Student Teaching: Teachers are Superheroes

This morning I felt like a superhero. I normally have a conference period first period, but the substitute for Tech Theatre was not there yet. So I walked across the hall, looked over the lesson plan, introduced myself to the students, and made it work. When the substitute finally made it, (she had the room number down wrong), I used that to help give examples of ways to use what happens around us to generate script ideas. Imagining stories I could create to explain the reason she was late. Some of them involved wrestling a bear, getting hit by a bus, and having a secret identity as a superhero.

During 4th Period I had a small victory. In general, I found that getting this group up on their feet to do a little group work at the beginning of class helps get out a lot of their jitters, focuses them on task, and gets them talking about what they are doing IN class. It's kind of awesome. But the real victory came when the girl from yesterday made an effort in class today. Being able to work with her friends to create a tableau put her in a good mood, so when she sat down to write, she asked for help. ASKED for help. The group she worked with on the tableau at the beginning of class helped give suggestions. I asked her questions to help her develop the exposition of her script. She had a support system. People that cared and wanted to help. I hope she will remember that when she goes home today...and when she comes to school tomorrow.

In my 6th Period Tech Theatre class, I did a little shuffle. New seating assignments for everyone. A little mischievous on my part. The front row has three seats. I put one of my most talkative students in between one of my most dedicated and hardest working students and a student who likes to sit in the back and work on assignments for other classes. Ah it worked like a charm. Neither of them want to be bothered, so I don't need to keep him in check now. They'll do it for me. :) When everyone got settled down, I asked if anyone liked their seat.

"No."

"Excellent."

I don't know if it was the new seats, or the way the activity engaged the students, or both...but the class was great today.

And I felt like for one day, I had super powers.

Student Teaching: It matters

This weekend I was so excited about my lesson plans this week. I thought they bordered on brilliant. And while I survived today, and nothing really bad happened, it was a little disappointing. I think part of it is that these students are not used to working this way. Others are just not used to working at all. I have a girl in Theatre I that failed at least four classes last semester including theatre. She's not doing her work now, and I found out today she has no support at home and her mom doesn't care if she fails. So heartbreaking. So now I have a little under an hour today to help teach this girl that her life matters.

We don't just teach theatre, or math, or science, or history. We teach people that they matter, and that what they do matters.

Student Teaching: It's okay, I'm a teacher

Saturday I was maneuvering my way through the traffic jam known as the produce section in the grocery store. A woman was trying to kindly extricate her daughter from blocking the way for other carts. As she finally got her cart moved around, she sighed and said, "Kids."

"It's okay, I'm a teacher. I understand."

"I bet you do." She smiled and followed after her daughter.

Below are a few more lesson plans for the anxious few. My cooperating teacher told me today that he's planning on stealing one of them. Feel free to do the same. :)

Thursday's Playwrighting Lesson

Friday's Playwrighting Lesson

Directing Day One

Directing Day Two

Directing Day Three

Directing Day Four

Student Teaching: If students were principals

Objective: Students will be able to create an outline for a play

Assessing students with a little artistic flair: Students will show understanding by making a comic book, with each pane showing elements of plot, setting, theme, characters, etc.

This morning I was cutting paper during 2nd period Technical Theatre I. In the spirit of the current unit on playwrighting...

STUDENT

What are you doing?

STUDENT TEACHER

I'm cutting out paper for the class I'm teaching later today. We're making comic books.

STUDENT

Can you be my teacher?

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The students seemed to really enjoy their work today. They were anxious to show each other what they had done. I allowed the students to choose whether they drew pictures in the blocks, or put words. Depending on their learning style, they could express their thoughts in a variety of ways.

A few students said that it really helped them organize their ideas, and it's so rewarding to see them excited about their work.

Student Teaching: Progress and Happy Moments

Today I took another step forward. To start, Theatre I.

Now that I'm teaching a second class, and gotten a feel for what Mr. G is working on the students with, I'm starting to adapt his lessons to make them my own. I felt pretty good when Mr. G sent me back a note about my lesson plan that said, "Very cool. I'm glad you are making it more yours." :)

The Theatre I classes are in the midst of a unit on playwrighting. Mr. G has done a lot of preparatory work to help them have most of their stories figured out before they begin writing their scripts next week. Yesterday they answered questions about conflict and sources of conflict. I've noticed that the students take a long time to come up with ideas for what to write about. It causes them a lot of stress and it takes them a long time before they can start writing. I decided that I could have them sit there for 10 to 20 minutes thinking, "I don't know what to write about," or I could do some work with them to prepare them to write, and maybe they could feel comfortable starting to write sooner.

