Teaching Philosophy
“Those who educate children well are more
to be honoured than they who produce them; for
these
only gave them life, those the art of living well.”
―
Aristotle
• Learning
is a continual, lifelong ritual of evaluation and re-evaluation. Every
experience we have leads us to frame our next encounter in a different way. As
time is a continuum, so is our life’s experience. Seemingly repetitive events,
with the right approach, can be experienced for the first time, every time.
This is so important in the performing arts.
• The
playing of a piece of music, or the performance of a play, monologue, or dance
is both tangible and intangible. Existing only for the period that it is
performed, an artist strives to breathe new life into their performance with
every presentation. For no two performances can ever be the same. With this
concept I hope to inspire my students.
• The
performing arts curriculum helps students toward a greater understanding of the
human experience.
• We
teach each other. The title of teacher in a classroom setting should be changed
to the title of learning guide. I endeavour to learn as much from my students
as they from me.
• Though
we place great stock in acquired knowledge and experience, I am continually
inspired by the creative solutions of young students. There is something
intrinsically valuable about the fragility of youth, its innocence, and its
honesty.
Lesson Plan
th May
Unit/Topic: The Mask; devising group performances Date: 19
Key Learning Area: Developing Group Performance Year Level:
Stage 5 Yr. 9 Outcomes: 5.1.1, 5.1.2,
5.1.3, 5.1.4, 5.2.1, 5.2.2, 5.2.3, 5.3.1, 5.3.2, 5.3.3
LESSON OUTCOME:
Through engaging Play building;
Physical Theatre, Creative
movement & Improvisation will be developed. http://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/syllabus_sc/drama.html
LESSON STRUCTURE:
Time
|
Introduction (Set):
|
Teaching
Approaches
|
10min
|
Elemental
Representation Through Movement
Stretch – Mirror my movements.
Warm up - Magic
Steam Engine.
Using the performance space.
One student begins a
repetitive movement and sound. Another
joins connecting in some way to the first and so on.
Get your laptops and
sit back down
|
eg DOL strategies,
grouping
strategies
[One or more elements may be addressed in each class and or
a combination. Keep the kids in the performance space. Split them in half.
Standing in either wing. Using the roll call out each performer. This will give me an opportunity to mark
the roll and learn their names as well.]
|
Time
|
Main Content:
|
Teaching
Approaches
|
10mins
|
Discussion
Questions.
What are the elements?
Earth, fire, wind and water.
Task
Show video clips of
elements, write down in your logbooks what you observe as you are watching.
Questions.
How might you replicate the elements movment?
In what ways did the fire, water etc.. move?
How did it interact with other objects?
What might be the outcome of
the various elements meeting?
Discuss answers.
Video Clip List [All
tracks can be found on
Youtube]
Water; Youtube: TOP 10
SHIPS IN STORM INCREDIBLE VIDEO
Fire; Church of
Vaaler burning down to the ground, set on fire by arsonist.
|
DOL Aim 1
DOL Aim 2
(Have questions written on the board)
|
25mins
|
Wind-Historical
March 2012 Tornado Outbreak
compilation - The Storm
Earth; Incredible time
lapse filming in forest - Shadows of the Sun - BBC
Task Outline
Using masks and movement, Create a group performance that represents
the element of fire Introduction / Instructions.
Breaking into groups of 5.
A piece of music will be played.
Listen to the music as a springboard to
brainstorm ideas on how you could express fire through movement.
Using the cardboard and texters provided to
write down your ideas.
Using the other side of the cardboard provided;
Using your ideas write a script.
The Performance Must Include.
1/ A beginning tableau2/ Include A
clearly defined dynamic range. Strong to weak, fast to slow etc... to
transition in and out of a moving tableau. 3/ A second tableau to finish.4/
The set Music will be played during the performance.
(Write this up on the board)
Develop and rehearse performances.
|
DOL Aim 3&4
Teacher comment - Remember this is a collaborative
task.
How can you use your bodies in concert with each other, like
in the magic engine game?
Music will be played during performances. See below for the
list.
|
10min
|
Perform Group Tasks
Music for
Performances
[All
tracks can be found on Youtube] Wind
THE
STORM
- William Tell Overture, Part 2 - Rosinni /
Overtura
de Guillermo Tell: Tormenta Earth Black
Swan
- "Le Lac des Cygnes" / "The Swan Lake" by
Tchaïkovski Water Great Winter Storm, music by
Maurice
Ravel .mp4 Fire Phoenix Music - Glory And
Honour
(Epic Choral Cinematic Orchestral)
|
Teacher
will move from group to group making sure all the students are on track.
