Do you think I can make it?

It's been a long time, but I felt inspired to come back thanks to someone I know.  They always read these and don't realize how much their encouragement means to me.  So that brings me to the point of this post.

Having someone believe in you is sometimes all it takes.

I had a conversation with a student the other day.  He was here my first year, had really cleaned up his life, went back to the high school, but found his way back here again.  He got in trouble not too long ago after he made a bad choice to try to fix a bad choice.  Now he's back and really struggling.  The other teachers were talking about him at lunch, really concerned about the direction he was going.  He missed an entire week of testing last week which will delay graduation.  So I sat down next to him in the cafeteria yesterday morning and called him out.  "Do you really think I can make it?"  I asked him what he thought I would do if I didn't think he could make it.  "You'd leave me alone."  Exactly.  And for a moment he knew I believed in him.  I don't know what direction his life will go, but if I can believe in him, maybe he can too.

This post is dedicated to my biggest fan.  Thank you for believing in me.

Good things coming

Happy day!  This arrived today:

Thanks to some very generous and amazing people, and Donorschoose.org, the first of several boxes of MUCH needed supplies arrived today.  I have erasers!  It's the little things.  New scissors are backordered, but I'll have them in the next two weeks I think.  SO excited for those.

I'm super excited about how the project in my art class is going.  Inspired by pop art.  Focusing on positive/negative space.  The are making "self portraits."  First I gave them a box of junk mail and ads to go through.  I asked them to cut out words they felt described themselves, phrases that stood out, logos and labels of products they liked, etc.  They then covered a piece of paper with them.  After that they have the choice of using their silhouette or the shape of something important to them to cut out part of it and have a positive and negative version of it.  One would have words on the silhouette with a white background.  The other the words were around a white silhouette.  They've really been having fun with this, and showing off some of what they are able to find.  Then last night an idea popped into my head.  Tomorrow I'm going to try it out so I'll let you know how it goes.  Basically we're going to turn this project into a performance art piece.  Get excited.

My last theatre class of the day has been an interesting journey.  I had a little bit of a power struggle with a student today.  I ended up doing Columbian Hypnosis.  After I asked them how they felt being the leader as well as the follower.  It was very telling when a student said, "I didn't want to do it, but I felt like I had to."  We had a great discussion about where this activity came from and then we played The Great Game of Power.  I just used four chairs.  I asked them to arrange them so one chair had power over the other three.  They took turns, then I pushed them to come up with even more ways.  Then one of the students started analyzing what the chairs represented without me even bringing it up.  It was amazing.  This guy is a genius and has never even taken theatre before.  He just makes those connections on his own.  Then something really fascinating happened.  One of the students put all the chairs on their side, and said, "There, now no one has any power."  He wasn't being defiant.  He was just being matter of fact.  It was such a clear insight into how this kid is feeling about life.  He feels completely powerless, but he doesn't show it because of the world he has to survive in.  So even though we were having fun with improv this week I think I'm going to stay with this a little longer and do some image work to show them ways to express ideas physically and then how to use those images to come up with solutions.

 

Give it a chance

I am so incredibly grateful today for how things are going this year.  I went into the office to thank the principal and counselor for giving me separate classes this year.  It's been amazing.  I have a few students that have ended up in Theatre only because that was the class period they had open and they needed a fine arts class.  Thank goodness!  I really owe my supervisor for going to bat for me to help make it happen.

In my 6th period, I have a few students that came to improv last year and then I have a new student that had no idea what theatre was.  Today we did a warm up, then I showed them some Whose Line is it Anyways? and let them decide which improv game they wanted to try.  Next thing I knew, he was totally into it, helping create a scene and going all out.  It was so much fun and so amazing.  By the end of class we had a long list of ideas for projects they want to do.  I was so proud of them.  It's one of the best moments of teaching--watching students step up and get excited about what they are going to do next.

Starting Over

I have been gone for way too long.

Today was the beginning of year three.  It was the best first day of school I've ever had.  A little boring for the kids I'd have to say since I had to go over expectations, the syllabus, and all the fun stuff about how things work.  But they seemed open and willing.  It was so wonderful to see so many of my students again.  I missed them so much!

The biggest change about this year is that (so far, fingers crossed) I have separate classes for Art and Theatre.  Separate classes!!  This is huge.  As a result, I can focus on each so much better, while still drawing inspiration from one to inform the other.

I sometimes think I have the best job in the world.  (Other times I think I must be crazy to be doing this.  Yes, definitely a little crazy.)  Being able to say to them, "Hey, what do you want to do?  Tell me what you want to learn about?" is a great and liberating thing.    I have tons of ideas for the year from research I've been doing over the summer, but I'm not so set on it that I can't be flexible.  Heck if a student actually WANTS to learn about something I'll throw it all out and go with it.  Example:  Today I found out one of my students wants to become a better singer.  I had him last year, and he had his good days but definitely days he struggled with wanting to progress towards graduation.  As I talked to him about it a little, he let me hear him sing Hero by Mariah Carey.  His voice was beautiful!  I was floored.  So we talked and I'm going to gear work in that class around helping him make his performance as good as his voice.  And he was excited! 

The other thing I am really excited about this year is how I am handling the districts expectation that we incorporate more writing in a way that will allow me to track student progress and actually have some data to back everything up.  How can that be done in art and theatre you ask?  Thank you technology.  And google.  First, I will be taking pictures of all my students work and uploading it into a file that they can access.  Before they finish the class, they will present their 10 favorite pieces to the class and talk about them.  This was inspired by the new TEKS approved this year for all the fine arts courses in Texas.  Check them out.  They are awesome.  You can check them out here.  Then comes the clincher.  The part that the new TEKS that totally inspired.  I've shared it with teachers in other disciplines and they want to implement it as well.

I shouldn't say this...but all hail Google.

Google Drive has come a long way since it was just Google Docs.  You can do spreadsheets, presentations, and now drawings and forms.  Forms is the one I want to talk about.  I went in and created a form, which basically allows me to create a questionnaire with multiple choice, true/false, short answer, essays, etc for students to respond to.  When they submit, ALL THE INFORMATION IS PUT INTO A SPREADSHEET FOR ME.  I can filter it and just see everything a particular student has said while they were in the class.  I have information for administrators or parents who want to know "What is this student even doing in there?"  I will have their own words to show them.

This is what mine looks like.

It's so cool!  Make your own, try it out.