STUDENT TEACHING: What YOU can take away from MY experience! Jennifer DeRosa

STUDENT TEACHING: What YOU can take away from MY experience!

MOMENT BEFORE:

Ever since I was 15 and decided I wanted to be a teacher, I’ve been telling myself one thing:  “I can’t student teach because being observed is freaky! I’ll find the loophole.”  I’m here to tell you that there is no loophole.  I looked for it.  But I’m also here to say that I’m glad I never found it.  My time in these classrooms was absolutely invaluable.  Not only did this experience confirm that I do want to be a classroom teacher but it also changed my perspective on the kind of teacher I’d like to become! Here’s what I mean:

GIVEN CIRCUMSTANCES:

I have always wanted to teach Theatre in a high school because I loved my own high school Theatre teacher so much that I basically wanted to be her. I also thought I would not be able to handle a classroom of little kids. I wanted to work with older kids who had to take Theatre just to fulfill some kind of elective credit so that I could convert them and turn them into Von Trapps.   I would change the world and make class-cutting Theatre-haters into pre-professional Theatre-lovers.

ACT ONE:  ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

My first placement was at P.S. 2 with Karen Sklaire, a graduate of our program!

I started student teaching on September 10^th and the first class I ever observed was the CTT class.  It was their first day at Drama and I was seeing their reactions to all of the stimuli in the room-- there were stars hanging from the ceiling that they wanted to grab, costumes they wanted to wear, puppets they wanted to touch, etc.  Karen’s room is like the dream Theatre classroom, but the kids were so excited that it made me question my classroom management skills big time.  Could I handle this?  Somehow Karen was able to rein them in (including the second grader who patted me on the butt, winked at me and told me I was “so cute”…hilarious…), but I knew it would take a lot of practice before I would be able to control this class like she had been able to that day.  Her transitions in her lessons were seamless, her voice was loud and the kids listened to her.  She really was able to take a chaotic situation and turn it around.

Then, throughout the rest of the day, the majority of the kids didn’t speak English! P.S. 2 is located in Chinatown and many of the kids were brand new to the school and just starting to learn or returning and were out of practice since they were coming back from summer vacation.  Because the majority of the kids on Karen’s roster were either dealing with cognitive/behavioral or linguistic obstacles, the most important thing I learned at this placement was how valuable a sense of routine can be to your students.  Karen used the same warm-ups and the same songs every day for every class and eventually the kids could lead them themselves (in English!).   The kids looked forward to these exercises because they were familiar, and they felt like they were becoming experts at predicting what came next so it made them feel good to be consistently successful!

For my first observation, I used Karen’s City Mouse & Country Mouse unit as a jumping board into a lesson on Sound-Scaping and Setting.   For my second observation, I got to do a full musical of the Ugly Duckling (lines, songs and choreography) with the Kindergarteners.  It was one of the best times I’ve ever had as a teacher.  We ran the whole thing while I accompanied them on the piano, and they were super excited about showing the finished product to their general classroom teacher who coincidentally knew the songs and sang along with them! 

The last day at the school was the Christmas party and Karen had the kids make a huge card for me with all of their signatures and little messages. It’s made out to “Mr. Rosa” because every morning this would happen:

Karen: “Good morning, class! Say hello to Miss DeRosa!”
Kids: “Mister Rosa? That is boy!”

I have the card framed in my apartment.  I really do miss the kids.

ACT TWO:

My second placement is LaGuardia High School where I’ll be finishing my student teaching in a few weeks!  I was more than excited to have this special opportunity.  Obviously, this high school Theatre culture is very different from what you’d find at most other high schools.  Every single one of these kids is interested in pursuing Theatre as a career. There is no one to convert!  This is a fast paced school with a lot going on.  I often sit in awe of my CT wondering how she can keep all the balls in the air because she sure as hell is juggling a ton of them. She is constantly thinking about performances, monologues and scenes that are right for every single kid, submitting kids for professional projects, making limited space work for every group that needs a room to work in, visits from Al Roker, Michael J. Fox, 30 girls from an Australian Christian girls school, and a partridge in a pear tree.  Her office is like a zoo but it is so admirable that she can keep up with every single item on her mental to-do list and make everything happen. 

