Drama Australia AMC

Over the weekend I trekked north to Brisbane to attend a weekend of meetings at the Drama Australia Annual Meeting of Council. As this was my first official time representing Victorian Drama teachers as President of their state Drama teachers' association, I thought I would blog on the wonderful work Drama Australia does to promote and support Drama educators across the country and jot down just a snippet of the weekend's discussion.

Many people may not know Drama Australia represents over 1,100 members through its state and territory Drama teaching associations. Keep in mind, a 'member' can also be an affiliate member, and one membership can represent four Drama teachers in a school, not just one. When taking this into account, Drama Australia represents far more than 1,100 individuals in primary, secondary and tertiary institutions across government, independent and Catholic sectors.

Drama Australia concerns itself with issues in drama education on a national level and has strong connections with other peak bodies such as the International Drama/Theatre and Education Association (IDEA), the National Affiliation of Arts Educators (NAAE) and the Australian Drama Studies Association (ADSA). Drama Australia is governed by a committee of management with executive members looking after everything from academic Drama publications and research, to international and industry liaisons and new projects in the field.

Drama Australia regularly publishes documents that assist drama educators across the country, such as equity and diversity guidelines, working conditions recommendations and guidelines for teaching Drama to and about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, to name just a few. Drama Australia also publishes periodic academic journals in drama education such as NJ and ADEM (Australian Drama Education Magazine).

Drama Australia is a voice of advocacy for drama education in this country and beyond our shores, and has close ties with each of the state and territory Drama teacher associations.

At Drama Australia's Annual Meeting of Council over the weekend, we were saddened by the disbanding of NTADIE (Northern Territory Association for Drama in Education) and as a result, for the first time a state or territory Drama teaching association is not officially represented at the national level.

We were disturbed by a developing trend of shrinking drama education courses at the tertiary level, as witnessed recently by the closure of courses at several NSW institutions.

We were impressed (and jealous) by Drama Queensland's recent move into electronic academic member journals. Drama Queensland surveyed their members who approved the association's transition into member-login retrieval of their regular academic publications on drama education in electronic pdf form, via their website. Gone are the days where Drama Queensland prints their journals the 'old skool' way!

We relived the buzz and excitement of Drama NSW's fantastic hosting of the last year's Drama Australia national conference in Sydney. With over 230 delegates attending from all corners of the country, this was a wonderful event jam-packed with a diversity of activities.

We previewed yet-to-be-distributed working and publicity material for SAADIE's (South Australian Association for Drama in Education) hosting of the next Drama Australia conference in Adelaide on 9th-11th May, 2008. This conference will make strong links with ASSITEJ (International Association of Theatre for Children and Young People), whose world congress and festival for young people will be held in Adelaide at the same time. I can tell you, the Drama Australia conference hosted by SAADIE next year looks awesome (there is no other word for it) and from enjoying a sneak preview of some of its events, this conference is not to be missed if you teach Drama in Australia!

Just in case you may be wondering how much work goes into the planning of hosting the Drama Australia conference, even us representing Drama Victoria spoke a few words about our initial ideas for the national conference to be held in Melbourne in 2009. We will offer Drama Australia and the other state and territory Drama teaching associations more concrete details of our planning at the next Drama Australia AMC at the May conference in Adelaide next year.

At the AMC we discussed so many issues in drama education in Australia over the course of two days, it was mind-bending! At times I felt like this guy....

What Makes A Good Teacher? (Pt.2)

Recently I posted information from a teaching journal about what makes a good teacher? A few days ago I attended an in-house professional learning session with Melbourne Salesian priest Fr. Mick Court. As part of his session with staff at my school, each of us were asked to jot down our favourite teacher from our own school days and list some of the characteristics this teacher possessed that appealed to us. Reponses were then accepted from everyone and compiled into a list. I jotted them down so I could blog them here in case you're interested. When you read them, think about the qualities of a good Drama/Theatre teacher.

I list them in no particular order:

• passionate
• inspirational
• interested
• personal connection
• humourous
• willingness to journey
• leader
• imaginative
• wanted to be there
• fair
• a listener
  
• perceptive
• organised
• intellectually stimulating
• empathic
• humble
• good knowledge of subject
• one who believes in the student
• energetic
• challenging
• nurturing
• love of subject
• flexible
• negotiable

I was humbled myself when my current student-teacher (an ex-student of the school, former Drama Captain and one whose younger sister is the current Drama Captain of the College) listed me as her teacher for this exercise. I joked with her that she wrote myself down simply because I was sitting four seats away from her, but she insisted her motives were genuine. When I saw what she listed as my characteristics that appealed to her, I was very pleased to see the one quality I value most in my own teaching as the first she jotted down: passion. This was followed by two others I consider of vital importance - the ability to show interest in students beyond the subject and beyond the classroom, and knowledge of the subject/content. It was surreal. It was like someone had asked me to write down the three qualities I value most in my own teaching, but without conversation, my student teacher had written them all down for me!

The list above, may well be informal, but I do believe these reponses are valuable. If we could achieve all of these qualities in our Drama teaching in any given week, much less a single day, then we truly would be wonderful educators....

What Makes A Good Teacher?

I was just reading the Winter edition of the Teacher Learning Network journal, an initiative of the Australian Education Union (Victorian Branch) and the Victorian Independent Education Union that focuses on professional, curriculum and classroom issue for teachers.

Well, there's some really worthwhile articles in this journal about teaching practice. This edition focuses on what it means to be a good teacher? A tricky question. Let me quote some snippets out of various articles within:

A good teacher has a commitment to building the profession, supporting new teachers, reflecting on and improving their own practice and providing direction for the learning community (p.3)

It is generally agreed that the most effective teachers are those who are continuously learning and improving their own practice; and the best schools are those that support their teachers in doing so (p.7)

People are attracted to teaching as a career because they want to make a positive difference to the lives of children and young people. However, over the years the complexity of the teaching task has contributed to this profession being one of the most demanding there is (p.10)

Robert Garmston (1998) refers to four stages in a teachers career: novice, competent, proficient and expert. Garmston argues that attaining the expert stage is not achieved so much as a result of experience, but rather through reflection on experience (p.11)

Well, a good teacher must surely enjoy working with children and let's face it, working with children is not for everyone! I've often wondered while teaching in various schools over the years myself, why teachers who appear to dislike children, are teaching! (There must be a research essay in there somewhere). Maybe it is just that some teachers occasionally 'appear' not to like children that much, but deep down, really do? Maybe I'm just naive, but when I first started teaching as a 22 year-old, I just assumed every teacher automatically enjoyed the company of children or they'd be wasting their time.

In terms of professional development, one of the articles in this edition of Teacher Learning Network mentions, as teachers, we must be careful not to use professional development as an 'add on' to what we are already doing. It is true, professional development, or professional learning, wherever possible should be integrated into our current teaching practice. It then becomes a valuable part of the whole, not just an 'extra' activity with little importance.

I am fortunate to be teaching at a school that highly encourages professional learning among its staff as an essential and vital component of our everyday practice. I would probably have up to 10 professional learning days every year, built into our school timetable for all staff. While some parts of these days are in fact non-teaching for the purposes of planning curriculum on campus, others involve guest speakers and off-campus activities. At the beginning of the year, I would normally have three to four professional learning days, another at the start of Term 2, another in the middle of Term 2, another at the start of Term 3, another at the start of Term 4 and I finish off the school year in December with a further three non-teaching days. Whether it be departmental meetings, curriculum discussions, taking notes listening to speakers, going to lectures or something similar, they are all professional learning in some form.

