Teacher Burn Out: It's Real!

Howdy, folks.

I haven't posted anything since January.  It is now July.  Fellow teachers, you already know what I'm about to say: life is hectic as a teacher in the spring, no matter how many years you have under your belt.

January brings new challenges in my world: we jump right into our One Act Play contest rehearsals, and that's all I can think about until March.  Spring break hits, and I lose my drive.  The kids are antsy.  It's getting hot outside.  They can't bare to turn in any assignments, even the easy ones.

I wanted to write a complete post about how Interactive Notebooks worked for me this year.  I took pictures of how the storage area became a mess and stayed a mess all year long even with classroom jobs.  I don't even know where those pictures are right now.

Here's the deal with Interactive Notebooks in middle school theatre:  The idea is nice, and admin loves it, but it just doesn't work well if that's what you are basing your curriculum around.  I found out that I wanted to fit as much as possible into those notebooks, and by February we were all sick of them.  I kept supply tubs at each table with glue, scissors, rulers (aka swords), colored pencils and markers.  By Thanksgiving they looked terrible and I needed to reorder supplies.  Middle school kids will fiddle with everything they see, so those tubs lived on my bookshelf for most of the second semester.

Even though kids kept their notebooks in their class period's bin, they still lost them. (!!!!!!)

I want to continue with the notebooks, but here's what I'm going to change:

Don't fit all the notes into one semester.  It's ok to take half the notes one day, the other half the next.  Hey, you could even ask kids what they remember to keep them in engaged in the unit!  My theatre I kids this coming year will take the same amount of notes, but spread out throughout the year.  My need to get them ready for contest makes me rush through the notes and students hated it.

Add more opportunities for students to reflect and evaluate in their notebooks.  We had plenty of room in notebooks at the end of the year, so I pledge to give them more opportunities to reflect and evaluate in their own words.  I used to be really good at getting gets to evaluate performances and reflect on them.  I don't know what happened, but this year I felt their writing about theatre hadn't improved.

My returning students will already have the basic notes from last year, so they will definitely have less writing.  (And I can create assignments based on their notes for when I have a sub!!)  I packed up all of the notebooks in May, and come August I will unpack them and recycle those who are not in the class any longer.

Another thing that did not work again this year was getting students to do their warm ups.  In previous years, their notebooks were warm up books. They would write a paragraph or vocab word as their warm up in their notebooks.  Many students didn't do it, or lost their notebooks (in the classroom again), which is why I moved to interactive notebooks and I changed my warm ups.  They were a question with a short answer each day, written on a paper Monday-Friday, turned in every Friday.  Students did not even do this simple task, and I put them on my website.  Many students earned a C because their warm up was a daily grade every week.

Y'all, I even had an entire class that would not do active theatre games/activites, NOR would they sit and do worksheets!  They sat and did nothing all year!!  I got burned out from trying to motivate this class every day.  What can I do with a group of middle school students who don't respond to any type of activity or lesson?  I don't like to just put movies on; that's not my style.  But every day, that class wore on me.

So, after taking a good long break from even thinking about school, I think I am ready to dive back into it and try to retool my classroom, yet again, because that's what teachers do.  We are always trying new things to engage our students and help them grow.  I want my theatre students to grow academically, so I will not take writing out of my curriculum.  However, I know they need more hands-on, active learning.  As a teacher, that type of learning in the middle school environment is hard to monitor and control.  I will spend the rest of my summer figuring out how to do just that.

Sorry for the lack of posts.
Sorry for no pictures in this one.  (ain't nobody got time for that in the spring semester).

I'm going to direct you to my TeachersPayTeachers page where I have my "Make Your Own Lesson Plan Book" documents on sale until Saturday, and I will be adding more resources to my store in the upcoming weeks, as well.

Ms. Korth's Theatre Classroom and Other Tools

I hope my fellow educators are getting the rest and family time they need to be the best they can be for their students in August!  Enjoy the rest of your summer!

Cheers!
Kasey

Middle School Theatre Arts: Grading Made Easy!

