Why the Suspicious Looking Cafeteria Pizza is Worth It - Lisa Mitchell

Why the Suspicious Looking Cafeteria Pizza is Worth It

Lisa Mitchell

Being a full time grad student and working well over 40 hours a week was one of the most difficult things I’ve ever done. Coupled with a commute on Metro North each day, it made for some very late nights and very unhealthy eating habits (it is time to reevaluate your life when you consider the NAC cafeteria “gourmet”).

It was also one of the best things I’ve done for my own growth and my career, and I am incredibly grateful that the CCNY Ed Theatre program supports—nay, encourages—demanding schedules outside of academia.

It is no big news that the still recovering economy led to a more challenging job market than ever. Many out of work professionals seized the opportunity to go back to school and earn advanced degrees; young people graduating with bachelor degrees had so few opportunities for employment that many decided to continue their educations in hopes that things would improve by the time they’d eared that Master’s degree.  These trends have led to many job seekers with high educational qualifications, but little practical experience. Conversely, those lucky enough to keep or find employment during the recession had the benefit of experience on their resumes, but lacked the academic accreditation their out-of-work peers had now established as the norm.

CCNY’s Ed Theatre program bucked this trend and has an incredibly high rate of graduates walking into their “dream jobs”. It’s curious, but not coincidence.

Throughout my two years at CCNY, the savvy leaders of the program encouraged real-world application of the theories and techniques learned in class. The program attracts and supports working professionals by allowing room for customization. For work, I led the education & outreach efforts for Disney Theatrical Group. For school, I researched the ways students responded to my programs. For work, I wrote curricula for Broadway shows. For school, I explored new approaches for arts-integration, which I applied in Broadway workshops and beyond. Everything I did had two benefits; my education informed my work, and my work propelled my education.

It has been almost two years since I graduated with an MS Education, Educational Theatre from CCNY and I still see the benefits of working and studying full time. I am thankful that the program didn’t require me to give up my job in order to focus on my studies; rather it realized my job would become my dream job if I could learn and apply concurrently.

Experiences of a Fulbright Scholar

Experiences of a Fulbright Scholar

Karel Zdarek

My experience at CCNY

When I agreed to share my experience on this blog I had no idea that it would be difficult to start. The observation Despite the fact I have been to the US and NYC numerous times and even lived in the US (rural area of PA) for a year, I wouldn’t have imagined I would experience a cultural shock. I do not know whether to ascribe it to actually living in New York, or living specifically here in Harlem, being exposed to a completely new educational environment. Probably, all that and also having plenty of time to observe and think about it.

Grateful

I see many opportunities here – for myself personally and for anyone who sets his mind to achieve anything conceivable. I’ve had a great opportunity to participate in some of the classes in the Educational Theatre department; through the CCNY professors I was able to meet other people from my field of study (Drama in education, ESL/EFL). I’ve had a wonderful experience being involved in the process of working with middle school kids putting up the Jungle Book show. I’ve made a few friends and even had an opportunity to experience a Thanksgiving dinner with American family (thanks Lauren!). I had all the time and resources to work on my papers and thesis. My experience as a student has been and continues to be enriching and fulfilling and I’m grateful for that.

I like, I’ve noticed, I wonder (mostly observations from CCNY)

I like, how teachers and students seem to have closer, tighter and more open relationship.

I like how much more open the students are in sharing their opinions, feelings, concerns and ideas.

I like how confident the students are in expressing their opinions, ideas, concerns and questions.

I like how tolerant and patient the students are with those who are sharing at the moment.

I like the scaffolding the professors provide by means of detailed syllabus, detailed task description, by providing examples or patterns to follow and by offering helping hand if needed (even over the phone).

I’ve noticed (besides the above observations) the conversational turn taking occurs at much faster rate compared to what I’m used to or I have experienced elsewhere in the USA. I wonder why? Is it the faster pace of everything? Is it the comfort limits in the presence of silence in conversations? Is it the joy that derives of rapid conversation?

I like how the discourse turn taking seems to be flowing on the positive waves of acknowledgement “yes, and.” (As opposed to Czech “well, but…no”).

I’ve noticed children and students are praised a lot and often. (As most Czechs, I have experience with the opposite extreme – being praised for outstanding achievement and significant progress) I wonder if excessive praise doesn’t gradually decrease its effect and eventually lose its motivating power. I wonder to what extent lack of praise results in diminished self-confidence.

I have noticed the students here and back home have the similar concerns about their future jobs as teachers: finding a job, being equipped with enough teaching techniques, lesson planning and how time consuming it will be, managing a class and handling difficult kids.

I have noticed there is one magic powerful word that is used often – ownership. I understand it as the fact that we (as teachers) present something to the children, let them add their bit to it and let them believe it’s theirs. As a result the students will feel greater responsibility for the process, be more motivated and engaged. I’m stealing this!