As I reflect on this very blog post, I have just left the computer for ten minutes to grab a coffee. I got five steps from the computer before a fellow teacher wanted to discuss with me how do we 'teach' our chosen 'Habit Of Mind' in our various courses? This issue was raised in one of his departmental meetings the night before. In Year 7 ICT, I choose to teach 'striving for accuracy', in my colleague's Geography class he is teaching his students to be 'thinking interdependently' and in my Drama classes I am teaching students to be constantly 'creating, imagining and innovating'. Professional learning doesn't have to be formal. If my brief chat with my colleague counts as legitimate 'professional learning' (and I believe it does), then we all must have little spurts of informal professional learning discussions and debates 10 or 20 times every day at our workplaces.

Back to the chat with my colleague .... it ended in a healthy debate over what it means to be 'creative' and 'what is creativity?'. Try and tell me that little chat wasn't valuable! It was akin to the many times in my career I've had the debate with an art teacher on 'what is art?!

Back to the professional learning opportunities offered by my employer .... add to those ten days a year a week of fully paid professional learning off campus every three years for each staff member. To put things in perspective, my school is a low fee-paying Catholic secondary girls school. The parents pay for a whole year's tuition here with the same amount of money that would only cover 10 weeks schooling elsewhere. My employer has simply made it a top priority to channel a healthy percentage of available funds into continual professional learning for the teachers. Two of the biggest stakeholders are the winners - the parents and the students, themselves. Of course, the teachers and the government also win on this one. The last two times I used up my major professional learning activity, I went to IDEA Drama conferences in Norway (2001) and Canada (2004). My colleague in the Drama department (a 4th year teacher) just went to the Victorian College of the Arts to undertake a week-long intensive training course in acting for the camera. I don't think I've ever seen her so excited. She instantly found ways of integrating some of what she learnt into her Year 10 Drama class. She has a renewed energy since her professional learning experience that is truly wonderful to witness.

In the old days (the 90s), I actually undertook very little professional learning with other people. As a graduate, I began as the only Drama teacher in a school, teaching from Year 7 to 12. I learnt through books. Not really being much of a reader, I sunk my teeth into as many drama/theatre books as I could find in my first five years of teaching and learnt a lot. I was obessessed. It is only really in the past seven or eight years that I have fully understood the value of professional learning the traditional way, at sessions, forums and conferences with other Drama teachers. It couldn't get more social than a bunch of Drama teachers at a professional learning session, could it? So many teachers find one of the most valuable conference experiences is the actual networking. The informal chats, the coffees with colleagues from other schools, the discovery of how other teachers do similar tasks - differently, the questions and answers, the debates etc. You can always undertake professional learning in a vacuum like I did for my first five years of teaching, but is it as enriching?

So ... back to the point of this post ... what makes a good teacher? I'd be interested to read your comments. Throw up your response by clickiing the comment button below.

Engaging Students in Drama/Theatre

It's the age-old problem, haunting many of us since the dawn of drama education ...... how do I engage my students in my Drama/Theatre class(es)?

The bad news is, this problem is not unique to any specific year level at school. If you're struggling to engage your Year 7 junior Drama students, then unfortunately this doesn't mean your Year 11 senior class will be immune from it. The only difference is the students' reaction to their lack of engagement, often based on their age and maturity level.

Sometimes, our students show us their disinterest in obvious and less than tactful ways, while at other times it is more subtle. As teachers, we have to learn to read these subtle signals LIVE (as in, it's happening in front of you while your talking to the class). Whenever I see my students disengage in what I am teaching before my very eyes, it truly is the worst of feelings. It is here, that flexibility becomes your best friend. Like the television interviewer who decides to abandon the scripted questions when his live interview is disintegrating, we too have to adapt instantly to the situation. Now who is better than a Drama/Theatre teacher at improvising (and adapting)?!? So now we have no excuse at all.

There's no magic recipe for engaging students in a Drama class at school and what I do is not particularly special. Nevertheless, I thought I'd share with you some helpful ways to at least get you on the right track if you're struggling to engage your students (hope this doesn't sound too 'preachy', as it is not intended to be):

• Firstly, I have never met a Drama/Theatre teacher who could honestly say they have not suffered from the challenge of engaging their students. Every Drama teacher struggles at some point, no matter how long they've been teaching. It is certainly nothing to be embarrassed about and it is definitely not a weakness.
  
• Student disengagement in the Drama classroom is not directly related to discipline problems. You may have the best lesson in the world happening with a completely troublesome bunch of students, who today are really immersed in the drama. Or, take my example, where I teach at a well-behaved girls' school and have consequently disengaged my students in the most perfect of circumstances dozens of times.
• All classes are not the same and all students are different, so really get to know your students early on and think of possible strategies unique for a particular class who are not displaying engagement.
  
• Know your subject matter. If you're an experienced teacher, remember we never stop learning and drama education is evolving as we speak. If you're a new or returning teacher to Drama, you may feel you're only a few steps ahead of the students. In reality, even on your worst day, you're a football field in front of them, so back yourself on your less detailed knowledge of Drama/Theatre and run with it.
  
• Be motivated and have energy. Think of it from our students' point of view. For them, there's nothing worse than an unenthusiastic Drama teacher. If you think they won't spot it, you're wrong. It will be written all over your face the second you walk into the classroom. As an example, I can be a bit moody at times (although I hate to admit it). One day, some of my students admitted to me occasionally they have an informal silent competition of sorts, as they try to determine my mood on that particular day, just by looking at my body language entering the classroom, and before I have even opened my mouth to teach (a lesson in Drama already?). On another note, on more than one occasion over recent years, a student has told me about 15 minutes into the first lesson of the day to leave a Year 12 Drama class and grab a strong coffee from the staffroom (which I promptly did, as the student/s pointed out it was going to be better for all of us if I did!). Most students really like Drama class. The very fact that it is so different to every other subject at school, alone makes it a breath of fresh air for them. So they expect (or at least anticipate) us to be energetic and keen to teach them.
• Be confident. Teach your lessons with confidence, even at times where things aren't exactly going according to plan. Whatever you do in that classroom, teach it with assurance (not brashness) and your students will soon have faith in your teaching and knowledge. It is OK to readily admit to your students you don't know everything about Drama (who does?). I did that one day and it was one of the best things I have done in my entire career. I didn't have anything to prove from that day forward. I got over it, moved on and taught with a new sense of confidence.
• Having said the above, it is also a good thing to know your limits in Drama teaching. You'll find your students quickly disengaged if you're trying to tackle all five acts of King Lear in the Drama classroom. A more managable project may well have engaged them better in your teaching and their learning.
  
• Be truthful. You must be true to your subject, yourself and your students (no matter what their age). Most importantly, don't try to be someone else. Be yourself and let your students find the real you (leave the role-playing for the scripts).
  
