I was just looking at my classmate, Alyssa's blog and there's this awesome article on there. She was interviewed for the website, mastersineducationguide.com. Below is a link to the article and a link to her blog, Allissa's NYU Blog, where I responded to the article.
Link to the interview:
http://mastersineducationguide.com/student-interviews/allissa-crea/
Link to her blog and my response:
http://acc429.blogspot.com/2011/12/education-article.html
Go Allissa!
DG
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Wow. Situation=End of my third semester
So the situation is that this is the end of my third semester (out of four). Tuesday night is the deadline for the final of my last class, a certain Technology Resources for Performing Arts Educators course. :-)
As I look back on the semester I have to admit I am astonished at the amount of new information I have learned and the amount of work I have done. Though not quantifiable, the amount of knowledge I gained from student teaching alone blows my mind. I had a seminar class and then three to four days a week I went into a school and soaked up class after class, seventh through twelfth grade, and experienced how much effort goes into being a classroom teacher. I taught a unit for the juniors and seniors and the amount of preparation I did was exhausting. While I enjoy working with their age group sometimes it was frustrating because they are so hard to read. They are 16, 17, 18 and for the most part they are not inclined to share a lot of information about exercises they enjoyed, questions they have, etc. Though to be fair I did not take drama in high school and I never had a student teacher.
This is a photo of me leading a stretch as part of our warm-up:
However, on my second-to-last day the classroom teacher left the room for the last 15 minutes so I could ask the students some questions about their classroom learning experiences. The first question I asked: What is it about your favorite teachers or your best teachers that makes them the best or your favorites? The students knew exactly why and their answers were very interesting to me. Here are a few of their reasons:
1. Preparation: One student said her favorite teacher was always prepared and always had a lesson plan that he followed.
2. Enthusiasm: Several students mentioned that their teachers' pure enthusiasm for the subject made them interested and want to learn, even if the subject wasn't necessarily one that they had previously enjoyed all that much.
3. Understanding of students' different learning styles: One student mentioned that she looked forward to one class because the teacher's teaching style was dynamic. It was history class so though he did lecture quite a bit he also changed up his teaching tactics so the students learned in different ways. She mentioned teacher-prompted debates and group projects using fine arts and performing arts as two examples,
4. Accessibility: The most popular answer or the one that most students were very sure about was accessibility. Their favorite teachers in the school communicated that they were available to the students, for help with work and for conversation. One student said that she asked teachers who were not her classroom teachers to chat and they always said yes.
The discussion was very informative.
I also took Drama with Special Populations where I learned so much about how to modify my lessons for students with special needs and a lot about straight-up good teaching. Though it was a class that took up three week-ends, I was always so happy to be there. I walked away thinking I gained many tools for teaching.
I also took Shakespeare I this semester and faced my fears about acting in a Shakespeare play. I performed scenes from Richard II and it was a real challenge. Though I have been acting for over 15 years, I managed to avoid Shakespeare that whole time. Learning the lines was the hardest part for me but I learned some great exercises to break down the language and eventually was memorized. I also coached students from the Youth Ensemble on Shakespeare monologues and that was very enjoyable.
Technology Resources for Performing Arts Educators is the last class I have yet to finish. There was so much information and I did so many different things in the class. I created a website that has music, an iMovie I made for class and a cool literacy page with resources I have already used. My final group project was a blog for a dance composition class that led up to a performance. I think it's a great model for documenting a theatrical production that I will use once I direct my first theatrical production as an official theater teacher. It is the last class that I still have to finish my final project so I will sign off now.
DG
As I look back on the semester I have to admit I am astonished at the amount of new information I have learned and the amount of work I have done. Though not quantifiable, the amount of knowledge I gained from student teaching alone blows my mind. I had a seminar class and then three to four days a week I went into a school and soaked up class after class, seventh through twelfth grade, and experienced how much effort goes into being a classroom teacher. I taught a unit for the juniors and seniors and the amount of preparation I did was exhausting. While I enjoy working with their age group sometimes it was frustrating because they are so hard to read. They are 16, 17, 18 and for the most part they are not inclined to share a lot of information about exercises they enjoyed, questions they have, etc. Though to be fair I did not take drama in high school and I never had a student teacher.
