A reminder to VCE Drama and Theatre Studies teachers in Victoria, Australia, that I have set up a web forum (Internet message board) for your Unit 3/4 students to use.
This board has existed in some form or another for a few years now (in its current form for about 18 months) and will prove valuable for your students, in particular when preparing their upcoming Drama Solo Performance Examination and Theatre Studies Monologue Performance Examination.
Because the nature of these exams is a statewide choice of characters from a prescribed list, the message board allows students to create ‘threads’ under an exam character heading and then discuss it with other students from different schools across the state. Where else could one of your students have a discussion with a student from another school (whom they do not know personally) about their performance exam character?
If 2007 was anything to go by, lots of students from both metropolitan and regional areas used the web forum at this time of the year, helping each other out with creative ideas, ways to tackle the solo and monologue characters, interpreting exam assessment criteria etc.
At the moment, discussion on the board is centreing around character choices, as no one has begun the tasks in class yet, while we do ensembles performances in Drama and play productions in Theatre Studies. But soon the board will heat up!
My own students use the web forum, too, and I’m not fussed where they get their creative ideas from. If you think this may be worthwhile for your own current Unit 3/4 Drama and/or Theatre Studies students, give them the following web address:
http://s7.invisionfree.com/VCE_Drama_Forum (relevant for both DR & TS)
It will take them to a landing page, where they have to create their own board user name and password and input a valid email address. From here, they receive an email approving their application (by myself) with further log on details and they’re in! Password-protection and manual approval ensure no spammers.
I personally moderate this web forum to ensure discussion stays on topic and nothing offensive is posted, so its a nice environment for your students to belong to 
By all means, email me if you have any queries about this student web forum.
Just wanted to introduce myself, been a lurker on here for a while. Are there any subjects that we can’t talk about on here?