I’ve noticed the prescribed structure for reflection and feedback works well. I like it and I wonder if I can steal that too.

Answer

I also have to admit I have concerns about the life outside the campus. I’m saddened by obvious social inequity and other issues (all systemic - health care, education, etc.) to which I don’t see an answer. However, I do see an answer for myself as an individual. As a teacher I can make a difference in my immediate environment. I can spark up interest, open eyes and help realize my students’ potential. I have the privilege to educate – educate in the original sense of the word ex ducere.

Reflection on Jonothan Neelands Workshop

Reflection on Jonothan Neelands Workshop

Kailie Larkin

“Here is your text.  Make it as scary as you can.  You can do anything you want.  Go.”  I have taught Shakespeare for many years but never has it occurred to me to deliver such liberating and succinct instructions to students as Jonothan Neelands did at the Ed Theatre Mini-Conference.  Gleefully we plotted in our groups, auditioning varying unsettling ingredients.  Was a sudden breath in one’s ear more fear-inducing than the scraping sound of a pen along the wall?  Should we keen wildly or sing-song children’s lullabies creepily?  How can we make a body feel most vulnerable?  In just a few minutes each group had concocted their version of SCARY and inflicted it upon their willing subjects with the pleasure only theatre teachers can manifest.  I think that in all of my future experiences with Hamlet, I will never encounter the Ghost’s monologue more deliciously terrifying than when I was led, eyes closed, with my hands on another’s shoulders, into a dark and cold hallway where echoing figures keened the lines and a sudden shrieking and crashing open of doors blinded us with light.  Oh!  It was that good.  Theatre created in 10 minutes through the generous instructions of a really good teacher.

            What Neelands offered to us was an opportunity to be students in a brilliant theatre class.  His energy was infectious--what a wily sprite with a gleam in his eye!  He gave minimal directions for excellent ideas.  As one point he shared with us that for Shakespeare “words are actions, words are pictures!”  This can aptly be used to describe Neelands’ teaching style as well in that no words were wasted, and everything he said served to inspire, shed clarity, or engage us further.  As I begin to teach in more classrooms I have learned that the window of focused attention is narrowing with our texting-profile-updating-mile-a-minute student populations.  If I start to go past 2 minutes or so of speaking I see their eyes begin to glaze over and I feel a slight panic begin to rise within me to get their attention back.  Neelands’ work offers a cure for this glazing in that we were constantly moving and contributing.  Whether we were turning into a statue of a young prince, quickly hugging a group of 5, being terrified soldiers, or a ghostly  “whispering wall,” we were kept on our toes with the variety of surprising scenarios.  As a result we were fully engaged and eager to try out whatever was next.  More! More!

            As teachers and grad students in this program, we are constant jugglers.  We are learning and developing new approaches constantly and trying to keep student interest, standards, efficiency, clarity, all in the mix of creating and executing a good lesson.  Neelands reminded me that in the juggling I need to be able to take a step back.  I need to look at my endeavor and make sure its aim is incredible, enjoyable theatrical fun.  And if it isn’t I need to think of how it could be.  The hours with Neeland were the most fun I have ever had with Hamlet, hell it made me want to dive back into a play I had sworn off after one too many endless productions.  Hamlet whiny?  Why no in fact, it is heartbreak--the sorest, noblest kind--and because of Neelands I want to get back inside his head, and bring a room full of teenagers with me.  I want to see what they find, what newness they bring to this old story.

Neelands showed us through example that the work of a teacher is to create the landscape of the play and to bring all aspects of it alive.  We dove into characters and locations with a ferocity of placing ourselves in a 500 year old text and making it ours.  Suddenly Hamlet had a favorite secret spot in the orchard, the ramparts were coated with oil from past battles, the rose garden was dying from neglect.  These details were ours and made us more intimate with the play, it became ours as well.  What could be a better goal for our work than creating an opportunity for this claim of intimacy with a character, with a text?  This is how we can make theatre into a space that students will continue to seek out through their lives.

We have all made that choice in joining this program.  Ed Theatre is such a wonderful program that allows us constantly to learn and to teach, to receive and to give, to fail and to try again.  To stand in lots of circles!  But that becomes the whole point, that we come together and engage.  In the few hours our group worked together we did transform into the ensemble we are always attempting to teach. We took risks, made choices, and offered ideas. In his final reflection on the day Neelands remarked on how creating an ensemble “offers us a model of how we might live in the world.”  All of us put our pencil to the page to capture this sentence, this affirmation of the work we are striving to do that.  I will remember his words when I am struggling to get my students to stand in a circle and listen to each other, I will also remember to re-evaluate my approach in the simple terms of “is it fun?” I am grateful to Jonothan Neelands for enriching the field in which we work, and reminding us that it is truly play, the sorest, noblest, scariest, most necessary kind.