Halloween!

Finally the aforementioned flat building day was taking place. Being as it was Halloween there were some students in costumes. One student in first hour was wearing a long trench coat so he looked like he was going as a streaker. No he did have clothes on underneath but not a whole lot, hence the coat (I think he was wearing a kids version of Robyn from Batman). The aide was a bumble bee. There were other students who applied make up to be zombies or vampires.

In this first hour class, since it is larger, not everyone was able to go up on the stage to work on either building or covering their flats. One group worked on finishing the construction of their flat while two other groups were working on measuring out the fabric (muslin) to go on the frames. This class only had time for a pseudo-demonstration before the period was over. The teacher didn't want to actually completely demonstrate because he wanted the students to do it themselves to gain the knowledge and experience.

He was using proper and correct terminology throughout the entire process.

Teaching Improv

September 26th

The previous week my practicum teacher had asked if I would be interested in teaching the class some new improv games. So this week I came prepared with a couple of improv games to teach the class. I arrived at the school to find a substitute Teacher in the classroom. My cooperating teacher had made plans for the students to do their improv 'Battle Royal'. I had not yet seen the students do this in class yet. I told the sub how I'd been told to come prepared to teach the class and we decided to offer it up to the class if they would like to learn something new or proceed with the plans left for the sub. I had only seen the students do Improv the previous week and this week I found myself teaching them some new Improv games by their request.The sub basically sat in the room doing his own thing.

I got the students up on the stage in two groups to warm up with a quick game of Zip-Zap-Zop, which I had seen them do the previous week. It is a warm up game that promotes working with your 'other' to respond and react. A number of students decided not to participate and I was unsure of what to do to engage them. A majority of the students were on stage and out of those students most were actively engaged.

Improv Review

September 19th - Day Two from 8:00 - 11:00
The theater classes are still working on Improv this week. They have learned a variety of games that were to be reviewed/played after writing a Journal entry about what makes a good Improver. (i.e. thinks on their feet, adjusts to the situation, projects, enunciates, etc.)

The first class appeared to have lost a few members, therefore they didn't appear to be seated as far apart this week. They still stretched over more space in comparison with 2nd hour. At the top of the hour a couple of students handed the teacher forms. These forms are used by all of the athletic teams on campus to ensure that athletes are passing all of their classes. Mr. Milisch talked about requiring it of the theater students, apparently when he looked up their grades they were all honor role students so it doesn't appear to be an issue.

After writing blind lines (lines to be pulled out and said during the game of freeze) and journal entries the first order of business was to get warmed up and ready. Since the first hour class is larger they split into two circles and played a couple of warm up games including Zip Zap Zop, a rock paper scissors type of game with finding a matching partner (this one was new to me), and another game I was unfamiliar with.

Once the class had warmed up the rest of the improv review continued. The students played freeze with blind lines, bus stop, worst ever, genres, party game, and a few more. The teacher had to purposely freeze some of the scenes and call people in to play because they were not moving themselves along. The scenes for freeze are apparently (I found out a different time via a student) supposed to be at least a minute long. The students seem to really enjoy Bus Stop. The teacher goes first and as he phrased it "I'll go first and someone has to come up and creep me out". Some of the students might push appropriateness for school but the overarching rules of Improv (for his classroom purposes) are no touching, keep it school appropriate, and accept what your other says.

I wondered about how to get students involved. The first hour class in particular had a lot of students that stayed seated and did not join the rest up on stage. I don't know if I should have gone down to them and try to get them engaged or what? I did ask my teacher about what I should do and he was like "yeah yeah that'd be good" which still left me wondering.

to be continued......

Initial Reactions on Day 1

September 12th, 2012 from 8:00 - 10:30 (?),

Email communication had lead up to this moment; of getting in my car and driving off to East High School. I was unsure of where I was going to park, slightly nervous, a little apprehensive, and excited to begin my Theatre Arts Practicum experience.

Madison East High School

This would have to be the most diverse school racially that I have been to up to this point. According to the WDPI website 50% of the school was non-white in the previous school year 2011-2012. When I approached the doors to enter the school I had to pass through a group of students waiting/mingling. The majority, if not all, of these students were African American. Previously I have never been in a situation where I was so obviously in the minority. It did make me feel anxious.

Upon finding the Theatre where I was to meet my teacher I found it locked, but one of the janitorial / cleaning staff let me in when she entered to vacuum. My Practicum teacher is a graduate of Edgewood and incidentally had the same teacher. Although originally my teacher had not planned on being a teacher so he majored in theatre and then went back to add on teaching which is giving him some difficulties in becoming a full time instructor.

The first two hours of the day, Mr. Miclish teaches an introductory course to theatre. For the remainder of the day he works as an aide to the students with special needs. Mr. Miclish mentioned that his classes tend to have a percentage of students with IEP's and behavioral challenges. The WDPI website shows 20% enrollment for those with disabilities in 2011-2012.

The first class seated themselves in the theatre in the first three rows, but also spread out the entire width of the seating. They seemed rather fragmented and separated into their own groups. One group in the far corner contained individuals who liked to be rather vocal in expressing themselves. There are also two TA's in this class who took the class before and are now assisting. Some individuals stood out as being rather unique in appearance (pink haired male student); as well as one of the female students who was wearing a shirt that said "I'm out of beer/ I'm dressed / What more do you want" and this seemed inappropriate for school.

The second class does not have as many students in it and they seemed closer. They sat in more of a group, although the students with special needs are on the outskirts of the group. It is good that they are allowed to sit with the other students and are not completely exclude, though things could be better. One student is a bit more of an extreme case, I am unsure of exactly what she has: she is mostly nonverbal though she can respond with simple sentences, gum helps her, she does have an aide though the aide allows her to stay on the floor if she wants to- doesn't seem to try to help her be engaged, and is either unable to or not expected to write journals with the other class members. Two other students (one male, one female) are better able to participate with the class and participate in the games. The other students seem to treat them respectfully enough.

The second class of the day didn't actually have much class time. Because within less than 10 minutes of my being there and the bell barely having rung for 1st hour there was an announcement over the loud speakers."Attention students we are under code >>> and will remain in lock down". My high school had maybe 3 lock-downs the entire four years that I was there. The kids were saying stuff like: "will we have to sit in the dark again?" "what if I have to go to the bathroom" (*There was a 'sketchy' backstage bathroom that the students could use. There may have been a mouse sighting), etc.

I'm not going to lie, when I heard that over the loudspeakers my heart started racing. I've not had to experience something like that before. I was anxious. My face might have shown that a little, but I don't think I responded too badly. The lock-down lasted well into 2nd hour. I was talking to a few of the students in 1st hour who were glad to be missing their foreign language classes. I had a good conversation with them about theater and school.

When the lock-down was declared over there was an extra announcement to avoid a certain hallway due to a "pepper spray incident". One of the students in second hour (one of the students with special needs) was saying how the school is like a castle, like Hogwarts. I can't say that it's a bad comparison. Hogwarts has a corridor that is blocked off due to a three headed dog and East has a pepper spray hallway block off.

Overall it was an interesting first day.