Now, on the flipside, something funny and unexpected that I’ve learned very quickly at this school is that these kids are actually appalled and offended if I bring in a game that they already know from another class or student teacher. Routine is not an option here at all.   If they know it, they’re not doing it again!  Needless to say, I am now a game encyclopedia when I had not been one before because I have to come up with something new for them every day.  It’s a fun challenge but I have to admit I get nervous to announce what the game plan is for the day because I never know what I’ll get: 32 kids screaming “Nooooo! We did that one last October!!!!” or 32 kids who are totally on board.   I take it as a huge compliment when they ask to repeat one of my lessons, though, because that means they really enjoyed it the first time.  They’re a tough crowd!

REHEARSAL NOTES: 

·        If your lesson is solid, you will forget about the person observing you.  I spent a decade in fear and then when the day finally came I forgot it was even happening.  Now I have my final observation this week at the high school and I’m actually looking forward to it.  Go figure.

·        If the teachers at the school are called “Ms.” or “Mr.” I highly, highly recommend asking if you can be called “Ms.” or “Mr.” as well. Elementary kids tend to think of you as the fun babysitter if they can call you by your first name and high schoolers think of you as their friend and start to offer you fist bumps. 

·        Don’t fist bump.  Ever.

·        Even if the dress code allows sweat pants because it’s Theatre, still dress nicely.  I sometimes felt a little overdressed but it separated me from the kids.  (Even still, one kid asked me what grade I was in and a boy accidentally asked me to the prom….)

·        If things start getting a little out of control with classroom management, it does not mean you should consider a career change. Your cooperating teacher might have to fly in and save you a couple of times.  It’s normal.

·        Don’t be afraid of going into a high school if you normally work with little kids and vice versa. The knowledge you have of working with the one age group will cross over with some modifications.  (The high schoolers don’t know it but their favorite game is one that the 5th graders loved, too! Shh!)

·        Don’t take it personally if your cooperating teacher doesn’t use all of your ideas.  You don’t stink at writing lessons; your CT might just want to stick to her own curriculum. And if that happens very, very frequently:

·        Sometimes you might have to advocate for yourself a little bit when it comes to getting some more time in front of the class and/or writing what feels comfortable for you in your lesson plans for when you’re being observed.  It is, after all, your learning time, too.   Again, that seems to be normal.

·        When you are in a position to go around and ask if the kids need help with whatever they’re working on, it can be awkward for them to say yes for whatever reason.  They may just not feel like they know you enough yet. So they will say, “I’m good,” and then you walk away and feel useless.  But chances are if you ask to see what they’ve got so far, it’ll give you an opportunity to make some suggestions.  Then they’ll trust you and they’ll come to you on their own next time they need help.

·        Push your hidden skills so that your cooperating teacher sees how valuable you can be to her classroom while you’re visiting.  Taking it upon myself to play the piano for Karen’s warm-up song one day got her excited to do a Musical …and then The Ugly Duckling became my project! One day at LaGuardia, the accompanist just didn’t show up to class.  I stepped in and played for the class, and from there I was asked to do side coaching every day for the Spring Sing!  What’s your unusual skill that you can bring to the table?  Puppetry?  Stage Makeup? Bring it in and SHOW your CT.  Somehow I found that showing rather than telling elicited more of a response, and therefore more opportunities to work with the classes.  

·        You ARE competent enough to student teach.  You might be having panic attacks like I was about not being ready, but this program has prepared you.

FINAL BOWS:

I discovered I like working with all age groups but especially the little ones!  I’ve found that I really love working with the kids who want to be there.  I don’t need to get all Sister Sarah Brown on the kids who think Theatre is lame.  And on top of all that, the CTT class that seemed totally unmanageable for me on my first day ended up being my favorite class of the year! So yes, I’m glad there was no loophole because I would not have met the 120 kids I met at LaGuardia and the 200 kids at P.S. 2, or the two cooperating teachers who taught me all of their tricks and supported me through this learning experience.  After this year I feel ready and eager to have a classroom of my own… and maybe someday I’ll even have a student teacher! The tables will turn! Fwa ha ha!!

