Why teach drama?
As The Arts Curriculum describes, Drama can be used for students to form an understanding of themselves, others, and different times and places. This is also a way for them to learn communication skills. Drama brings with it the opportunity for teachers to integrate different areas of the curriculum into a drama lesson, or vice versa. Drama is a powerful tool in education and I have learned a lot about how to use it in my classroom, and furthermore, how it can help students to grow in such a unique and powerful way.
Personally, as a teacher candidate, I was a little bit nervous stepping into this class for the first time. I have always loved drama, but I have only ever seen myself thrive in it when I am at the peak of my comfort zone. In any situation where I find myself less than self-confident, and when I am with people who I do not know, or with whom I am afraid to show my true colours, drama has been a challenge for me. In honesty this is the result of a fear of appearing silly, or being judged negatively by my peers. I realized though, that this is exactly the kind of feeling we want to avoid with our students. There is such an emphasis on creating safe and inclusive classrooms, and making children feel like they can learn, make mistakes, step out of their comfort zone, and grow! So I am glad I felt a little uncomfortable, because this helps me to understand how my students might be feeling, and it helps me to tune into ways that I can make them feel more comfortable.
This is reflective of our class discussion of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (1954).
Using this model, the goal for my drama class is the following (moving from the bottom up):
As The Arts Curriculum describes, Drama can be used for students to form an understanding of themselves, others, and different times and places. This is also a way for them to learn communication skills. Drama brings with it the opportunity for teachers to integrate different areas of the curriculum into a drama lesson, or vice versa. Drama is a powerful tool in education and I have learned a lot about how to use it in my classroom, and furthermore, how it can help students to grow in such a unique and powerful way.
Personally, as a teacher candidate, I was a little bit nervous stepping into this class for the first time. I have always loved drama, but I have only ever seen myself thrive in it when I am at the peak of my comfort zone. In any situation where I find myself less than self-confident, and when I am with people who I do not know, or with whom I am afraid to show my true colours, drama has been a challenge for me. In honesty this is the result of a fear of appearing silly, or being judged negatively by my peers. I realized though, that this is exactly the kind of feeling we want to avoid with our students. There is such an emphasis on creating safe and inclusive classrooms, and making children feel like they can learn, make mistakes, step out of their comfort zone, and grow! So I am glad I felt a little uncomfortable, because this helps me to understand how my students might be feeling, and it helps me to tune into ways that I can make them feel more comfortable.
This is reflective of our class discussion of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (1954).
Using this model, the goal for my drama class is the following (moving from the bottom up):
Throughout this portfolio, I will highlight some of the techniques we learned, emphasizing how using these tasks effectively in my classroom will build students' confidence to then move on further into drama beyond grade 6. I will focus on how this will increase students' confidence in the drama classroom, and also with their peers in general, as is emphasized as the final point in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.