being handed the reigns to the middle school shows a month into the school year. Again, having a collaborator made that process easier. The addition of time gives us the ability to reflect on this past process and to make adjustments for the year ahead. I already have a few ideas in mind and am excited by the possibilities.

It is a unique arrangement to be in charge of theatre programs at two schools. Perhaps some of you reading this post may have experience with this. Any suggestions or advice you may have are greatly appreciated!

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Preparing for September: 5 Things I'm Doing

The first day of school is in 33 days. Here are five things I am doing to prepare:

1) Revising Lesson Plans

Earlier this week, I got the first look at my class schedule and rosters for the upcoming year. There is an even split between my middle school and high school load that includes a course that I haven't taught yet. Additionally, the middle school curriculum is set up so that the procedure is the same, but the content rotates every year. This allows students to take the class in both 7th and 8th grades and to have the majority of the class work different each time.

This year, one of the performance projects in the middle school Theatre class will be Puppetry. The students in my first year loved this so much that I put it on hold last year, so that I could learn more to expand the curriculum and secure a grant from the Holmdel Foundation for Educational Excellence. I also want to thank Ms. Edna Bland for her expertise and guidance.

2) Incorporating more Games & SEL

If you have not participated in the #games4ed Twitter Chat, you may want to make plans to join in on Thursdays / 8 pm EST. This group of educators share examples and questions about incorporating games and puzzles into subject at every grade level. I've used some of the ideas presented here to build lessons and assessments that are more fun for students and for me. 

3) Cleaning Up Social Media

It's no secret that I love social media. It has been a great way to communicate and gather information, but it gets messy. I find it helpful to sort through the accounts, update profiles, delete or rearrange any posts that may be necessary, and set up a preliminary post schedule. As someone mentioned in the comments of a post earlier this week, there are so many places to be online that it is important to pick just a few and focus there. I find it best to communicate with parents on Facebook, students on Instagram, and the rest of the world on Twitter. It is a lot to manage (I do this for the theatre program and the high school), but once you get into a groove, it works. My best advice would be to keep a schedule and use a platform like Hootsuite, Tweetdeck, or IFTTT to help. There are many others, too.

I also encourage you - whether in a school or organization - to balance your sales with interest stories. When I thought of how many times I block telemarketers, or unwanted ads, it just made sense.

4) Shopping

I am fortunate to have a small budget through school that covers basic classroom supplies. However, there are other things I will need to help me with management. Planners, dry erase markers, things like that. Oh, and clothes. It's amazing how quickly I can wear through my "teacher costumes"!

Also, you may want to set up an Amazon wish list for your classroom or department, if you don't already have one. There are times when someone may want to help, but you don't know exactly how. Purchasing an item from this list is a nice, simple way for community to get involved. And for any theatre teachers out there, connect with Dr. Jimmy Chrismon who runs the ThEDTalks Podcast. Not only are his interviews interesting, but he shares out teachers' wish lists each August.

5) Getting back into a routine... sort of

I've been teaching summer school and a few camp programs this summer. It helps keep me in practice and is a nice supplemental income when we're not receiving a regular paycheck (my wife is a teacher, too). It's still a summer schedule and I will beginning getting back into a groove of waking up early and going through the routines that get all of us out the door. I'm sure we would benefit from keeping a more regular routine during the summer, but we are a family of five and we're tired. It's been quite a year and using time to rest and recover has been well worth it.

PS - As I'm writing this, we are anticipating the announcement that New Jersey schools will be masked on the first day. It is an ever-changing situation... but isn't that how we would describe teaching anyway? What have you done to recover from the school year? What are you doing to prepare for September?

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Simplifying for the New Year 2021

Welcoming the new year with this Emerson quote on my mind. All things considered, 2020 brought opportunity and improvement for me and my family largely because we continued to refine and follow through on the principles that we hold important. Insights from gurus like Dr. Brene Brown, Jay Shetty, Chase Jarvis, and Mel Robbins have helped me in this pursuit.

I'm beginning 2021 with an audit of my activities and commitments. How well have they, and will they, address my principles, visions, and mission? To quote another favorite author: "Simplify, simplify, simplify!" (Here's a great article from Psychology Today that simplifies Thoreau's philosophy further). Taking the time now to decide where to spend my time in the future should free up even more time to use toward those things that matter most. 

When the school year is over, I plan to do the same audit on my curriculum and after-school programming to get at the heart of the my purpose in those endeavors, as well. The hybrid learning model in which I have been working has made it necessary to streamline so much already. It will be interesting to look back and see what worked and what did not and how I can potentially bring the same simplification process to a more "normal" school year in the fall (assuming we are finally free of our social distancing measures by that time!).

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Grit and the Achievement Theory

This summer I read the book Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Dr. Angela Duckworth. This was an enjoyable read with easy to follow concepts and relatable examples. Within the first two chapters were ideas that I see as easily adapted to the theatre classroom or after-school program. The most exciting part of the book was a later chapter that included an entire section devoted to how after-school & extra-curricular activities are the best environment for students to learn and develop perseverance. This perseverance is what Duckworth defines as "grit".