So, before completing a worksheet about creating the setting for their story, I wanted to give them time to think about and talk about their setting before they had to put pen to paper. Before the blank stares. Students are often hesitant to try something new, so I had no idea how this would go over. The plan seemed simple enough. Ask all the students to stand up and close their eyes. When people are not used to doing this, it's like you're asking them to go through special screenings with TSA. It took them a while to go along, but eventually most of them did. I led them through a guided imagery, taking them on a trip to NYC with their friends and family to see their play performed. They walked across the stage before the curtain opened, taking in the sights, sounds, and smells.

After we finished, I divided them into groups and gave each member of the group one minute to describe what they saw. I had a little happy moment when it took one group a little longer to get to their seats...because they were still talking about their play ideas. :) Today everyone in the class finished the written assignment before the bell rang, and everyone did a really great job on establishing the setting for their play.

I even noticed that when some of the students were talking to each other, they were talking about their plays. Beautiful!

Later, in Advanced Theatre, class went a lot better as well. We focused on dramatic metaphors. We started with a roll of tape, passing it around the circle and saying, "This is not a roll of tape, this is..." and then using it as something else, while describing what it is. One awesome one a student shared was, "This is not a roll of tape, this is a broken yo-yo." Would make a great metaphor. From there, we started talking about creating metaphors for each of the characters in the play we read last week. The student wrote one for each character on a separate index card. Throughout the stage, I placed another card with each of the characters' names on them, then they added their metaphors to each character. As one student beautifully put it, we then walked around and paid our respects. From there, we discussed what metaphors were meaningful to us and how they could help us. We finished our work by creating a metaphor for the entire show. The payoff came so many times throughout the lesson. Smiles on their faces. Excitement about their ideas. Moment of laughter. Moments of praising each others' ideas. That moment of understanding how they could use it. And finaly, when our newest student was picking up her stuff to leave, "This class is fun."

When I grow up, I want to be a teacher.

Student Teaching: Firsts

This week I made my first student cry. What horrible act did I commit to cause this you ask?

I caught her cheating.

Mrs. G was giving a quiz to one of her beginning technical theatre classes. While she was writing what the students would be doing next on the board, she asked if I would watch the students. As I glanced across the room, I noticed one girl leaning over and reading her neighbor's quiz. Not one of those brief glances around the room student does when they are trying to think...the sustained stare. Without a word, I stood up, walked over to her desk, picked up her quiz, and sat back down again.

Pause

Cue waterworks

A few minutes later she walked up to Mrs. G's desk and asked if she was going to fail the quiz now. Mrs. G's response was awesome. "What do you think should happen?" I think one of my favorite parts of the whole exchange was when asked why she did it, the student did not even try to say she wasn't cheating. Instead, she retorted, "It's not like I was the only one who was cheating."

Poor kid.

Student Teaching: Hard days, and hard days you are grateful to miss

Week one of student teaching finally came to a close.

I got a phone call Thursday night from Mr. G, one of my cooperating teachers. He had a horrible toothache (late found it was in pretty bad shape) and was calling in a sub for the next day. He took a moment to let me know what the plan was for the next day so I could help support the sub. When I arrived Friday morning, no one else was in the classroom. And no one came. Turned out the school was short 6 subs across campus. Eek. So I had to step in and take over his classes all day. By the second class, I had to send two girls to the office with referrals. Refused to do anything. Disrupted other students. Talking back. I think one girl really thought I was going to cave, back down, and give her what she wanted. If you cave on day one, they'll walk over you all year. I sent the first girl but kept the second for a while so they wouldn't think they were getting rewarded and sit and hang out. The second girl I sent to the back of the room, without her iPod to listen to, until I thought the other girl was in the Assistant Principal's office. When I walked the other girl to the office 15 minutes later, I found the first girl in the hall. She still had not found her way to the office yet. The next class is usually pretty loud, but I was so relieved to see them after that.

In the midst of the fiasco came a very sad moment. Mrs. G got an email from the administration. A boy at a nearby middle school brought a gun to school. Not just any middle school, but the one I am assigned to continue my student teaching at in a month and a half. He intended to kill himself, but a staff member talked him down before anyone was hurt.

Student Teaching: Lesson Plans, Week 1

Below are links to the lessons I taught during the first week. The class was a combined Advanced Theatre class (Theatre II, III, IV). I have 15 students. Some are extremely shy, while others are anxious to do EVERYTHING. It's a great place for a student teacher to learn. The other classes are an entirely different universe. The students are there to get their required fine arts credit, and it's a battle to motivate them. But when they get it, it's all worth it.

The main objective this week was to read through the script that will be used to UIL One Act Play this year, get the students familiar with the show, and generate an interest in auditions. Go team.

Below are the lesson plans I used along with reflections on how the lessons went:

Day One

Day Two

Day Three

Day Four

I'd love to hear anyone's thoughts, suggestions, or experiences!