• Be interested, but don't be their best friend. Those of us who have been teaching a few years can tell you trying the 'buddy' thing with students just puts them right off you and your teaching. But I find being genuinely interested in my students' world is a positive thing. Obviously, as teachers we are not interested in all aspects of teenage life and maintaining our professionalism as educators is paramount. But just little things like remembering a particular student's favourite band, wishing someone good luck for a music exam, seeing their work in the school art show etc helps develop a healthy rapport between teacher and student (which may have little to do with your subject, but more to do with the person you are teaching). You'd be surprised, when your students discover you're human after all, how over time they too become genuinely interested in you (and what you're teaching).
• Be consistent. I suppose just like effective parenting, students appreciate consistency in the Drama classroom or any other subject for that matter). This could relate to how you cast class plays or how you grade performance projects. Oh, and Drama students in particular, despise the teacher who has 'favourites' in the classroom. Even if they highly respect a teacher and secretly wished to be her favourite pupil, they'd much rather not be a favourite if there are clearly no favourite students in the class at all. Warning! Be careful of not appearing to have favourites in casting school productions. Treat it like a job interview, be wary of casting the same students in principal roles three years in a row and with a fresh and open mind, treat each candidate on their merits.
• Be respectful. Every day, every lesson, each of my Drama classes (no matter what year level) begins and finishes with respect. I ask my students to respect themselves first, their fellow students second and then I'm more than happy to come in third place. Of course, I always have respect for all my students at the outset (its assumed; a given). Respect in the Drama/Theatre classroom is very important. It will assist in student engagement, as it will directly impact how students treat each other, the dynamics of the classroom, the discipline etc.
• Be passionate. Your passion for Drama will mysteriously ooze out of your body and into the bloodstream of your students. Trust me. Most students appreciate passionate teachers. When you're teaching a subject like Drama, students may even admire you for it and soon your levels of student engagement will go through the roof!
  
• Let your students know your expectations. If you clearly have expectations in a number of areas in the Drama classroom and are consistent in how these expectations are administered, then they will appreciate your teaching and be engaged.
• Learning is fun. I've said this numerous times on this blog. The quicker we allow our students to genuinely see learning can be fun and enjoyable (not arduous or a burden), then they will surely be engaged in the teaching. If something is not working out as planned, it may be the method of delivery. Is there another way you could teach the same material? My colleague and I sometimes give theory notes in Year 8 junior Drama in ridiculous foreign accents! Instead of 'do we have to write down boring notes from the board?', I now get requests for the German accent, and off we go...!

My final tip is to never underestimate, as teachers, the influence we can have on our students' lives. It's a scary sort of power we may never have asked for or never been told about at university, but I believe that fun-loving, energetic Drama/Theatre teacher can really have an impact on our students (both at school and many years after they have left). So we must treat our craft responsibly and have some fun along the way while our Drama students learn as much as possible.

And it all starts with engaging the students in our teaching. Drama/Theatre is one of the coolest subjects in school. As Drama teachers, we have our challenges like any other teacher, but we have a serious head start on the rest of the field. This is Drama, after all! Remember how much YOU loved Drama at high school? That's the very student you want in your own Drama classroom tomorrow. When your students enter your classroom with smiling, beaming faces or when they complain about what subject they have next as they leave your lesson ... that's when you've got them engaged in Drama.

Blogging and Podcasting in Drama

The following article appears in MASK, the academic journal of Drama Victoria.
Author: Justin Cash

In the age of iTunes, Skype and MySpace, the traditional way we teach Drama is suddenly under threat. Our students spend a great deal of their social life communicating with their peers using various forms of Internet-based technologies.

So why are we still teaching Drama like it was 1984? If you want to connect with your students better, spice up your Drama course a little, move into the 2000’s and make Drama way cool, then embracing new technologies is your answer!

"…increasingly, universities and schools need to incorporate more of the technology used by students for social networking and entertainment into education content and delivery systems"
The Age Education Supplement (30th October 2006)

In this article, I will focus on using blogs and podcasts in Drama and along the way convince you that both of these activities are fairly easy to understand for even the most technophobe Drama teacher.

Blog, baby, blog
In the beginning there were web logs and then we saw weblogs until finally the Internet Gods settled on blogs. A strange little hybrid term, blog really means a web-based log or journal.

Blogs date back to the 1990s when they were somewhat unknown and the software controlling them, cumbersome. They began as online diaries chronicling people’s lives on a daily basis, spread into a stream of blogs on US politics and then some time around 2004, exploded into the mainstream.

Today, there are literally millions of blogs on the web on every topic imaginable. It seems the curiosity of human nature means that no matter what the subject matter of your blog, someone is going to read it.

Blogs are mostly text-based. You can add the occasional photo to a blog entry and all of a sudden it will become more appealing to your readership. But blogs that are purely image-based are known as photoblogs. There are even blogs containing video content, or vlogs.

Blog posts appear in reverse chronological order, with the most recent posts at the top. The blogging software automatically creates monthly archives (or weekly, if you prefer) in the sidebar of the blog, so visitors can readily find older posts. Blog posts can also be labeled for specific categories, dividing a blog into ordered sections.

Coloured themes (skins) can be added to blogs to make them funky and cool and a range of template designs are always available for the user. Links to related websites on the blog’s subject matter can also be added to the sidebar and photos can be easily uploaded to individual posts. All these features (and more) are easily configured by the blog administrator (you!) in a simple-to-use control panel that makes changes for you in the form of a wizard-like tool.

So the once humble Drama journal can now take place on the web in the form of a blog. They are fantastic for performance-making projects. Students can chronicle the process of a performance from the day the teacher distributed the task, through a possible research phase, scriptwriting or improvisation periods, rehearsals and finally the big performance. Blogs are the best reflective tool to use in Drama and if my own experiences are anything to go by, I guarantee you your students will love using them.

One of the best features of blogging is the ability for other users to add comments to posts. In the past two years, I have blogged with Year 10, 11 and 12 students on the web. A strong sense of collegiality has formed on each occasion, where other students have posted comments of encouragement and advice to fellow students’ blogs. These examples covered both individual and group blogs (yes, an ensemble group can keep a single blog where every member contributes posts) and even different blogs on the one website, where students from two neighbouring schools shared the same performance task (Year 12 Drama Ensemble) and commented on student blogs from the other school.

Traditionally, I loathe asking students to keep Drama journal entries after each lesson, so I haven’t requested this for some years now. But when the Drama journal takes place in the form of a blog for a project perhaps lasting only six weeks, I now request blog posts to be made by my students after each class. Here comes the fun bit! No more taking up Drama journals and hoping every student has successfully maintained one. With student blogs, I can check to see if my cherubs have done their homework from my own computer in the evenings. I can even add comments to their blogs myself, and write kind words or friendly reminders if the blog entries are not up to standard.

But how hard is the software?

Blogging software has today become a sinch for the average user. WordPress is one of the more popular software packages for blogging. If you want to start your own blog hosted on WordPress’ Interent server, then visiting www.wordpress.com is the place to go.

However, a different, multi-user version of WordPress can also be configured by your school’s IT technician to be made available for use by your students on the school Intranet, for example. If this tickles your fancy, then www.wordpress.org is where you want to send the IT people and let them do the work behind the scenes for you. In either case, WordPress blogging software is completely free.

