Backstage Laughs: Theater Jokes and True Stories
Backstage Laughs: Theater Jokes and True Stories Today I wanted to blog about Behind the Curtain: Theater Jokes and Stories You Can’t Make Up — the funny, unexpected, and sometimes unbelievable moments that happen when you spend your life in theater. Whether it’s an actor forgetting a line, a prop disappearing at exactly the […]
Engaging Reluctant Students in Drama Class
Engaging Reluctant Students in Drama Class This blog post, Engaging Reluctant Students in Drama Class, began with considering every drama teacher eventually faces: students sitting in class who never intended to be there in the first place. When I taught a large middle school drama class which was a pre-elective, more than 500 sixth graders […]
Why Drama Is the Ultimate Life Skills Curriculum
Drama Is Life Skills: How the Classroom Becomes Real-World Practice I believe drama class is life skills. One of my favorite classroom memories explains exactly why Drama Is Life Skills: How the Classroom Becomes Real-World Practice — and it doesn’t involve a standing ovation. It involves a triangle. The Power of Being Needed Years ago, […]
Why Drama Circles Work in the Elementary Classroom
Why Drama Circles Work in the Elementary Classroom “How Drama Circles work in the Elementary Classroom” is a topic that’s close to my heart—mostly because you are far “more fortunate than I ever was. When I began teaching, I had absolutely no resources for the theater classes I taught. I was constantly tweaking college-level acting […]
Readers Theater: The Secret Tool for Social Studies
Readers Theater: The Secret Tool for Social Studies I wanted to write “Readers Theater: The Secret Tool for Social Studies” because so many teachers are searching for new ways to keep students engaged in social studies. When most teachers hear “Readers Theater,” they picture ELA fluency, reading or drama class, or a fun break from […]
The Power of Play: Teaching Children Through Creative Dramatics
The Power of Play: Teaching Children Through Creative Dramatics When I was a young child, I spent many an hour playing in the forsythia bush on the side of our home. To me, it was the perfect place to hide away–just close enough so my mother could see me from the kitchen window and […]