Expanding further, Duckworth defines grit as "passion and perseverance for long-term goals" ("What is Grit?"). Grit is purposeful determination aimed toward achieving higher-order goals. Grit is what Duckworth's research shows may be the greatest indicator of future student success.

What incredible supporting evidence for my experience that I learn more about how well a student will do in a theatre class, or a school production, based on their demeanor and conversation in an audition or rehearsal room. Often that tells me more than "talent". In fact, while Duckworth identifies talent as the first step toward developing grit, effort "counts twice" in that pursuit.

This is explained in Duckworth's achievement theory, which works like this:

talent x effort = skill

skill x effort = achievement

Based on this theory map, talent is the first step toward skill development, which is necessary for goal achievement. It isn't enough to have talent - one must apply their talent through effort. Further effort, bolstered by subsequently developed skills, brings achievement.

This makes a lot of sense. How many times have we theatre teachers and directors - and I would assume coaches in school and youth sports - seen a child with talent who did not realize their full potential due to a lack of effort? However, there is one slight adjustment I might make to the achievement theory above. I don't know that talent is an essential first step toward goal achievement. Perhaps "interest" is all that is needed?

Let's consider "talent" as a natural skill that gives a person a head start toward achievement. As explained by the theory, a talented person still needs to put in the effort to accomplish the end goal. However, those who lack the same "talent", but posses a strong interest in goal achievement, can still get there through effort. It may not be as easy, but it is certainly possible.

That is an important idea to keep in mind when conducting our classes and leading our productions. In fact, I envision that first level of the Achievement Theory as the classroom and the second level as the production. Skill can certainly be developed through effort in the rehearsal process, but the classroom provides time for individual instruction and for focus on specific skill development that cannot always be achieved in the rehearsal room. It is an interesting model that I am eager to bring to my high school classes. I'd be curious to hear how you view this approach and whether or not it may, or has, worked for you.

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Revise and Resubmit

"Revise and Resubmit" is not exactly the comment that a writer wants to receive after submitting a manuscript for publication. I've had my own experiences with this over the summer that I am still trying to parse out (thank you, Reviewer #2), but it helps me to remember that revision is a process of improvement. It is similar to the Stoics' reminder that "the obstacle is the way" and that every challenge, or difficulty, offers an opportunity for improvement. 

I've done a lot of curriculum writing and lesson plan revision this summer. Most of this is for the theatre classes in middle school and high school (some are new, but some is for the potential need to adapt to online learning again). This week, I have turned my attention to the TYA course that I teach for the Program in Educational Theatre. I've been teaching this class since 2014 when I inherited it from a long line of influential people in the field: Dr. Lowell Swortzell, Laurie Brooks, and Jonathan Shmidt Chapman. The course structure has evolved over time and I have continued that tradition by adapting Jonathan's syllabus and making adjustments and tweaks to the course every year since.

About two years ago, I incorporated the 25 year anniversary anthology from the New Visions/New Voices Festival at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC. New Visions/New Voices is one of three major new play development programs in the field of TYA currently in existence in the United States (along with Write Now and NYU's New Plays for Young Audiences Series). The anthology was a way to focus on current scripts while emphasizing the importance of new play development in the field. Perhaps most importantly, using the anthology reduced textbook costs for students. The NV/NV plays are serviceable and the last two classes have enjoyed them; however, one of the strongest suggestions received from the classes was a desire to delve into even more current and relevant scripts. I have made that my goal while preparing for the fall.

When constructing the syllabus, it is also important to recognize the variety of students on the class roster and their varied perspectives. The class is typically made of students from freshman to doctoral candidates, Educational Theatre majors to performance majors from Tisch, as well as students from outside the arts who are interested in exploring the world outside of their math and business majors. The students are, or plan to be, theatre praticioners, educators, and producers, or are simply interested in story from a teller and/or audience point of view. All of these perspectives inform my planning and I plan to balance the reading list with scripts that are of historical significance to the field and that are often produced in professional venues and schools. The EdTA 2020 Play Survey was helpful here. I am including some of the titles on these lists with those from the NV/NV anthology.

One text that has not changed from my first courses at both Manhattanville College and NYU is Moses Goldberg's collection titled TYA: Essays on the Theatre for Young Audiences. This is an EXCELLENT book that I could not do without!

I am excited by this changes and look forward to exploring the works with a new group of students and to seeing and hearing their reactions and insights. There are still some areas of the field that I can't quite cover in the time provided for the class. I plan to ask students to explore those topics in their midterm project and see what may come out as the most important aspect to incorporate in the revision for next year.

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Hurry Up and Wait

After a great, yet unconventional school year, I am eager to get back. This is the first summer where I know my course load and the first time that I can go into September with plans in place. Previously, I've either been hired just before school began - or with the school year already in session, left in the dark about classes until arriving at school for the first professional development day. I'm further ahead in my planning than in those situations, but I'm getting ready with such a large question mark about how exactly our hybrid school model will pan out. That is the case for every teacher in America who hasn't yet begun school - it is frustrating, but necessary.