This is a photo of me leading a stretch as part of our warm-up:
However, on my second-to-last day the classroom teacher left the room for the last 15 minutes so I could ask the students some questions about their classroom learning experiences. The first question I asked: What is it about your favorite teachers or your best teachers that makes them the best or your favorites? The students knew exactly why and their answers were very interesting to me. Here are a few of their reasons:
1. Preparation: One student said her favorite teacher was always prepared and always had a lesson plan that he followed.
2. Enthusiasm: Several students mentioned that their teachers' pure enthusiasm for the subject made them interested and want to learn, even if the subject wasn't necessarily one that they had previously enjoyed all that much.
3. Understanding of students' different learning styles: One student mentioned that she looked forward to one class because the teacher's teaching style was dynamic. It was history class so though he did lecture quite a bit he also changed up his teaching tactics so the students learned in different ways. She mentioned teacher-prompted debates and group projects using fine arts and performing arts as two examples,
4. Accessibility: The most popular answer or the one that most students were very sure about was accessibility. Their favorite teachers in the school communicated that they were available to the students, for help with work and for conversation. One student said that she asked teachers who were not her classroom teachers to chat and they always said yes.
The discussion was very informative.
I also took Drama with Special Populations where I learned so much about how to modify my lessons for students with special needs and a lot about straight-up good teaching. Though it was a class that took up three week-ends, I was always so happy to be there. I walked away thinking I gained many tools for teaching.
I also took Shakespeare I this semester and faced my fears about acting in a Shakespeare play. I performed scenes from Richard II and it was a real challenge. Though I have been acting for over 15 years, I managed to avoid Shakespeare that whole time. Learning the lines was the hardest part for me but I learned some great exercises to break down the language and eventually was memorized. I also coached students from the Youth Ensemble on Shakespeare monologues and that was very enjoyable.
Technology Resources for Performing Arts Educators is the last class I have yet to finish. There was so much information and I did so many different things in the class. I created a website that has music, an iMovie I made for class and a cool literacy page with resources I have already used. My final group project was a blog for a dance composition class that led up to a performance. I think it's a great model for documenting a theatrical production that I will use once I direct my first theatrical production as an official theater teacher. It is the last class that I still have to finish my final project so I will sign off now.
DG
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Two Situations: Blackboard and the flu
Okay, here are the situations:
1. I have an unfortunate case of the flu and missed my Technology for Teachers class, Student teaching in the Secondary classroom class and student teaching yesterday. And my Shakespeare class today. The staged reading for my student teaching class was Monday--it went extremely well and I will post pics later. Now I'm trying to play catch up with my classes.
2. My mission which I've chosen to accept: write about Blackboard.
The "Blackboard Academic Suite" is on every NYU student's Academic page. Students can get assignments and readings from Blackboard, they can submit work and communicate with class members via message boards and email. It's also a tool for teachers who use it for communication and posting assignments, suggested readings, etc. When a student logs into her NYU account and goes to her Academics page, the Blackboard section comes up on the right hand side of the screen. See below:
I personally like the hearts next to the class names--there's something nice about that touch. So you click on a class and you go to that class' Blackboard. There are different sections within a Blackboard--Assignments, External Links, Announcements, etc. This semester I've spent the most time on Blackboard for my class, Technology Resources for Performing Arts Educators. I usually go to the Assignments section. For each class the professor has a folder with the assignments and directions. (Recently they've become quite challenging). This is what the Assignments page looks like:
For this class, there is a lot of crucial information for completing assignments. By creating a folder for each class with the assignments and some directions, Blackboard is being utilized in a way that is simple and efficient. It also makes it easy to go back to earlier assignments, review the directions and clean up your work.