I realize that my last post about Theatrefolk podcasts seems a bit rushed.  It was very rushed; I tried to blog on my conference.  HA!  I tried to be productive on my conference; imagine that.  I've decided if I'm going to write a coherent and helpful post I should wait until I'm not at school.  Also, we've started our musical (Legally Blonde, Jr.!) so I'm hoping my posts won't disappear.  No promises.

I had an interactive notebook quiz last week with all seven of my classes.  In the past, they were quizzed over their warm ups and it was a disaster.  I would ask what the entry was for four different dates and they would be writing the entire period and many failed because, let's face it, middle school students do not do warm ups.  My school loves them, and I do, too, because they help to focus the kids and give them a task to do before and after the tardy bell so I can deal with issues before we start each class.  Anyway... I don't want my kids to fail and putting so much weight on a warm up was not efficient.  Instead, I am quizzing them on their interactive notebook.  It's an open-notes quiz, and multiple choice.  Instead of writing the entire period, they fill in a bubble on an answer document.  Instead of spending too much time grading, I hold the answer document up to the camera on my laptop and it grades it for me!  How, you ask?

GradeCam.

This little website is amazing!  First you must create an account.  I always use my school information when creating an account, that way I will always know it.

When you log in, your dashboard looks like this:

You must add all of your students.  This seems daunting, but many gradebooks have an export feature.  My district uses GradeSpeed and this link is on the left.  You must click this link for each period and section you teach.  It will automatically go to your Downloads folder.

In GradeCam, click on Classes and add a new one.  Import your students through the file you created and hit next until they are all there.  Do this for every class.  It seems tedious, but it's worth it.

Once all of your classes are made, create an assignment.  Make sure you create a key that is accurate!

To print forms for students, click on Forms.  There are different options for the choices and such.  I printed four copies, then cut and taped them to one paper and made several copies from there and use a paper cutter to cut them.  Saves paper.

When students take the quiz or assignment, they must bubble in their GradeCam ID, which is the same as the last four digits of their ID that was imported with your roster.  TIP: have them also write their name on the top.  We know them by name, not numbers.  So much easier when handing back.

Students can use pencil or pen.  When you're ready to grade, click on the assignment and correct class period, and hold the answer document up to the camera until it makes a little noise. Viola!  Graded!  When I enter them into my district gradebook, I make each browser small and put them next to each other and just enter the grades.  BAM!  They are done in a few minutes!  I cannot express how much time and paper and stress this little tool has saved me and it's only been one quiz!

For absent students, I place the class set of the questions with extra answer documents in a labeled folder in the dish rack I have next to the bookshelf.  When a student presents me with an excused slip and asks what they missed, I can easily give them the documents and they can take the quiz in the hall.  I can grade it in seconds and the grade is saved online to enter in later.

This can be used for quizzes, tests, take home assignments, etc.

We all need more time, and GradeCam gives us a bit more in our busy educator lives.

Cheers!

How I Set Up My Middle School Theatre Classroom

I'm beginning my fourth year of teaching this year and finding that I am adding and  improving things every year. It can only get better, I think!

I am almost ready for my students; just a few things to add or clean. Ignore my desk; it's a dumping ground right now.

I am lucky to have a great black box for my teaching and learning space. I have 5 beginning classes, one intermediate, and one advanced class.

I also have a storage closet and small office. The computer hook up for the sound system and projector is in the classroom, so I also have a desk outside of the office. I find that I don't really spend time in the office. (Only to cry, which hasn't happened in the last year!) Inspend most of my time in the classroom space. 

I have a word wall near the door with large word. These are words that we use frequently or or frequently misspelled.

My students loved to write their birthday all over my dey erase events calendar and it got out of hand last year. I have a separate space for them to show everyone when their birthday is. The cabinets have interp pieces and lesson plans, as well as "Indepndent Theatre" assignments. This is book work for kids who missed a performance or go to ISS or AMS. I copy these at the beginning of the year and pull them as needed. The book shelf is organized for students to check out materials with the iPad on a a Google form, and my CHAMPS posters are displayed. I rarely had to refer to them last year, which was great. I am storing interactive notebooks in the colored bins, and the turquoise bins are for papers that need to be handed back or scripts left behind. I really want a bright fuzzy rung over here, but I have to see ify students can handle it.