DOL Aim 5
After each performance there will be a brief discussion
about the effectiveness of the performance methods employed.
|
Resources:
AV Projection screen, Access to the internet, Large pieces of card board, Thick
texters and Masks.
Safety
Considerations/Materials: Make sure the students don’t attempt any movement
or staging techniques they are not prepared or trained to perform. Be aware of
the misuse of sets and or props.
Assessment:
The Performances will be assessed at the time of performance. The students
will receive a group mark contributing to their overall class mark.
Two Quality Reflections
Reflection on Changes in Technology in
School
School has changed a lot since I was a
boy. I was surprised at the amount of
technology being used in the year 9 drama classroom. IPhones and MacBooks are
commonplace and computers seem to be becoming increasingly prevalent in the
classroom. As a result, in addition to
traditional dramatic exercise, the students’ phones and laptops became an
extension of their performance as they used them to create music and sound effects. The paradox of this is that the phones became
a crutch and what could have been a more existential exercise was
downplayed. I am fearful that if used
incorrectly, technology could become a barrier to the development of student
creativity and expression.
Additionally, I noted that the students
were quite distracted by their technological devices. I even observed some
students playing video games on their laptops when they were meant to be doing
their online logbooks. This is a real
problem with technology use in the classroom.
According to Fried (2008), although some research has shown that laptops
can be a helpful aid in the classroom, it appears that “more and more faculty
are banning laptops from their classrooms because of perceptions that they
distract students and detract from learning,” and this certainly does seem to
be the case (p. 906).
On the other hand, I did have a positive
experience with technology when I was given the task of marking the year 9
written assignments. I used the computer
program, Canvas, in order to do this, and in some ways it did make the job much
easier. Grading, attendance, and
behaviour can all be recorded through this program. The marks are immediately available to the
students, and comments and other student information are instantly accessible
to any teacher or department head with appropriate access.
Technology can be certainly be useful for
instruction and computer programs such as Canvas can make internal record
keeping quite simple and efficient. However, I feel that technology should not
be too heavily relied upon in a performing arts classroom, and I will work on
achieving a healthy balance between too much and too little technology in my
future lessons.
Reflection on My First Lesson
After giving my first class with year 9
drama, I realized that I need to work on my classroom management skills. Many of the students were talking amongst
themselves as I gave my instruction, and this made it difficult to accomplish
what needed to be done within the given timeframe. Time management is one of my biggest
concerns. It is the thread running
through almost all aspects of teaching — organizing the day, organizing the
classroom, deciding how long and how often to teach various subjects, recording
student progress, and keeping timeconsuming behaviour problems to a
minimum.
I definitely need to focus on keeping the
class on task, and continually remind myself that time management is my
concern, not the students’. Merrett
& Wheldall found that “the vast majority of teachers believe classroom
[behavior] management skills to be of major importance to them professionally”
and many teachers believe they spend too much time “on matters of order and
control” (p. 91). If I ensure that the
students’ behaviour is kept under control, this would enable me to complete the
lesson more efficiently. The need to set
rules and maintain them was also made clear to me. In this, I believe consistency will be
important. As Savage
(1999) states, “consistency is an especially important
aspect of developing teacher credibility” (as cited in Felix, 2011, p.38). I will need to develop strategies in the
future to help me with behavior management, such as starting the class in the
same way every day and ensuring that every class period follows the same,
predictable order of events. This will
impress upon the students that the same expectations will be present in every
class.
In the future, I will be more concise in
what I say in class and only speak about things which are a specific
requirement of the next step in the lesson, rather than overwhelming the
students with how I am leading them to the destination or the point of the
exercise. It is more effective to have a
discussion at the end of class about what they have learned. Additionally, I feel that I spent too much
time micro-managing the lesson, and that this was in fact a hindrance to the
student learning experience. When supervising the students in group work, it is
better to focus on just keeping them on track to complete the task assigned in
their own way as opposed to controlling each step. By giving the students more
independence rather than hovering over them every step of the way, they will
actually have more time to actively work on the given task.
References
Felix, E. E. (2011). Modern Approach to Classroom Discipline and
Management. Xlibris Corporation.
Fried, Carrie B. (2008). In-class laptop
use and its effects on student learning.
Computers & Education,
50(3), 906-914.
Merrett, F. & Wheldall, K. (1993).
How Do Teachers Learn to Manage Classroom Behavior? A study of teachers’ opinions about their
initial training with special reference to classroom behavior
management. Eduational Studies, 19(1),
91-106.
