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?
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