Wednesday this week started off on an interesting note. We didn’t have any seventh graders this morning because the seventh graders are practicing their testing. My teacher informed me that tomorrow I would be teaching the seventh grade classes, and my heart stopped. I really don’t have time to plan something for this week, but we’ll have to see how much I can cram into one night while trying to do regular homework and study for my PRAXIS on Saturday. Plus, I have a six-hour waitressing shift tonight, probably. Sigh. Now I only have six more days at CMS after this week, and next week I’ll teach the sixth graders and then, as my teacher says, she’ll “throw me to the wolves” and try to reach the eighth graders. I better have something excellent planned for next Thursday, and I’m glad I’ll have the two periods after to reflect. I think I’m going to have the kids do bag scenes. For those of you who don’t know what that is, it is when the students choose an unidentified bag with props in it. They then have some time to create a scene using all of those props. The seventh grade classes are kind of small, and it shouldn’t be too much. I can put the bags together tonight. After work. In lieu of Sleep. Sigh. I can’t wait to be a real grown-up with a real job during the day and rehearsals with my students at night. That’s what I am praying for every day.

I got the beginning of the morning to plan for my lesson tomorrow. I am nervous/excited. The idea came to me because the students do a lot of improv/pantomime, but they never get a chance to have tactile experiences with props or costume pieces. I am excited to see what this group can come up with. They can be really creative when they get going. I’ll just have to get them going, I guess. EEeeekkk!

Well, the school is in full-blown crisis mode. Each Tuesday is now being devoted to two-hour blocks, and students will attend sessions all day for either reading/writing or math in all of their classes. Hopefully some of the teachers will try and have authentic experiences. I wish I had some time to sit down and think it over, maybe talk to some of the teachers about their ideas. I personally know that the problems the students in our classes have the most are with complete sentences, capitalization, and punctuation. How can you create meaningful ways to reinforce those ideas? Worksheets seem like the best way to go, but I really hate worksheets with a burning passion. Maybe sometimes they’re not all that evil. I really want the kids to pass this year. I can’t imagine how the teachers who actually teach here year after year feel.

Third period rehearsed their scenes with the other kids from the classes. Some kids that were in drama fourth period were pulled out for an accelerated program, and because of this, the teacher lost some of her kids that were the best behaved from this class. And fourth period is not a class that needs any less well-behaved kids. When one of the girls, who always has a huge attitude in fourth period, was actually on and performing for the third period class, she was actually pretty good and took it seriously.

During fourth period, I interviewed one of the seventh graders about his reading for a project for another class. He was very cooperative, and we had a nice conversation.

We got to take the sixth graders to the auditorium today and show them the basic stage directions, upstage, stage right, down stage, center stage, and stage left. They were very very talkative and as a result had to spend the last five minutes of the class in total and complete silence. This is a punishment that I have seen this teacher use before, and it doesn’t seem to be very effective. I think it is a good idea in theory, but the kids never stay quiet for very long.

We had second period in eighth period today because of the testing, and I gathered some more information for the 874 study that I am doing. I am getting really nervous about completing it, but the professor says that I am on the right track, so hopefully I am doing okay. I hate spending this time I could be involved with the class trying to research and observe specific things for classes. I wonder what I’m missing by this.

Thursday was another day. Today I gave my shoebox skits lesson, and man, I guess I didn’t do that well. Storyman came by to observe me today, and I wish he would have picked a day to observe me when he would be observing with me as opposed to at me. The kids started with their quick write, as always: “If your life was a movie, what kind would it be and why?” I was preparing for the lesson, so I didn’t really get to read the QW very well today. Then I gave my lesson for the day to both seventh grade classes. Here are some of the things that I thought I did well and that the kids did well.

I reminded the kids of things that had been previously discussed, such as good audience etiquette and things that we had done or gone over before.

I planned very well for the boxes.

Some kids who never participate were very animated and engaged. I wonder if I can use this in my future classroom to introduce the topic of props…and while I have them…

The ideas were creative.

For never having worked in groups in this room before, I think the kids did an amazing job working together—especially those who are often not social in class.

I tried not to use the word, “skit.” I don’t personally have a problem with that word, but it seems to not be good.

I improved from the first period to the second period, and I know that I will improve more by the end of the day.

I tried not to do line readings. I really hate that.

Here are some things that I feel that I could have worked on, and my supervisor thought I could work on as well.

Some kids got into a point where they were basically mocking mental retardation and/or homosexuality, and I should have stepped in and had a conversation there. I wasn’t sure what to do, but after speaking to my supervisor about it, I have a better idea of what I will do next time.
I didn’t give specific enough praise. I don’t want to call it empty, because in my mind, it was heartfelt, but I understand that I should give the students something to chew on or digest about their performance. I hate it when people just say, “Good job” to me too. It will come with practice, I think.

I should have spent more time making sure that the students understood how to work in a group, and how to collaborate with one another.