Blogger (www.blogger.com) is one of the largest free blog hosting companies on the web. The company began in 1999 and was so successful it was acquired by Google in early 2003. It has a wide range of features and will have you up and blogging within five minutes.

If you’re after more features, but at a price, then Moveable Type (www.movabletype.org) or TypePad (www.typepad.com) can be configured on your school’s server for a monthly or annual fee.

Vineblog it!

But best of all, Drama Australia and Drama Victoria have joined forces this year to bring you a Drama teacher and student blogging community, free of charge. You can find dozens of drama-based blogs from all levels of education at Vineblogs (vineblogs.net). We encourage you to visit the site and get your students to start up their own blogs for their next Drama project. It’s much more personal for your Drama students than just going to Blogger and being one of five thousand blogs started that day. At Vineblogs, everyone is blogging about Drama and nothing else!

But before you start…

A word of warning, though, if you want to join the blogging revolution with your students in Drama class. There are three areas of concern with blogs today: privacy, appropriate content and copyright.

Especially in a school setting, it might prove worthwhile to run your blogging ideas past your school principal first (well, I did). Checking privacy permissions and perhaps even receiving parental permission is a good idea before you start. Blogs are great for posting accompanying images of Drama class rehearsals etc., but these images of course must be appropriate and those individuals in the photos should have their permission sought before posting. After all, once posted, they will be on the web for anyone in the world to see.

Before blogging, I always remind my students of the rules. Some of these include no swearing (not negotiable) and no sledging of fellow students (or the teacher, for that matter!) because anyone in the class can read blog posts. As their teacher, I perform random checks from time to time, acting as a moderator of their blog content, to see only suitable material is being posted. You can always ask for each student’s login name and password, so you can edit material on their blogs. My experience, however, is that if the rules are understood by all in advance, few students choose to break them because they are having way too much fun blogging their Drama homework to even think about ruining the process!

Copyright is another issue for bloggers. Technically, it is not acceptable to simply post images grabbed from other websites without their permission, because this is an infringement of copyright. But there is one thing I neither encourage nor discourage, but rather see if it emerges, and that is SMS or chat room speak. Abbreviated words etc. are a part of our students’ culture and while we may initially cringe at this anti-academic form of language, it is important we respect it on blogs. If our students want to enjoy the process, we should allow them this minor freedom.

If you want an indication of how your students may react to blogging in Drama, one of my Year 10 students this year wrote on her blog ‘The Internet and blogging. Homework just doesn’t get any better than this!’

What the hell’s a podcast?

The notion of podcasting dates back to the year 2000 and the term was officially coined in early 2004. As it is a hybrid of the words iPod and broadcast, unfortunately, today this means many people think you need an Apple iPod to podcast. This in fact is not the case. Technically, a podcast will play on your home or work computer, but if you want the file to be mobile, any MP3 player will suffice.

A podcast involves a multimedia file. In the vast majority of cases, these are audio files and mostly in the MP3 format. There are, however, video and image podcasts as well.

The true spirit of podcasting includes something known as syndication, mostly in the RSS (Really Simple Syndication) format, where someone hosts the file and users from all over the world freely subscribe to current and future editions of the program via a feed. For instance, I subscribe to The Law Report on ABC Radio because my friend Damien Carrick runs the show. Each week, the program is automatically downloaded to my home computer once I launch iTunes (the software program, not the website of the same name).

But one of the main problems with podcasting is that the technology is not as simplified as, for example, the blogging software today. There are still too many steps in the process of making a podcast, publishing the file and getting it syndicated across the Internet to make it fully accessible to the masses.

So, in this article, I intend to show you how to create the easiest of podcasts and the syndication step will be ignored. To begin with, think of your podcast as a radio program. Then think of your Drama students’ digital accessories and the faithful MP3 player is still one of their coolest. Now think of delivering Drama class theory content in the form of an MP3 file and all of a sudden Drama is their coolest subject at school, because their teacher is podcasting!

What program do I use?

If you’re a Windows user, the easiest program to use to create your first podcast is Audacity. This free software package can be downloaded by searching for it at www.download.com. Although there is also a Mac version of Audcaity, Mac users swear by GarageBand, a program that used to be pay-for, but these days is bundled for free with recent versions of the Mac operating system. GarageBand also has dozens of free sound loops you can drag into the interface and use as filler breaks in between segments of your spoken audio program.

The trick with podcasting is not to make it a 50-minute program. 15 minutes or less is more like it. With both Audacity and GarageBand, you’ll either need to use your computer’s built-in microphone or go purchase a $30 microphone and headset from somewhere like Dick Smith Electronics (there’ll be a socket to plug in the jack on your computer). Sometimes, built-in mikes can make you sound like you’re in a tin can though, so test it out first. Both these programs are relatively easy to use, but you may need to look up the odd help file and do a web search for some assistance. Basically, you are recording your own voice for playback.

Without sounding like Captain Obvious, the subject matter of your podcast will need to be written in advance of recording, so first write that script!

Both Audacity and GarageBand will save your file in different formats and from here you can mostly export them as WAV files. But follow the steps below to change your audio file to MP3 format, making your podcast accessible to the most users and the most audio players.

Let’s say your finished audio file is in WAV format. Download from www.apple.com the iTunes program, if you don’t already have it. Drag your file into the iTunes window. Highlight the file. Once highlighted, go to the ‘Advanced’ menu at the top and scroll down to ‘convert selection to…’. Select it and in the drop down menu change the conversion to MP3. Now convert your WAV audio recording to MP3 and iTunes does the work for you in a very quick amount of time. It has now created a duplicate version of the file in MP3 format, which you’ll need to find in iTunes. To ensure you have the correct version, right click on the file in iTunes and select ‘Get Info’ to see you have the MP3 version. From here, work out exactly which folder it is where iTunes saves the files on your computer’s hard drive, find the file in question and transfer it to a USB or burn it to CD.

There’s no need for your students to subscribe to your podcast or for you to syndicate it across the Internet. You simply want to give the file to your IT technicians at school and ask them to upload it to the school’s server. Whatever you named the file (eg. dramanotes.mp3) is what you create a hyperlink for on a page on the school Intranet, once the file has been uploaded to the school’s server.

Of course, at this point it is anticipated that your students will be able to access the page in question, preferably via password login at home (I created a link on the e-learning program Moodle, already placed on our school server). Once your students can access the audio file, left-clicking it will launch the file in the computer’s default audio program. But by right-clicking the link, a student can ‘save file as’ to their computer desktop. From here, they plug in their MP3 player’s USB link and sync the file, transferring it from the computer to the portable MP3 player. Now all they do is go for a walk and listen to your Drama podcast on their iPod (or similar)!

After my first (rudimentary) podcast on how to create a solo performance in Drama, my students offered me formal feedback. Many of them commented on how they enjoyed the variety offered in delivery of class content, as they were so ‘over’ getting handouts in class from other teachers. Others enjoyed the fact that they could do something else while listening to it (even exercise biking!), some commented on the replay value of a podcast to digest the information better, including the fast forward and back functions. Others said they took notes on it, but weren’t too fussed by this and most said they found it informative and worthwhile for their learning.