Presenting at F2F 2013 Sarah Abrams

Presenting at F2F 2013

Sarah Abrams

When I was approached by Professor Kavanakudiyil to collaborate with her and fellow graduate student Jono Waldman on a session proposal for the 2013 Face to Face conference, I experienced a mix of emotions.  The first emotion was pure joy; I was thrilled of course!  However, part of the excitement I felt soon became intensified by my nervousness to take on such a big role.  I had never led a session before and co-presenting at a conference filled with some of the most prolific and experienced professionals in arts education would be both an honor and a new challenge.  I wasn’t sure if I felt established enough in my own practice to stand tall in front of so many others who had earned their stars and stripes over the years.  Thankfully, Sobha reminded us that bringing in fresh perspectives and coming from a place of sharing (and not proselytizing) is what F2F is all about: a meeting of the minds and a refresher/rejuvenator to practitioners new and vetted.

After some initial meetings to complete the session proposal concepts and language, Sobha submitted our forms and so began the waiting period to hear whether or not we would be continuing our journey.  A little over a month later, we learned the great news that our session proposal, “Civic Engagement and the Arts,” was accepted for Face to Face!  Within a few weeks after that, we learned that our submission to the national AATE conference had also been accepted.  Something that began as just a seed of an idea was now given the green light for full production!

From the get go, our roles were made very clear and Sobha provided substantial support and guidance throughout the planning process; knowing our individual and collective responsibilities was key to our success.   Sobha reminded us that we were there to support the work, provide testament of our experiences and to brainstorm the most effective ways to present and share the information.  This session was Sobha’s brainchild, but she modeled the concepts of Service Learning so elegantly, that we became empowered and connected through co-presenting her connections and findings.  Our brainstorming sessions were energizing and playful, acutely demonstrating how collaboration really does strengthen and deepen the work that we do as theatre professionals. 

There was a drive in the week before the conference to clarify and fine tune any and all aspects that might trip us up during the session, but just as all best laid plans go, there were some things that couldn’t be anticipated:  such as having over 100 people preregister for our session!  We learned two days before the conference of the wonderful support, but suddenly, this intimate sharing that we had envisioned had grown into a massive event.  We zipped around trying to make extra hand-out materials, getting the right doo-dads to connect the media and as we were moved from a classroom to the Great Hall (a cacophonous space filled with grandeur), we knew that the technology we were using had to work in a different setting than we had anticipated.  Not to mention the fact that we were possibly presenting in front of over 100 people!  We actually dissuaded other CCNY grad students from attending so we could cap our numbers; thankfully it worked, and we had closer to 60 or so participants at the event. 

The session itself was a joy to workshop!  The participants were generous and engaged, which allowed us to try some ideas that we had never had the opportunity to see in action.  As a co-presenter, it was a balancing act of being personable and professional; flexible, but on task.  However, there was also the fun fluidity of switching between the three of us and resting on the knowledge that Sobha would be our safety net if need be.  This was vital as the last question during our reflection was a curve ball that I couldn’t have anticipated.  Watching Sobha direct the conversation from a possibly awkward ending into an honest and direct finale was a great learning moment.  Also, reflecting on the session afterwards allowed us to clarify the concepts, further demonstrating how this kind of sharing enriches all constituents involved!

My take-aways from this experience are several:

1) If you have an idea - submit!  You can always work out the details later.

2) If you are nervous about presenting - submit!  You have the supportive community of CCNY to will help you along the way.  Presenting is a different skill and you will only get better with practice.

3) If you are nervous about presenting alone – submit!  You can always find fellow grad students who can support and strengthen your session.  In fact, you should make it a point to present with two or more as it will lighten the load and elevate the work.

Right now I am just feeling so grateful for this experience, looking forward to D.C. and hoping to support many more CCNY grad students presenting their sessions in the future! 

See you at next years Face to Face!

Border Crossers Workshop: Why Race Should Matter to Educators Wendy Rojas and Victoria A. Wilson

Border Crossers Workshop:  Why Race Should Matter to Educators

Wendy Rojas and Victoria A. Wilson

This past March, the Educational Theatre program along with the Bilingual Education program had the privilege of participating in a workshop on race and the classroom by Border Crossers, an organization that “utilizes creative tools to encourage educators in explorations of race and racism with young students.”  Facilitator J'nelle Chelune guided us through a series of activities, lecture and discussion on the definitions associated with race, political agendas and to help us discover where our own conceptions lie.  She used this to show how to teach race, empathy and build a safe environment in our classrooms. In just one hour and a half, we not only gained mind blowing statistical data but valuable activities and strategies to apply to our own pedagogy.  