I don't think Blackboard really has a negative--it's all in the way the teacher uses it and expects the students to use it. For one class we had to post a response a video on the message boards. We also had to respond to a classmate's response to the video. In this particular instance the flow of information was a little choppy; you had to tinker a bit to see how the tree of posts was laid out.
Every teacher uses Blackboard differently. Some just post additional readings and the syllabus there and you don't have much reason to go to Blackboard unless you need those things. For other classes you post all of your assignments there. For my Dramatic Activities in the Elementary Classroom our teacher had us post all of our lesson plans and warm-up activities there so the class could share with each other. The professor asked us to choose our favorites and put them in our final portfolios which was a smart idea on his part. I'm grateful to have those lesson plans and warm-ups now.
Overall I think Blackboard is a good tool for teachers and students. Teachers use it to fit their needs and students have no confusion about where to go for things. They can also send class emails out from there with just one click. That recently came in handy for me for my Student Teaching class.
Alright, I'm out for now!
DG
1. I have an unfortunate case of the flu and missed my Technology for Teachers class, Student teaching in the Secondary classroom class and student teaching yesterday. And my Shakespeare class today. The staged reading for my student teaching class was Monday--it went extremely well and I will post pics later. Now I'm trying to play catch up with my classes.
2. My mission which I've chosen to accept: write about Blackboard.
The "Blackboard Academic Suite" is on every NYU student's Academic page. Students can get assignments and readings from Blackboard, they can submit work and communicate with class members via message boards and email. It's also a tool for teachers who use it for communication and posting assignments, suggested readings, etc. When a student logs into her NYU account and goes to her Academics page, the Blackboard section comes up on the right hand side of the screen. See below:
I personally like the hearts next to the class names--there's something nice about that touch. So you click on a class and you go to that class' Blackboard. There are different sections within a Blackboard--Assignments, External Links, Announcements, etc. This semester I've spent the most time on Blackboard for my class, Technology Resources for Performing Arts Educators. I usually go to the Assignments section. For each class the professor has a folder with the assignments and directions. (Recently they've become quite challenging). This is what the Assignments page looks like:
I don't think Blackboard really has a negative--it's all in the way the teacher uses it and expects the students to use it. For one class we had to post a response a video on the message boards. We also had to respond to a classmate's response to the video. In this particular instance the flow of information was a little choppy; you had to tinker a bit to see how the tree of posts was laid out.
Every teacher uses Blackboard differently. Some just post additional readings and the syllabus there and you don't have much reason to go to Blackboard unless you need those things. For other classes you post all of your assignments there. For my Dramatic Activities in the Elementary Classroom our teacher had us post all of our lesson plans and warm-up activities there so the class could share with each other. The professor asked us to choose our favorites and put them in our final portfolios which was a smart idea on his part. I'm grateful to have those lesson plans and warm-ups now.
Overall I think Blackboard is a good tool for teachers and students. Teachers use it to fit their needs and students have no confusion about where to go for things. They can also send class emails out from there with just one click. That recently came in handy for me for my Student Teaching class.
Alright, I'm out for now!
DG
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Student Teaching: Documentary Theater
Here's the situation: I am a student teacher at a middle/high school in Brooklyn. Today I taught my 4th class of a unit on Documentary Theater to a theater class of juniors and seniors. The form of documentary theater that we are doing is sometimes called interview theater or verbatim theater-the dialogue is taken word-for-word from interviews with people somehow connected to an event or subject matter.
"The Laramie Project" is a well-known documentary theater play, centered around the 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard, a young man in Laramie, Wyoming. He was targeted, tortured and killed because he was gay. The members of the Tectonic Theater Project went to Laramie, Wyoming and spent weeks there interviewing people directly and indirectly connected to Matthew Shepard and the tragedy that was the brutal end of his life. When they left they had done over 200 interviews. From those interviews they created the characters and dialogue for the play, one of the most widely performed plays in the country now. I saw the show with the original cast from the Tectonic Theater Project when it was off-Broadway. It was the most moving piece of theater I've ever seen.
