Week 8--Storytelling

This week I decided wanted to implement some of the feedback I got from Doug Allen when he came and observed me last week. So I started by moving the desks in the room out of the center of the room so we would have more space to work in. I also thought this would help the kids by changing up our regular routine with something a bit different.

Once we had the desks moved, I separated the class into their two different groups. On opposite sides of the classroom I had 2 posters waiting where I instructed the children (before we separated) that we were going to write/draw the story from the following week on the poster.

I had the kids raise their hand and say what came next, and if it was right, they got to come write it on the poster (but they only had 10 seconds to do it). The rest of the group and I would count down from 10 so the kids had something to do while waiting.

Here's what they came up with:

 Mrs Larsen's group had to have 2 different posters because they drew so big.

After we got the whole story on the poster, we started acting out the story and I wrote down the people who were in charge of narrating the different parts of the story. We almost got through the whole story before our shortened time today was up.

I was very lucky to have Becky there with me today to observe and she helped me recognize that I need to be more authoritative when I'm working with the kids. Some of the kids in my group seemed to be testing me to see how much they could get away with and I needed to be more strict with them.

I learned today that I'm a bit too nice sometimes and I need to make sure that the students know that I'm in charge and they are expected to behave.

Becky also brought up the point that part of the problem is that the room is so noisy in trying to work with two different groups. I'm going to talk to Mrs. Larsen and see if we can find a different space for the kids to work in during this time. It's hard for the kids to concentrate when the other group is making noise too. Sometimes it's even hard for me to think! So I'll see what we can do for next time.

We didn't get to the "Talking Sticks" this week. Stay tuned for next week when I'll bring those out!

Week 7--Body Movement and First Final Performance Rehearsal

I'm really understanding what it takes to be a teacher and it requires a LOT of planning. And not the kind of planning I thought planning was, it is inTENSE planning. Like anticipating how students may act up and how to combat it. Or figuring out how to rehearse a short play where if some of the students aren't in on the action all the time, finding a way to keep them engaged 100% of the time.

It's a big job.

I'll admit today was one of the toughest days in Mrs. Larsen's class. I think the kids had a lot of extra energy because of all the "inside days" so it was good we started off with some movement exercises.

The first was a warm up. I went through all the different areas of the body (feet, legs, hips, arms, shoulders, neck, face, etc) and moved them in different ways. Then we did a levels activity where I counted from 1-10 and depending on how fast/slow I did it, they had to get from laying down on the ground to standing straight up.

Their favorite part was the second time through when I mixed it up and counted really fast at first and then slowed down or vice versa. Kids love it when you try to trick them.

The next activity I was supposed to do (but in my rush of worrying about if we would have enough time for our last activity, I didn't look down at my notecard and I accidentally jumped to the next activity) was called "Talk With Your Body." The kids spread out around the room and use different positions movement, and levels to portray different ideas like:

• I'm tired
• It's freezing in here!
• I'm so excited for Christmas!
• I'm scared

while reminding them to think about what happens to your eyebrows/mouth/eyes/legs/arms etc. when you feel all these different things. Then you pause them and have them look around the room (with their eyes only) to see the unique ways other kids are portraying the same thing.

Then we played "Character Sculpt" where I drew 2 names out of the class jar and one student is the "clay" and the other is the sculptor. The sculptor draws out an emotion (like last week's activity) and they have to shape the "clay" in a way that the class can tell what the person's feeling just by looking at the position of their body. I was impressed with all the different ways the kids came up with portraying the emotion. The kids loved it and wanted to do it longer. Looking back, next time I would probably split the whole class up in pairs and have them all pair up and do the activity.

Then the last part of the lesson, I had Mrs. Larsen split up the class into 2 groups and we started rehearsing for our final performance! Here are the two stories we'll be performing:

I just LOVE this story and it lends itself VERY well to a performance!

This is the best one I could find, although our version is going to be closer to the original Grimm brother's tale.

We assigned parts, acted out the basic storyline, and had the kids use their bodies to tell the story. This was the hardest part of the lesson because a few of the kids in my group weren't able to sit still without being disruptive and loud. I tried a few different tactics that worked for a little while (pulling the main trouble-maker aside, using our "tick-tock" phrase and even stopping and having a little chat with them.

One of the greatest things about this program is getting feedback from people who have been teaching a lot longer than I have. I sure appreciate Doug Allen coming to the class today and giving me lots of good tips on how to make this last activity better. Here were a few of the suggestions he made:

• Always have a "surprise" up your sleeve so-to-speak so the kids wonder what's next. Whether this is cue cards, visual aids, hats, or whatever it might be, to have a physical something to make them wonder what's going on.
• It might be helpful if from the start we push the desks off to one side of the room so the kids know it's time for drama and we aren't stuck in one corner of the room.
• Involve the audience somehow in this performance. Maybe have cards for the audience to clap or something so the kids will be more involved that way.

I also talked to Becky and she gave me the idea of keeping my one trouble-maker always busy somehow, whether that's helping out with a related project or whatever it might be or something else. But I just need to always have something that the kids who are not on stage can be doing something.