Most importantly, even the simplest of podcasts is embracing a new technology many of our students are already to some extent familiar with. It is another method of delivering Drama class content and in my experience, a method your students will thoroughly enjoy. As for blogging, it is more than just another method of delivering content. Blogs can be both an academic and social tool in Drama, helping create an environment that fosters healthy communication and collegiality among your students.

6th World Drama Congress

Every three years, the International Drama/Theatre and Education Association (IDEA) organises a World Drama Congress. On average, about 800 Drama/Theatre teachers from all levels of education and theatre professionals from more than 60 countries attend the week-long conference.

This year, the 6th World Drama Congress will be held in Hong Kong from 16-22 July. Having atended the previous two in Canada and Norway, I can honestly say if you're passionate about Drama teraching, then this is unquestionably the best professional learning you will ever experience! Put simply, attending the World Drama Congress is unbeatable.

The conference is not all about information, though. For the serious, it represents a wonderful opportunity to 'get connected' with new colleagues from across the globe, introduce yourself to a Drama megastar from overseas, or simply have a ball both during or in between workshops and presentations.

The fun is not just restricted to the workshops, believe me! It's a non-stop party, even for the meek and faint-hearted. As soon as you find a friend or two, before you can blink you'll be going out to dinner with newly acquired buddies in the evenings, tasting the new cuisine, hitting the pubs etc and exchanging phone numbers and business cards

If you've got the money and can spare the time off work, it's a must-do! For some of us, the Congress may well be occurring during an acadmeic school week (for those in Victoria, Australia, it is in Term 3, Week 1), but if you don't ask to get the time off work, you'll never know. See if your workplace can offer you some or all of your days away as professional learning (you may be able to get the time off on full pay!) and perhaps they could also contribute to the conference fee a little? Meanwhile, all your airfares, meals, accommodationa and other travel expenses become legitimate taxation deductions!

Visit the IDEA 2007 website for more information.

7 Principles of Culture

A little bit later than promised, here's the '7 Principles of Culture', as outlined by Simon Woods, co-founder and Artistic Director of Queensland-based Physical Theatre company Zen Zen Zo:

1. If you don't like your culture, then change it.
2. Treat culture like a garden; enjoy a long-term process of cultivating it.
3. Culture is a dynamic process, not a destination. It requires constant reassessment.
4. Great culture exists beyond the individual, yet the individual flourishes within it.
5. Leaders must always set the example, but culture must serve something beyond the leader.
6. To build a culture, find a culture building machine (whatever this may be for your situation - activities, exercises etc.).
7. Strong culture is about making/creating an environment in which something great can happen.

Simon Woods was a keynote speaker at the 2006 Drama Victoria Conference at the University of Melbourne.

A few other inspirational comments about theatre and performance-making from Simon included:

• Find the extraordinary in everyone and everything.
• Take risks, give yourself a challenge and make things hard.
  
• Crash the plane by all means, but remember to salvage the black box!
• Be disciplined, because in the theatre, the body must be disciplined.
• Embrace failure and learn from your mistakes.
• To be involved in the theatre, you need energy, so if you don't have it, locate the source of your energy.
  

2006 Drama Victoria Conference

Well, it has taken me a few days since the annual Drama teachers' conference in Melbourne to hit the blog. My apologies for infrequent blogging lately. The lead up to the conference involved other time consuming duties that kept me away from the trusty blog.

And what a wonderful conference it was! Congratulations to Jim Lawson and Gail Bailey at Drama Victoria and of course, our committee member and this year's Conference Director Nina Rossini, for a job well done! The Drama teaching community is after all a relatively small one, so it was fantastic to see about 330 teachers participating in our two-day extravaganza.

The Drama Victoria conference is (by some margin) the biggest state Drama teachers' conference in the Australia. In Victoria, we also have the largest membership of any state Drama association (Queensland coming in 2nd) and I can say with some confidence after attending the last two International Drama/Theatre and Education Association (IDEA) conferences in Canada (2004) and Norway (2001), Australian Drama teachers can hold their heads high on the international stage, as we are among the best in the world. At the end of the day, the Drama Victoria conference is planned and run by Drama teachers like many of you reading this post, volunteering their time for the love of drama education. We don't even have a formal conference organiser to get the gig up and running!

On a personal level, my biggest disappointment at the conference was missing seeing Day 1 keynote Professor John O'Toole speak, as I hear from others he was fantastic. Unfortunately I had more than a few technology problems to iron out for an afternoon session of my own on blogging, as Melbourne Uni's wireless Internet network simply did not want to behave for me.

There were oodles of workshops on everything from puppetry to ancient Greek myths, from stage lighting to improvisation and circus to Commedia dell'Arte. For those wishing to hear papers, choices ranged from constructing Drama curriculum for boys to Creative Arts Week activities.

Hearing Day 2 keynote speaker Simon Woods was a highlight for me. Delving into the backbone of how a recognised Physical Theatre company operates (Zen Zen Zo) was fascinating. Who would have thought an artisitc director of a theatre company would have links with an Australian Rules Football club in the Brisbane Lions?

Most interesting were the 7 Principles of Culture, as outlined by Simon. I scribbled them down on a piece of paper in my folder, so here's hoping I recorded them somewhat accurately! All I remember at the time was that they would be useful for us all. But.....I am writing this blog at home and seem to have left my notes on this at work, so I shall blog them tomorrow!

But some of the most popular workshops were once again what I call 'the essentials'. Caught in the midst of a changing Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) Year 11 and 12 Drama and Theatre Studies curriculum, sessions on the new courses starting next year, were, as expected, full of people and very, very worthwhile for the participants. Ditto for sessions on the new Years 7-10 curriculum, the Victorian Essential Learning Standards (VELS). So, the conference was definitely buzzing!

Our two performances were also excellent showcases of educational theatre. Another Brisbane-based company, RealTV presented a great new work in Hoods. Sort of a back-handed compliment when I say what a hard act their recent Children of the Black Skirt was to follow. But Hoods was an engaging and thought-provoking piece of theatre with just two actors. Similarly, Zeal Theatre's performance of The Best Little Town in the World was full of energy and caricature. This was a world premiere, pushed ahead of its scheduled release just so Drama teachers at our conference could get a glimpse at an exciting new work for teenagers. Both these performances had the added bonus of the Brechtian technique of playing mutliple roles, as well.

On a final note, congratulations to all those who won awards at the conference. The Drama Victoria awards are getting a bit of a name for themsleves these days. In recent years we have had people flying from interstate to receive awards, while others have even filmed the occasion. There are three awards I would like to make special mention of. Firstly to Goran Banyai for his wonderful new book (well, it's been out 12 months now) Drama Class which is a comprehensive Years 7-10 Drama curriculum, year by year, term by term, topic by topic (the level of detail is extraordinary). Secondly, to Kage Physical Theatre for their stunning performance of Headlock at the Malthouse Theatre. Finally, congratulations to Richard Sallis for his Lifetime Achievement Award. After doing so much for Drama Victoria over the years, from President to Director of Programs and more, I don't think one person in the room on Friday even thought twice about Richard being the worthiest of winners for this esteemed award.

Until next year....

Drama Australia Conference Workshop

Several members of the Drama Victoria committee of management (myself included) recently presented a workshop at the annual Drama Australia conference, held at the National Institute of Dramatic Art in Sydney.

