Teaching Philsophy

“Drama actively supports children to imagine together and helps them bring the imaginary context to life in a range of ways.” - Patrice Baldwin & Rob John (Inspiring Writing Through Drama: Creative Approaches to Teaching)

Over the last decade, I have witnessed the transformational power of drama first hand and its ability to change lives. Drama introduces and cultivates essential life skills such as spatial, social and emotional awareness. It improves cognitive development, enhances creativity, builds self-esteem, cultivates risk taking, increases literacy skills, and teaches real life experiences through the medium of play. As I move forward as an educator in the classroom, there are several key elements, outlined below, that I hope to embody in my praxis.     

To begin, it is essential to lay a foundation of rituals, routines, norms and expectations. These expectations will be framed in a positive manner so that students do not have the difficult task of interpreting what is expected of them, i.e. raise your hand instead of don’t call out. Students will be asked to contribute ideas for what should be including in these expectations. As these standards are established, I will be sensitive to any cultural differences and value clashes they may present and adjust accordingly. I will recognize and reward responsible behavior and endeavor to discover and remedy the root of dysregulated behavior, most often symptomatic of deeper issues. One way this will be accomplished is by connecting, communicating and listening deeply to my students. Additionally by doing, this I hope we can work together to intentionally discover and cultivate their strengths, and create opportunities for students to highlight their specific skill sets. 

For instance, if a student has strong leadership qualities they may be asked to lead warm ups or if a student has strong organizational skills they may be recruited as the stage manager for the class. I hope to honor and uplift their differences building empathy and creating rich, carefully scaffolded, student-centered curriculums.

Content will be culturally responsive and will include windows and mirrors to ensure students see themselves reflected back in the material, as well as engage with perspectives beyond themselves. For example, if teaching in a classroom with many Spanish speakers, Latinx drama professionals (i.e. playwright José Rivera or actress Rita Moreno) will be introduced offering students opportunities to work with and create content in diverse languages.They will also be introduced to professionals outside their cultural context (i.e. playwright Dominique Morisseau or Iranian actor Arian Moayed) to widen their cultural competencies. During instruction, intentional and appropriate language will be employed. For instance, questions might be framed using the words comfortable and challenging instead of easy and hard.

Students will tackle material through multiple means of instruction and differentiation to create connections and varied ways of accessing knowledge. This will be done by integrating visual, verbal and kinesthetic experiences and using tools such as AAC.

I will model behaviors and activities and will take risks in my examples so that students feel they can as well. Students will engage in lessons as a whole group, in small groups, with partners and individually so as to create a comprehensive learning experience and support students’ Zone of Proximal Development while incorporating Fisher and Frey’s Gradual Release of Responsibility Framework.

Above all else I hope to create an inclusive, fun, and enriching classroom where students can develop curious, courageous, creative and critically engaged minds. I hope to create a space where students feel a sense of belonging and are unafraid to be their whole, wonderful and unique selves and express that self through art. I hope to create a space where students feel supported when they fail and know that making mistakes provides the greatest opportunity for learning.  I hope my students feel we are working together to create an ongoing dialogue —a cycle of co-learning— endowing ourselves with skills, knowledge and essential values to take beyond the classroom. I hope our work cultivates advocacy in themselves and others invoking the creation of a more socially just and equitable world.  Through our art, we will challenge stereotypes, tackle difficult topics, explore our emotions, journey through a multitude of stories, histories, environments and worlds and come out the other side all the more enriched by the experience.

For, what a joy teaching is.