The biggest question right now is what form the winter musical might take. Choices are limited because of the need to secure streaming rights for the performance. I do have a show in mind and am eager to start planning because it will be a big undertaking if we can perform "normally" - we have no idea if we will be able to bring an audience together in March. I know that March is months away, but I always start planning this far out.

It's the inertia that is so frustrating at this point. Planning and preparation is necessary, but I don't want to waste that precious time doing things that may be unnecessary depending upon the circumstances.

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Just Keep Swimming (or Back to School Planning)

Remote learning was challenging. That's no surprise and while each stakeholder has their own reasons why, we can all agree that it was a challenge. But from my perspective as both a teacher and a parent, it was a challenge well-received and one that - after a series of significant hiccups - went pretty well.

That's not a consensus view, I know. Plenty of people want school buildings to open up rather than struggle with the challenges of remote learning again. I miss working directly with my students and want to return, too. I'm all for a return, provided that we can do so safely. The rising numbers in my neck of the woods is troubling and hopefully we can get things under control before September. I'm also fortunate that my school district is starting a week later than most in order to finish some major construction projects at the middle school/high school complex. We are six weeks from the first day. The district is also planning very thoroughly and the plan currently under consideration is sensible and oriented toward safety for us all.

Whatever the return to school buildings (NOTE: not to "school" as some people will claim. Schools didn't close in March, the buildings did. We all continued with school even when working from home - an important distinction)... the return NOT be a return to normal. I think that under it all what we really want when talking about going back to school is a return to "normal". That leaves me in an interesting place where I am planning for something that is not quite clear, or understandable. But that's all things, isn't it? No matter how often we've experienced a certain something, or know what that something has been, it is never the same one year to the next - not even one day to the other. That idea is important to keep me from overthinking things. I'm going to plan for my classes and be more open than ever to the unknown of our hybrid classroom/remote learning model.

I'm excited to return. It's all I can think about and I'm doing my best to temper that excitement so as not to overwhelm my supervisors with questions and ideas that need to take a backseat to the pressing details of just how we all get back into the building safely.

That excitement comes from a love of my work and is further fueled by frustration. We had incredible excitement and momentum surrounding the high school winter musical and the new Theatre classes at the middle school. I know the students feel that frustration, too, and suspect that it will fuel them as it does me. Above all else, this whole experience reminds me the importance of grit and resilience and the need to just keep swimming, especially when the current gets rough.

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The Young Playwrights Guide

The past three months have been a whirlwind! I think we all feel that way to some degree. Now that school has closed for summer, I am feeling the slower pace of the mornings, and finding ways to approach many of the projects that had been waiting in the wings.

http://youngplaywrghtsguide.blogspot.com
@TheYPGuide

One of these projects is the newly branded Young Playwrights Guide, a retooled version of the Young Playwrights Map that I developed during my doctoral study. The map was a great tool for documenting the existence and spread of opportunities for youth writers around the world, but I found children and their parents were looking for advice, instruction, and guidance through various videos and conversations that arose at the beginnings of Covid-19 quarantine. I spent some time reflecting on those inquiries as well as my own desire to (re)connect with artists whom I haven't been able to work with, or even see, over the last year or so.

The Conversations Series was born on YouTube at the beginning of May and is now in its 8th iteration. You can check out those videos here. I have two more conversations in the works and am looking to build another program through the Guide by the end of summer.

Additionally, I am spreading out my prep work for the beginning of the 2020-21 school year. We anticipate hearing more in the next few weeks about potential returns to school in the fall. In the meantime, I will continue to take it slow and look to ramp things up again as July rolls around.

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Holding out for a hero!

This summer has been a complicated one (with stories for future posts), but one positive side is it has given me time to work on a number of projects I've had in mind for some time. Can't share details yet, but stay tuned...

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January in July

Janus coin

This past month has been a busy one with the close of the school year, the 35th annual New Jersey Young Playwrights Contest, and a flurry of activity bringing new listings to the Young Playwrights Map. Over the next two weeks I will also wind down a second semester of classes in the Alternate Route Certification program at Monmouth University. Not to mention that this past week I have been catching up on work around the house: tomorrow morning I will take my first stab at painting the deck and we've discovered the power of Letgo as a way to complete some of those projects and unloading some of the things that a family of five accumulates along the way.

Once the deck painting is done, and we get some help with a couple of unruly landscaping projects, my focus will shift to reflection and planning for the year ahead. That has always been a part of my summer experience - a remnant of so many years in and/or working with the school system. It's my "January in July", perhaps, with the week of July 4th serving as something as I imagine the last weeks of December being for other people.

Some of my first projects this week will include formally selecting a play for the fall production (looks like I will be doing the play I first thought of back in the spring!) and setting up calendars for the fall programs at the theatre. This should be followed by curriculum development and writing schedules for a couple of research projects that I want to complete in the remaining months of 2018.

It is a busy summer, as always, and I'm looking forward to diving in! (An ironic idiom for someone who dislikes the pool).

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