The worskhop was based on playbuilding, adhering to the conference theme Turning The Tides, and threw in a bit of recent technology (blogging) for good measure. Conference sub-themes included

• Precious water - drama as essential learning
• Into the sea of discovery - new ideas and landscapes
• Reflections on practice... tales of lifesavers, adventurers and drought busters
• Against the tide - changing patterns, currents and practices through drama
• Surfing the imagination in digital seas - drama and immersion
• Safe harbours - strengthening communities through dramatic processes

The workshop involved participants creating a ship using the technique of silent negotiation. Then some of the challenges the ship and its crew faced were brainstormed. Still images of these challenges (eg. storm, mutiny) were then created by group members using the technique overheard conversations. A vocal collage of various characters' experiences on the ship were then created (with background music). Finally, scenes were developed and then performed together at the end of the workshop:

Departure (in the style of a documentary)
Voyage (using movement and sound)
End of journey (surreal/dream-like)

While all this was happening, at 20 minute intervals during the first hour, one-third of the group was taken out of the workshop room at a time and introduced to the value of blogging performance-making experiences in the Drama classroom on the Vineblogs website. Blogs on the web can be a fantastic reflective tool in Drama and in many cases can replace the traditional classroom journal in this subject.

The workshop structure can be found on this blog and is a worthwhile activity to undertake with your own Drama students. Check out the Vineblogs website while your there by perusing some of the other performance-making blogs. The site is only in its infancy and is already a friendly drama community of teachers and students at al levels of eduction, mostly from around Melbourne, Australia. We'd love some more teachers and their Drama/Theatre students to join the site with new blogs from other parts of Australia and the world. It's all free, easy to use and you can be blogging in only a couple of minutes! Blog on and tell us where you're from!

NIDA

In the past few days I travelled to Sydney to attend the Drama Australia annual conference. Over 200 Drama educators from across the country met for three days to share their experiences. This week I will be blogging a few bits and pieces about the conference, but for now, some photos of NIDA, the conference venue. The National Institute of Dramatic Art is every actor's dream; the ultimate acting course in Australia. So, as a drama teacher who had never been to NIDA before, you could say I was like a child in a candy store and snap-happy!

Justin Cash outside NIDA

NIDA's fantastic theatre

rehearsal room

NIDA exports Mel Gibson and Cate Blanchett

NIDA foyer

costume designs on a corridor wall

more costume designs

a few more...

NIDA from Anzac Parade

some of this year's company

people registering in the NIDA foyer

Who's Afraid of Edward Albee?

Whoa! It's been a while between posts. Wish I could say I've been slacking off, but sadly, this is not the case. Life's been a bit hectic lately.

I just watched a wonderful interview with one of America's best known playwright's, Edward Albee, on ABC's Sunday Arts program. I thought I'd share with you some of Albee's quotes on the modern theatre and the craft of playwrighting from this interview:

Of the eighty or so plays that get produced on Broadway each year, only two or three of them are any good. The rest are just commercial junk.

(Albee is a voting member for the annual Tony Awards and sees the vast majority of plays on Broadway every year).

The best playwright of the first half of the 20th century was Checkhov; of the 2nd half ... Beckett.

A good play is a play that leaves its audience with more questions than answers.

I have to get to know my characters very well before I trust them to be in one of my plays.

If you don't have a play on in New York City, you don't exist.

I love being a writer. I love writing plays.

I have felt more allied with European playwrights like Checkhov, Pirandello, Brecht and Genet than with American playwrights (like Williams, Miller etc).

There is no relationship (in stage plays) between excellence and popularity.

How long should a play be? As long as it needs to be, not the usual hour and three quarters that most plays are.

Don't be trapped into conforming. A play only needs to conform to its own rules.

Albee was critical of the fact that American audiences only ever hear of success (or otherwise) on Broadway. Hence his quote about not existing if you don't have a play on Broadway. He implied Americans know very little about plays on Off Broadway, Off Off Broadway or in Europe, where he has had much success.

Albee seemed a bit surprised about all the attention that has been paid over the years to his most famous work Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? The playwright readily admitted he has written other plays that were of equal quality, but were commercial flops and that several of his other plays are more interesting than Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, partly because of their more complex structure.

Of his 27 plays spanning several decades, today about five or six of these bring him regular income in royalties ... including Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The Zoo Story (on many American university theatre textbook lists) and Three Tall Women.

Rethinking The Virtual Classroom

The Virtual Classroom:
Rethinking the Role of Teaching and Learning.
Professor Nicholas Burbules
Professor of Educational Policy
University of Illinois at Urbana Champagne

Public Lecture
Thursday 27th July

Last Thursday I attended a free public lecture by visiting American professor Nicholas Burbules, from the University of Illinois.

Burbules argues as educators, we are misunderstanding technology as a tool. We should think less of technology as a delivery system (of online lesson content) in education and more as a place for our students to learn; a social classroom where relationships are built and nurtured.

He also challenges our traditional notion of a 'virtual classroom'. Of course, 'virtual' , means 'being something in effect, even if not in reality' and we tend to associate the virtual classroom with Internet technologies. But Burbules argues the virtual is NOT dependant on the technology and being in a virtual classroom does NOT always mean being online.

Burbules says the 'virtual' IS real (not almost real) if the circumstances are right. He offers the example of online gamers who often play multi-user games on the Internet deep into the night with hundreds of players from across the globe. To some of these participants who play many hours each day, their 'virtual' gaming world is real. It is a world that is most important and means something to them. Their virtual experiences online are real experiences.

Therefore, what is important about the technology is being immersed in the experience as if it were real. In the (recent) past, I have been an avid PlayStation 2 gamer. Over the years, there have been many times after several hours of playing in a virtual world, the experience seems so real it is scary and often it takes some time to 'adjust' back to your 'actual' world because the gaming experience was so 'real'.

Burbules illustrates examples of virtual experiences that are not connected to technology. For instance, the image in our head of a character's face when reading a novel or the audience at a film that leans to the left to follow the onscreen character peering over another's shoulder. It reminds me of a night at the theatre some years ago. At a Melbourne Theatre Company production of Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House there was a scene where Nora's footsteps are heard by the onstage characters, as she dances the Tarantella upstairs.

Well, 'upstairs' didn't exist of course. It was a virtual place. But to an audience completely immersed in the drama, 'upstairs' was very real. I glanced sideways in the darkness of the theatre only to see many in the audience tilt their head skyward to 'see' Nora dancing 'upstairs' as the onstage characters were making references to her being there. These people were actually looking at a row of lighting bars and stage lanterns, but to them, the experience of seeing Nora was real. They were engaged.

So what makes virtual experiences virtual?

• interest
• involvement
• imagination
• interaction

In summary, the experience has to be interesting for us, involve us in some way, allow us to use our imagination and offer us an opportunity to interact with it, and others around us as well.

Surely these four factors (the 4 I's) are the underlying ingredients behind the continuing success of the computer gaming industry. For the sceptics out there who think computer games have no place in our society, the people think otherwise. There is now enough statisitical data to prove the worldwide computer gaming industry is bigger than the film industry, in terms of annual revenue.

And so, Burbules argues that interest, involvement, imagination and interaction should also be our design principles in education. As teachers, we should be asking ourselves 'how can I make this learning experience meet these needs for my students?'. We should be exploiting these principles for the purposes of education.