Student Teaching: Me and my big mouth

Before school started, I wandered onto campus during staff development hoping to find my cooperating teachers. I was introduced to the Dean of Instruction, Mr. B. He was really kind, showed me around, and helped me find Mr. and Mrs. G, my teachers. During my first week I stopped by to say hi. I found out that in his teacher days he taught theatre at a middle school. I let him know I was already taking over one class. He asked what period and said he'd stop by the next day to see how I was doing. Nice one.

Lucky for me we were just finishing reading a script when he stopped by and discussing it afterward, so it wasn't the worst time to have an observer. Phew.

Student Teaching: I really don't care...because I care

I still need to write about the first week of student teaching, but I had to write about a moment that happened today. I used to think I'd struggle with students not liking me. Today I realized I didn't care. I took away a student's cell phone. I moved another from sitting next to a friend. I sat next to a student silently until they got to work on an assignment. In each instance I realized, "You don't like me very much right now," and then realized, "And I don't care." Now don't get me wrong. I care very much about my students. I care about their success. I care that they work hard. I care that they get an education. And because I care, I don't care if they don't like me.

Student Teaching: Finding your way and making a place

What can I do?

It's a great question to ask others. It's an even better question to ask yourself. Yesterday I sat in on a long day of Staff Development meetings with my cooperating teachers. Very enlightening. In less than a day, I was able to get a feel for the administration, the staff, and the teachers at my high school. The teachers were divided into departments for breakout sessions, and the fine arts and electives group are pretty vocal. They really are fighting for their jobs, their disciplines, and most importantly their students.

Today I spent the day talking with my cooperating teachers and helping them get ready for the first day of school on Monday. Requisite tours, making word walls (yes, at a high school...even theatre teachers have to go along with administrators), lesson planning, and plotting for and against the students. :)

First stroke of genius came from a little inspiration from the space itself. I wish I could adequately explain the bizarre setup of the theatre building. On the left and right side of the audience are two "pods" of 100 seats each that can be rotated around and become a classroom on the other side. It's a pretty steep angle for a classroom once turned around. Looking up into one of the rooms, all I could think of was how awesome it would be to use the "audience area" for a puppet show, with puppets popping up in different parts of the room. The tech teacher got a huge smile on her face when I mentioned it...and we are already plotting on doing a unit on puppetry with her tech class for Lily Plants a Garden by José Cruz González. I absolutely love that play, and it would be a great opportunity to work with it. We also found out that there may be a way to get supplies donated from Walmart to help make the puppets. Returned socks, fabric scraps, anything they were just going throw out. Fingers crossed.

The second stroke of genius came from really listening. I can't emphasize enough how important it is to really hear teachers. When you do, you start seeing where you can help. The program is experiencing a lull in dedicated students. They have a few core students holding things together. What they lack are stage managers. Well I have good news for you. That is something I can help with. While I can't be there for them through UIL One Act Play Festival, I can do what teachers do best--Prepare someone who can. I'm going to be there after school for rehearsals anyway. So at the beginning of the semester, I will act as their stage manager, while training two students to do it. Then as we go, they can slowly take over until they can do it themselves. It will allow the director to focus on directing and give me a chance to really mentor a small group of students. How lucky am I?

Curriculum

A sometimes dreaded but potentially exciting word. In many school districts, central administration provides teachers of "core" subjects a curriculum framework.

Welcome to the world of theatre. Where you are given a list of competencies (TEKS in Texas), a smile, and a "good luck." It can be daunting with so much material to cover and so little time. The flip side of so much freedom is learning to decide what is most important, what you can let go of, and what you feel students are missing in their other classes that you can bring them through drama work.

So this is my first attempt at creating a semester long curriculum. It's designed for a Theatre III class, mostly 11th graders. I am a big proponent of teaching across the curriculum. Theatre is a great way to bring to life and provide real application to what students are learning in their other classes. This course bridges the second semester of Modern American Theatre with US History Post World War II.

You can view my curriculum here. It includes six sample lesson plans.

As always, it is subject to review, suggestions, improvements (we hope), and complete

overhauls.

I'd love to hear your thoughts and what has worked for you!

Student Teaching: Unexpected drama and rolling with the punches

A few days ago, I finally found out the remaining details of my student teaching placement. Two months at a high school starting next week, then two months splitting my day between an elementary and middle school.

Then I got a phone call from my cooperating teacher at the high school. He has been horribly ill, had surgery, is recovering, and will not be returning to the classroom until the end of January at the earliest. I'm relieved that he is on the mend...and I love that I have an amazing mentor who is already taking care of the situation.

I also opened my email this morning to find a message from the university. It said I was missing a class in child development and could not begin student teaching (which is supposed to start next week) until I provided a transcript for the course...which I took two years ago. Ugh. Luckily transcripts are easy to get. :)

On the bright side...I totally rocked the TExES Pedagogy and Professional Responsibilities EC-12 exam. :)