Below is a link to the Matthew Shepard Foundation, the organization founded by Matthew's parents. Their vision is to "Replace Hate with Understanding, Compassion and Acceptance” through a variety of educational and outreach programs, and by continuing to tell Matthew’s story.
http://www.matthewshepard.org/our-story
"The Walk" is the working title of the interview theater project I am developing with the students. The piece is centered around the SlutWalk movement. What is a SlutWalk you ask? This past January Michael Sanguinetti, a Toronto policeman, said the following at a college talk on personal safety:
"You know, I think we're beating around the bush here. I've been told I'm not supposed to say this – however, women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimized."
This comment incited an international movement of marches called, "SlutWalks" to protest what many believe to be a society that blames the victim and not the system. The students that I'm working with had a range of reactions to the name, "SlutWalk." I have mixed feelings about it myself.
The students have created characters around short bios that I gave them. The characters are in some way related to the SlutWalk movement, some indirectly, some more directly. They did character work, interviewed each other in character, dictated the interviews and edited them. Today they brought the interviews in and read them in small groups to each other. It's a difficult subject matter and our time is so limited. The curriculum I originally wrote for a documentary theater project, centered around 9/11, is actually two units: creating the piece and then organizing it and putting it up as a production. The students involved in "The Walk" are doing everything in four classes and one rehearsal--then they have a staged reading on Monday, 11/14!
I'll update next week after the staged reading.
This image of the Toronto SlutWalk was taken from:
http://generationvegan.tumblr.com/post/4324013478/slutwalk-toronto-3-soo-amazing
For more information on SlutWalks go to:
http://www.slutwalknyc.com
DG
"The Laramie Project" is a well-known documentary theater play, centered around the 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard, a young man in Laramie, Wyoming. He was targeted, tortured and killed because he was gay. The members of the Tectonic Theater Project went to Laramie, Wyoming and spent weeks there interviewing people directly and indirectly connected to Matthew Shepard and the tragedy that was the brutal end of his life. When they left they had done over 200 interviews. From those interviews they created the characters and dialogue for the play, one of the most widely performed plays in the country now. I saw the show with the original cast from the Tectonic Theater Project when it was off-Broadway. It was the most moving piece of theater I've ever seen.
Below is a link to the Matthew Shepard Foundation, the organization founded by Matthew's parents. Their vision is to "Replace Hate with Understanding, Compassion and Acceptance” through a variety of educational and outreach programs, and by continuing to tell Matthew’s story.
http://www.matthewshepard.org/our-story
"The Walk" is the working title of the interview theater project I am developing with the students. The piece is centered around the SlutWalk movement. What is a SlutWalk you ask? This past January Michael Sanguinetti, a Toronto policeman, said the following at a college talk on personal safety:
"You know, I think we're beating around the bush here. I've been told I'm not supposed to say this – however, women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimized."
This comment incited an international movement of marches called, "SlutWalks" to protest what many believe to be a society that blames the victim and not the system. The students that I'm working with had a range of reactions to the name, "SlutWalk." I have mixed feelings about it myself.
The students have created characters around short bios that I gave them. The characters are in some way related to the SlutWalk movement, some indirectly, some more directly. They did character work, interviewed each other in character, dictated the interviews and edited them. Today they brought the interviews in and read them in small groups to each other. It's a difficult subject matter and our time is so limited. The curriculum I originally wrote for a documentary theater project, centered around 9/11, is actually two units: creating the piece and then organizing it and putting it up as a production. The students involved in "The Walk" are doing everything in four classes and one rehearsal--then they have a staged reading on Monday, 11/14!
I'll update next week after the staged reading.
This image of the Toronto SlutWalk was taken from:
http://generationvegan.tumblr.com/post/4324013478/slutwalk-toronto-3-soo-amazing
For more information on SlutWalks go to:
http://www.slutwalknyc.com
DG
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