No arguments here. The first thing I say to all my student teachers on their first day with me is that if they can't engage the students in the classroom, then they may as well pack their bags and go home now. Students are engaged through making the learning experience interesting, being allowed to use their imagination and interacting with the learning matter itself and others in the classroom.

Burbules says we should find a learning model in our classrooms where immersion takes place and uses exploration, problem solving and choice more often. He went back to the web for examples. Ever put a simple search query into Google and 45 minutes later found yourself on the dark side of the web, completely lost? The web is called the web for a reason! The web, Burbules reminds us, is a complex environment. When navigating the web, we follow links, move around, make connections and go on a journey. When all goes well, we are making patterns of meaningful connections. But the first few times you navigated the web, it was a little scary, yes?

And so it is with education. Our students often find navigating their way around complex learning environments, daunting. They need a road map to assist them. But not any old road map. They need the RIGHT road map. Unfortunately, too often the teacher thinks this road map is the their road map. Wrong! Burbules argues we need to consider that the best road map for our students is often the student's road map, not the teacher's.

Our teaching design of a virtual place in the standard classroom should carefully consider

• mobility
• social interation
• public vs private
• intrusion vs exclusion

As a metaphor for our educational design, Burbules offered examples of public buildings and spaces, often very formal and rigid. Alternatively, there is the design of your lounge room furniture at home; no doubt more private and informal than the furniture in a city museum complex.

Burbules says we must intentionally create a learning environment where movement can take place; an environment that caters for mobility and choice amongst our students. Where possible, as educators we should anticipate how our participants will use that space. But at the same time, we should also leave open the element of surprise and be flexible enough to allow our students to sometimes navigate their own way through this learning environment. While this may be very different to the path the teacher may take, the student 'road map' is at least a method of navigation that is engaging for the students, because they are the ones creating it.

Burbules says this notion of mobility is at the very heart of learning. Our students need to find their way around complex subject matter and be able to do things in education that are important to them. It is here that Burbules indicates the importance of social learning and the concept that our students must be a part of a social network.

Being a high school Drama teacher, I could safely say I am well versed in the advantages of students belonging to a social framework in the classroom. As one of the most 'social' subjects on any school curriculum, Drama encourages and reinforces the benefits in education of collaborative problem solving and teamwork in both simple and complex learning spaces. This social dimension is crucial in creating interaction and engagement amongst our students.

Out of the standard classroom and into the traditional virtual classroom, I have always encouraged a social, collaborative nature in my 'room' when working with Drama students using Internet technologies. E-learning platforms such as Moodle cater for this wonderfully. But everyday forums and blogs also encourage collegiality and interaction that actively immerse and engage students in the learning process.

As teachers, Burbules says we must rethink the 'virtual' as an educational concept, and whether online or in the regular classroom, design a learning model that caters for student interest, involvement, imagination and interaction. Only then will our students have the best possible opportunity of being fully engaged in their learning.

Take A Risk!

Should students take risks with their performance material in Drama? If so, will it pay dividends?

Well, I've got to admit, in years gone by, I have always encouraged my students to play it safe with their performance making and the word 'risk' barely entered our vocabulary. I was too afraid of the insecurity of risk-taking and the possible results.

By 'risk-taking' I don't mean party all night before a school production and rock up exhausted or try being in the wrong position on stage in a scene and see how the rest of the cast copes with it! What I really mean is an actor taking risks with the development of their character in the rehearsal phase.

At the moment, myself and many of my colleagues are embarking on our senior students' end of year performance examinations. In Drama, these are 7-minute solo performances, where the students devise their own script and blocking from a 'prescribed structure', or series of plot events prescribed for inclusion in the performance. The characters are drawn from history, film, art, plays, fiction and the imagination. The task involves considerable research and decision making by the student.

In Drama's sister subject Theatre Studies, the exam is a monologue performance in the acting tradition of an audition from a selected play. These monologues are chosen from famous and not so famous plays, both historical, modern and contemporary. On both exams, students receive a choice: usually 10 prescribed characters in Drama and up to 13 monologues in Theatre Studies, from which they choose one to perform (and these choices change each year). Find the exams here if you'd like a look.

But many years into my teaching career, with success in the past without my students really taking risks, I am now highly encouraging my students to take risks in their character and scene development for their Drama performance exams. Almost like I have been hiding under a rock for the past decade, now I see no other option. Where have I been all these years?

But be warned! There is a difference between taking unnecessary risks and taking calculated risks. Unnecessary risk-taking may well be deliberate and with purpose, but there is little sense in encouraging a student to choose a solo performance character that has no connection with their interests or strengths. Students must possess not just a mild interest, but a passion for a character at the beginning, as they are the ones who will be doing most of the hard work developing it. So you gotta love it, or you'll end up hating the whole process.

Calculated risks usually involve risks that are set within an imaginary boundary, that may be different for each student and character. For example, if I believe a particular character choice is the most appropriate for a one of my students for the exam, then I will first check to see if the passion and interest levels are there, then really encourage my student to sink their teeth into this one and a little way down the track start encouraging them to take calculated risks with their choice of character. Great drama is only created when we move out of our comfort zone a little and feel the anxiety and nervousness of stretching ourselves into new and previously unexplored territory. Many students will be hesitant to try this and some will be prepared to take more risks than others. Then it is up to the teacher to guide the student in making the best possible decisions along the way until the character and performance are fully realised.

As I have blogged before, if a student takes little or no risks developing their exam character, then this will only produce mediocrity. And what is the risk for taking a risk in Drama? Less of a risk than taking no risk at all!

In A Different Light

As I am currently in the midst of visits to the theatre and performing arts nights with many of my students, I thought I would blog on the value of seeing your students in a different light.

I pity the teacher who only gets to see his/her students from the other side of the desk and rarely goes on excursions. Recently I have gone to the theatre with my senior Drama students (another one next week) and sometimes I just drift away in the theatre and think about how fantastic my senior students really are. Sure, I set a few ground rules at the start and go over them again from time to time, but seriously, it's just procedure, because I could get hit by a bus an hour before attending the theatre with my students and all would run like clockwork.

Before every excursion to the theatre, I remind my students briefly of my expectations in advance. But more importantly, after returning from each excursion, the next day in class I also make a point of not forgetting to praise them for their maturity and good behaviour. As Drama teachers, we should not take for granted the fact that our students may behave like proper young adults in the theatre, because if you've ever seen the oppposite....! My students now come back to me in Drama with wicked tales of misbehaving students from other schools at matinees of Shakepseare performances and concerts from Literature and Music excursions, alike. It's not said cockily, but more in the sense of being proud in that they have been taught this is not how one should behave in the theatre.

My students know all too well I often wear my heart on my sleeve, but there is rarely a moment when I am not proud of taking them to the theatre. It's all based on trust and mutual respect for both theatre as an art form and between student and teacher. I can (and regularly do) trust my students to sit wherever they like in the theatre. I don't have to be sitting under their armpits all night for them to take it seriously and behave properly. It's simply an expectation that is never questioned.

Last week Avila ran our annual performing arts extravaganza, run by the Head of Music. It's a three and a half hour night full of music, drama and dance on a chosen theme with over 400 performers from all year levels, before a full house at Robert Blackwood Hall, Monash University. Because this night is as much about access as it is excellence, it is a fun-filled night full of laughs and celebration.

