No Drama Llama
Hello blogging world, my name is Kate - or Miss Williams for any potential students out there!
I am currently three quarters of the way through my teachers college education and can happily say I feel pretty confident in my teaching pedagogy and nearly ready for the next step in my career.
However, today this was how I looked.
Well, as I stated above I am only three quarters of the way through my teaching education, which means I still have a LOT to learn and quite a few areas of discomfort to work through. One of which is the reason behind the face and one of the two topics of this blog...
My 'turn your frown upside down' math experience over the last year and a half (woah - that just took a strange turn, bear with me) has taught me how simple it really is to turn:
So, back to the original face which comes from the fact that I would not classify myself as a typically 'artistic' person. In fact, I come from a family of wonderful artists and can promise you my pen to paper is not nearly as beautiful as any of their's and I am most definitely the last partner chosen for a family game of charades. Thus, although my confidence in teaching language arts and mathematics has blossomed over my (short) teaching career, my fear of teaching drama and dance is ever present.
Thus, the name of my blog.
This space will be used to share the bumps and the blusters of my journey and hopefully, the successes. The goal is to be able to provide both myself and other new teachers with a place of solace when confronted by fear by creating a space full of resources and anecdotes to boost their confidence when faced with the challenge of incorporating something unfamiliar into the classroom.
Anecdote Number 1: YES Llama, Drama!
During my first placement I was faced with the challenge of teaching a cross-curricular unit of Language Arts and Drama with the central focus on Social Justice. In hindsight I believe it will be one of my proudest moments but in the moment I was pretty overwhelmed with fear.
I am an English major so being fortunate enough to teach Language Arts in my first teaching block was a dream. However, the rest did not seem as sunny. Firstly, performing in front of a crowd creates a lot of internal tension for me. So, the idea of teaching others how to perform made me feel like an outright fraud. Secondly, although I myself am extremely passionate about the importance of incorporating Social Justice into education it seemed like quite a heavy topic for the focus of my first ever teaching unit.
My saving grace came from a Professional Development opportunity I had taken through Brock - a day course called 'Arts Matter' which introduced us to strategies for all four strands of the arts and provided us with a two year membership to the website "CODE" (Council of Ontario Drama and Dance Educators). The website is filled with drama and dance units related to a variety of topics. All you have to do is put key words into a search engine! The best part is that although the membership we were provided only lasts as long as we are in teachers college, the website has tons of free resources as well!
Without getting into the nitty gritty details, I was able to find a unit on CODE to use as the basis of my Social Justice unit. I combined the unit with a few other resources (which I will likely share in another post) and was able to create a very successful learning experience for my students!
Moral of the story: No matter how great your fear, there is always a solution. As teachers, we just need to remember...
On a final note, here's a picture of the bulletin board I was able to create with my students! Proof of the awesomeness that can occur when we surpass our fears, combine our resources and co-create!
I am currently three quarters of the way through my teachers college education and can happily say I feel pretty confident in my teaching pedagogy and nearly ready for the next step in my career.
However, today this was how I looked.
You may be wondering... "if you're so confident, why the lla(ong)ma face?"
Well, as I stated above I am only three quarters of the way through my teaching education, which means I still have a LOT to learn and quite a few areas of discomfort to work through. One of which is the reason behind the face and one of the two topics of this blog...
Welcome to my journey through becoming a drama and dance educator!
My 'turn your frown upside down' math experience over the last year and a half (woah - that just took a strange turn, bear with me) has taught me how simple it really is to turn:
into
It really is all about having a growth mindset and believing in the power of yet.
So, back to the original face which comes from the fact that I would not classify myself as a typically 'artistic' person. In fact, I come from a family of wonderful artists and can promise you my pen to paper is not nearly as beautiful as any of their's and I am most definitely the last partner chosen for a family game of charades. Thus, although my confidence in teaching language arts and mathematics has blossomed over my (short) teaching career, my fear of teaching drama and dance is ever present.
Thus, the name of my blog.
This space will be used to share the bumps and the blusters of my journey and hopefully, the successes. The goal is to be able to provide both myself and other new teachers with a place of solace when confronted by fear by creating a space full of resources and anecdotes to boost their confidence when faced with the challenge of incorporating something unfamiliar into the classroom.
Anecdote Number 1: YES Llama, Drama!
During my first placement I was faced with the challenge of teaching a cross-curricular unit of Language Arts and Drama with the central focus on Social Justice. In hindsight I believe it will be one of my proudest moments but in the moment I was pretty overwhelmed with fear.
I am an English major so being fortunate enough to teach Language Arts in my first teaching block was a dream. However, the rest did not seem as sunny. Firstly, performing in front of a crowd creates a lot of internal tension for me. So, the idea of teaching others how to perform made me feel like an outright fraud. Secondly, although I myself am extremely passionate about the importance of incorporating Social Justice into education it seemed like quite a heavy topic for the focus of my first ever teaching unit.
My saving grace came from a Professional Development opportunity I had taken through Brock - a day course called 'Arts Matter' which introduced us to strategies for all four strands of the arts and provided us with a two year membership to the website "CODE" (Council of Ontario Drama and Dance Educators). The website is filled with drama and dance units related to a variety of topics. All you have to do is put key words into a search engine! The best part is that although the membership we were provided only lasts as long as we are in teachers college, the website has tons of free resources as well!
Without getting into the nitty gritty details, I was able to find a unit on CODE to use as the basis of my Social Justice unit. I combined the unit with a few other resources (which I will likely share in another post) and was able to create a very successful learning experience for my students!
Moral of the story: No matter how great your fear, there is always a solution. As teachers, we just need to remember...
On a final note, here's a picture of the bulletin board I was able to create with my students! Proof of the awesomeness that can occur when we surpass our fears, combine our resources and co-create!
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