During this break, I am going to write out the things that I want to go over with the sixth graders, so I don’t forget them. I can use the paper as a safety net to make sure I go over everything properly.

I should give the groups time to rehearse, as well as time to redo their performances. “It was great the way you did this, but maybe this time…” I should remember that the value is in the rehearsal, not in the performance.

Focus on the audience. Give the audience a purpose. “A theatre audience is different from a classroom audience. Tell them how to look at a performance.” Maybe give them a task. Write down what you liked about the performance. Write suggestions to the performers. (I wonder, would this help them see what THEY are supposed to do?)

Rethink, redo, rework, restructure, and rehearse. Give them space to do this. Teach them that improv isn’t just quick-bang skits and then you’re done.

Remember who I am as a theatre person. What’s important to me? What’s worth knowing?

His one rule: No one needs to feel uncomfortable at any time.

Explain to the students about ‘cartooning’ and how sometimes that proves a point, but they should strive to avoid it.

Why can’t more than two people in involved in an improv.

Keep reminding myself to start where the students are…look for baby steps. Wait students out who are refusing to perform. Give them five minutes or so on the hot seat, then insist on a conversation after class.

Storyman also gave me some great ideas for what I can do with the quick writes, should I decide to use them in my own classroom someday. I could use them to provide closure to an activity, or to make meaning out of an activity. I could also collect them, take them home and reflect on them for other ways to use them in the classroom.

I really think that I did okay, considering this group of kids and considering that middle schoolers are a lot scarier than my meanest, snottiest fourth graders were last quarter. It was my first lesson after five weeks of observing and interjecting randomly. I haven’t run any activities yet, and hopefully after this lunch period, the sixth grade classes will go much more smoothly. I want to have time to reflect this evening, so hopefully I can make sure that I get my studying for PRAXIS done early tonight.

Sixth graders were an interesting story. I didn’t get to do my activity with the first class, because there was a blackout during lunch that resulted in all the sixth grade classes being released one at a time due to the lack of a bell. So we got about a ten minute late start, which turned into even longer because I broke up my first fight at CMS. That’s right, and when I say broke it up, I mean I literally stepped in the middle of the blows. Two of the children from the seventh period class were in the hallway on their way to class, and one of the students was making fun of the other student. So the offended student pushed him as hard as he could with both hands flat on his back. The pushed student threw his trapper on the floor and started yelling about getting out of his face and how he was going to “F him up.” I was the only other one in the hallway, so I did what I could think of at the time. Each student had taken a missed swing, so I jumped right in the middle of the two of them, one hand on each chest, and yelled, “STOP IT! N, you get in my classroom right now, and S, you stay out here in the hall.” It was the weirdest voice that came out of my mouth. I later got reprimanded for getting in between the students, but I think that if it happened again, I’d probably do the same. I understand the theory of not getting in between, but I’m not going to just let these two sixth graders beat on each other until they decide to stop. No amount of yelling is going to make them stop if they don’t want to, so I wanted a physical barrier in between the two of them, and that physical barrier today was me. While my teacher took the students out in the hall and worked out the problem, the kids and I did a worksheet. It seemed to go well. We did it together, and I tried to use a variety of both volunteers and non-volunteers for answers. They did very well, which makes me hopeful for their test in May, and I tried to make it a little fun, trying to ask questions that weren’t spelled out and asking them what they wanted to know about the information.

The next class went so fast, but I think it also went well. The class got divided into three groups, and two of the groups put on skits. One group didn’t really have a plot, so I know now that’s something that these students could stand to work on. I think we’ll also work on concise. I wish there was more time in the period. One really great thing happened in this period though. I put all four boys who didn’t want to participate in the group together. One boy, who never speaks in class and who basically refuses to ever do anything, who the teacher informed me “could not write” actually tried to cajole the other boys into performing, and then when they didn’t want to, decided that he would write a story using all five props in lieu of performing one. So he wrote a whole story that incorporated the props, and then wanted to perform it by himself! Some students from other groups volunteered, but we ran out of time by the end! He was quite disappointed, so I think next time we’ll make sure he gets a chance.

Some things that really helped me in this new experience were I wrote some things on the board. I wrote the 3 rules for group work on the board and went over them with the students. 1. Every student has a voice. 2. No ideas are stupid. 3. Listen as much as you talk, if not more. I also listed the things that they should focus on when constructing their “skits.” Choose your characters, choose your setting, define the problem, and decide on a beginning and end. This seemed to help me a lot; I’m unclear as to whether or not it helped the students. I didn’t really have anything to compare it to.

So anyway, I thought today went well, and hopefully it will only get better. For my first time EVER teaching a lesson to this group, I think I did particularly well. Time will tell if it gets better. All I know is that it was fun, and the kids seemed to like it as well. More next week, as I only have six days left—two next week, and four the following week. It went so fast…