It is backstage and in the wings that a Drama teacher gets to see the other side of his/her students. Kids discussing their item with you (knowing full well you're a Drama teacher and will know nothing about their classical music item), the MC's cracking a joke to the audience about your colourful daily wardrobe at school (so I like bright shirts, where's the sin in that?), more jokes left, right and centre between teacher and students backstage, a quick listen to a new track on a student's iPod and then it's back again to putting on a funny wig or wearing someone's costume for a bit etc. Yep, I know, I was meant to be one of the adults there on the night. Mmmm....well at least I had fun! In the process, I got to enjoy some time with students and see them in a different light outside the classroom.

I believe for both teacher and student, seeing each other in a different light helps each party respect the other more when it comes to classroom activity and work back at school. For the students, they think their teacher is 'human' (although some of mine still question whether I have 'a life' or not - as I always say, 'well if I didn't run this theatre website'....).

Gee, I Wish I Was Teaching Drama!

Recently a couple of colleagues leaked back to me parts of a conversation at my workplace where they heard another staff member complaining about her workload. In the midst of it all she commented 'Gee, I wish I was teaching Drama!' To my delight my two coleagues instantly supported my cause and politely, but swiftly reminded this person that a Drama teacher's lot is not always a happy one and certainly isn't easy at the best of times.

Drama in many secondary schools across Australia and other parts of the world is well received as a subject by the student body. If I had a dollar for every student over the years who has told me Drama was his/her favourite subject, then indeed, I would be a very rich man. Granted, we still have a fair way to go in convincing the powers that be in school administrations of the value of Drama sometimes (pity they are the ones making most of the important decisions, hey!), but as far as students are concerned, for many of them 'Drama Rox!'.

Let us see, now. Drama rox because it is one of the funnest (like my grammar?) subjects on any curriculum, it is one of the few subjects that teaches students life skills for school and beyond, unlike numbers on a white board a human being is the subject of inquiry and it is the ultimate subject teaching students to communicate effectively with their peers. Traditional barriers are broken down between teachers and their students, desks are thrown away, talking (and even noise!) is totally acceptable in a Drama class and perhaps best of all, it is fantasy. Yes, that's right ... fantasy. Drama is the place where young people can escape the realities of their everyday world and 'disappear' into another one that is much more exciting.

Over the years I have had students cry on my shoulder at the end of Year 12 and tell me Drama class was their only haven from an otherwise unhappy school life, where a few times a week they could 'be someone else' instead of the person they hated so much. I've had others who couldn't stop jumping up and down with excitement when they got accepted in their Drama/Theatre university course. I've had the shyest student in the class receive an A+ for a performance in which two years earlier, I need only have breathed heavily in their direction on stage to watch them fall over with fear and embarrassment. As you can see, Drama as a subject at school offers lots and the rewards for students and teachers are many, some of which I will never forget.

But back to my colleague who wishes she was teaching Drama! I bet she doesn't know of the 13th month in the calendar? That's the many hours during the year that most Drama teachers contribute after school hours in rehearsals, prop building sessions, extra acting lessons, painting play and musical sets, Drama camps, evening performances, visits to the theatre with students ... the list goes on. Well, I think it is fair to say all these hours would add up to another month's work over the course of a year. At about 8 hours per day, multiplied by 5 days a week, yep, I'd easily contribute 160 hours outside of class for the love of Drama over the course of a year! While the average Drama teacher may not get as many corrections to take home as other teachers, believe it or not, we too use pens and students write wonderful essays, do assignments, tests and examinations in Drama too!

OMG if some of our colleagues out there would only see what a Drama teacher does in a single day, then they may have a different point of view. I commonly arrive at school at 8am to see a group of my Year 12 girls in the Drama room who have been rehearsing since 7.15, teach every lesson in the day, mixed up with a lunch time meeting and off to after school rehearsals as well. By 5.30 or 6.00pm when rehearsals have just finished, some days I could collapse! Every teacher needs to take a Drama 'extra' once or twice a year, I reckon. Most teachers fear taking a Drama class for a sick colleague because they think of these lessons as unstructured. Nope! There is plenty of structure beneath the average Drama class and the average Drama teacher works their butt off most days of the school year.

'Please sir, can I play the rock in the third act?'

'No Jimmy, I have the part of a talking tree for you'.

Yeah, that's right, I forgot, Drama's not a REAL subject, is it? We just have fun and play games, don't we?

No. In Drama our students work as hard as any other, we have courses that are artisitic and creative and yet as academic as Physics and to top it all off .... we have FUN at the same time! Name me another subject that offers all of this?

There isn't one.

Drama Rox.

Challenge > Inspire

I know teachers who loathe parent teacher interviews. I know some who get nervous and sweat about meeting their pupil's parents like they were bungee jumping for the first time. But how often do you drive home from parent teacher night feeling as though you made a difference?

In recent years I have taught quite a lot of junior Drama and have loved parent teacher nights, partly because the vast majority of Year 7 & 8 students only make appointments for mum and dad to meet their Drama teacher! So this is either sounding warm and fuzzy or a little absurd. Being a Drama teacher is kinda like being the clown at the circus, sometimes. You spend half your day cracking silly jokes and the children think your funny. You spend the other half teaching them a subject which is simply like no other on the curriculum and they get into it because it teaches them, among other things, that learning can be fun. And if you're like myself, being one of only a handful of male teachers at an all-girls secondary school amongst 100 female teachers, you have the added bonus of being a novelty once you hit the classroom (no matter what you're teaching!) ... just because you're male.

So the other night it was time to meet the Year 12 parents again and it made my day. You know things are going well when a week beforehand, all 15 of my senior Drama students placed their name on the interview booking sheet immediately, without a fuss and one might say, even a little enthusiastically.

At the interviews all I met were lovely students, kind supportive parents who threw me lines like 'is there anything we can do to help?' (a school teacher's dream!) and smiling faces all round. Please ... let me know if it gets any better than that at parent teacher night? What more can a teacher ask for?

To be honest, I was a little concerned because the ensemble task I had given my Year 12 Drama students for 25% of their year's assessment was pretty daunting. We're not talking kids stuff here. If you give it a read (click the link) you'll see this task designed for small groups is very challenging. Whispers filtered in from my pupils who had shown the task to friends or teachers of Year 12 Drama at other schools, that it was way too hard. From the beginning, I wanted to give them a task that would be pushing the envelope. I'm a firm believer that Drama students will produce their best work when they are forced to jump out of their comfort zone and take risks.

Comfort in senior Drama produces nothing but mediocrity, time and time again. It might sound a little pretentious, but my Year 12 Drama students are too good for that. Why put in hundreds of hours of work over the year just to score a bunch of C+'s, when, with some real effort, the rewards could be much greater.

Thankfully, the general concensus at parent teacher interviews was that everyone was happy (a slight change from the day I distributed the task, where most of my students wanted to strangle me!) and everyone agreed it was a helluva lot of work, but definitely rewarding and something they could really sink their teeth into.

So my lesson as their educator was to stick to my guns and follow my instinct. The task given to my senior Drama students was no more challenging than what they will receive from the curriculum board later this month for their upcoming solo pe