J'nelle encouraged us to open our minds from the moment the workshop started.  In the first half we "mingled" and told each other our own stories about who we are and then explored the group understandings and misconceptions of race and racism.  We looked at the three types of racism (individual, cultural and institutional) in relation to what children see and experience.  What surprised Tori the most was the idea of intention vs. impact: The government is pushing diary in its new nutrition campaigns and free and reduced school lunches only come with milk.  The majority of students receiving free school meals are Black.  Yet, about 80% of Black American children are lactose intolerant (not to mention an astonishing amount of Asian-American children as well) .  Additionally, many of those children come from religious or culturally backgrounds that don’t allow them to drink milk (doesn’t everyone have soy or almond milk in their refrigerators nowadays anyway?).  We came to the conclusion that although the government is probably not trying to poison Black or Asian children, as educators it is our responsibility to consider the impact of our intentions on every single student.

The second part of the workshop put us in different groups, analyzing and writing about our reactions to several plausible scenarios involving racial situations in school.  We all chose to focus on the scenario of a young Black American girl in an all White class that started to complain and cry when her teacher pulled out a story on Dr. King Jr. – the same story that was read in her class the year before and the year before that.  We were reminded of the importance of creating a culturally relevant classroom and the dangers of only using one face to represent an entire race. We realized that it is not the norm for everyone to be sensitive to students’ emotions or misunderstandings about themselves and race.  These situations are often ignored due to the lack of comfort of both the teacher and students.  It was helpful to discuss and role play as the teacher and students in order to explore appropriate ways to use this scenario to address race in the classroom.  After trying a few different approaches, we recognized that we really are fully equipped to resolve a situation about race.

As people of color we (Wendy and Tori) both had similar strong reactions to the workshop.  Wendy's reaction was blatant anger.  It is hard to swallow the idea that although the NYPD has clear data on their website, showing the miscorrelation between the population majority in NYC and the majority of people being stopped and frisked.  If the city knows and even openly admits that it is stopping and searching Blacks, who represent less than half of the city's population, and Latinos a great deal more than Whites (who represent the city’s majority) then what more can be done to stop it?  It was also frustrating for both of us to hear some of the responses of people who seemed to never have experienced racism in their own personal lives and therefore could not comprehend the gravity of its effect on youth.  Discrimination happens often and not everyone is fully educated or aware of these ongoing confrontations.  For Tori, there was a mixture of responses. The sense of urgency and hopelessness was definitely present, but it was refreshing to see a group of racially diverse adults come together and successfully talk about race – even if we did not agree with everything that was said.  Expressing ideas and assumptions on race is always the first step to combating racism.

So what were the both of us able to draw from this workshop?  For one thing, every educator needs to take workshops like this!  Although race might be more of a social construct then something that actually exists, it is so embedded in our society that it can’t help but effect schools.    Therefore, it is important to educate ourselves about diversity and then acknowledge the fact that these confrontations can, have and will happen in our classrooms.  It can happen in the most subtle of ways so we must be observant and aware because the way we handle it will impact our students’ willingness to take risks as well as their ideas of themselves and each other.  And talking about race can be fun!  Our job is to enrich our students with the knowledge of culture and help them to respect and celebrate the benefits and beauty of every race and every culture.

                  *If you missed the workshop, we encourage you to take advantage of the resources available in helping parents and teachers talk to children about race: http://www.bordercrossers.org/resources/

Performer Turned Aspiring Theatre Educator by Lindsie Detota

Performer turned aspiring Theatre Educator

Lindsie Detota

This past year can best be described as a whirlwind. It went from extreme self-doubt to the utmost pride of being an artist and, most importantly, an educator. Naturally anyone who has their Bachelors of Fine Arts in Theatre studies plans on putting their degree to good use. However after 6 years in NYC, thousands of dollars later, and pounding the pavement as an actor….I was yearning for a change. I love performing and everything that the art has to offer, but I knew I needed to find something within the arts to feed my soul. After a lot of reflection, I fell upon the CCNY website. Educational Theatre program popped up in my google results. I knew I wanted to truly be a part of this program I learned that how important it is to not only be a successful teacher, but to find your artistry within this field and to keep practicing it. I love learning about being a Theatre teacher, but I also love that I can still work on being a performer as well. The Educational Theatre program has been an absolute gem. Professor Jennifer Katona and Professor Sobha Kavanakudiyil bend over backwards to insure that their students have the best learning experience possible. My eyes have been opened to how amazingly effect the arts are in any classroom. I feel so blessed and grateful to be a part of it.