I have a place to turn in papers, class rules, rewards and consequences, and a dry erase calendar. I also have a dish rack that Inise for the unit's assignments for absent students and a place for found pencils to go. 

I have to keep the stage curtains behind the objectives board because idle school kids will not resist the temptation to play with them otherwise. The table has five student laptops and bins for interactive notebook supplies. The bins are numbered for each table, which has a number. I always have assigned seats at the beginning of the year to establish structure and usually stop using them depending on class behavior. Don't forget a giant lost and found bin! I find my theatre kids are always leaving stuff behind.

Near my office I display information about our district speech contests and NSDA points and certificates up on the ledge.

It's taken me four years to get to this point and each year I add or change something so I can be more efficient and teach my students more effectively.

We will be starting interactive notebooks next week so I will update on the process when we get there.

Good luck to all educators out there was you prepare for another year of shaping and molding the minds of the future generation! Take care of yourselves, as well as your students.

Interactive Notebook Ideas for Middle School Theatre Arts

I'm in my third year of teaching middle school theatre and finally feeling like I'm not constantly drowning.  I've had my students complete a bell-ringer/warm up assignment in a notebook for the last two and half years so they can learn concepts and focus on theatre while I take care of housekeeping tasks and learning is still happening.  I've decided my goal for next year is to implement interactive notebooks in my classroom and change the formatting of my bell-ringers.

Interactive notebooks are not new to me; I saw them in use by the wonderful elementary teachers I worked with as a special ed assistant.  I recently took a workshop at TETA Theatrefest about the notebooks, which sparked my interest.  I love colors and note-taking, but I also see how some kids don't like this.  I, however, feel it would be a great way for them to learn concepts and complete assignments without loose-leaf paper.  It can be something they are proud of with drawings, colors, and stickers.

I kept the notebook I received at the TETA workshop and I started creating sample lessons for middle school theatre at all levels.  Below are some of the ideas I've come up with:

Here's the cover.  I know; it's simple.  The workshop instructor made a good point when she said glued on images fray and fall off through the year.  A simple cover with the student's name and class period works.  These notebooks should be kept in the classroom, sorted by period.

These two pages showcase a lesson about how our bi-annual speech tournaments work in my district.  I used foldables and sticky notes to have students understand how sectioning works and which events to pick.  I always have them create a goal they want to achieve so they can focus on that as they prepare for the tournament.

This is a Theatre I lesson on stage directions.  Have them paste in the grid and fill it out as a class.  You could use stickies and foldables, as well.

 The above photo is a section about the UIL one act play unit set pieces.  I teach in Texas, and UIL one act play contest = life!  My job at the middle school level is to teach them the basics and give them experience with the contest before they go to high school.  Our district contest is competitive and so much fun at the middle school level.

This is a lesson teaching the critique process for theatre, musicals, and film.  Later in the notebook I can have them write a page-long, paragraph form critique based on this lesson.

Envelopes are a fun idea! Students can keep show tickets in one throughout the year, and in this improv lesson they can keep character idea cards for when we play improv games.  I also includes foldables for CROW and the Four Rules (Tina Fey!) of improv.

You can also use foldables for Character Analysis, External/Internal Characteristics, The Rehearsal Process, playwrights, careers, vocabulary, etc.

I know several teachers on my campus deal with warm ups and bell-rings differently.  Some flip the notebook over and have them record the warm ups in the notebook that way.  I've created a weekly template to use next year. They will keep it in their binder and turn it in every Friday.  When it's graded they can cut out the warm up template and glue it on the next clean page in their notebook for reference. Open notes quizzes can be given.

I've seen the idea of sawing composition books in half for smaller notebooks, and I think I will do that for rehearsal notebooks for my after school shows.  They are small enough to keep with their scripts and they don't need a ton of space for their individual notes.

Bookmarks can be added with tape and a ribbon on the back cover.

The possibilities are endless with interactive notebooks. There are plenty of free resources online, especially Pinterest.

Happy notebooking!

Kasey