Injury Update: So Far So Good

I ran 7 miles yesterday, and I'm pretty excited about it.

I had 10 on the plan for that day before I got hurt last month.  Since then I've reworked my plan.  Those last two miles were tough- my legs felt heavier than they should have.  I cut back on Camp Gladiator workouts in order to give my body time to recover.  My new adjusted plan is to just finish this race.  I don't see myself getting a PR after how yesterday's run felt.  Usually I don't feel that heaviness until mile 10.  I still have three long runs left, though.  I just wish I could be more active (it would help to shed these extra holiday pounds) in order to build up more speed.  I feel like I'm not getting the speed workouts I need now.

After yesterday's 7, I soaked in Epsom salts.  I didn't ice it because it's chilly in my house, but it feels great.  I didn't feel any soreness at work today. 

Now, I have mountain cedar allergies bothering me.  I took the day off of working out because the medicine I take makes me feel so sleepy and dehydrated.  I figured a workout in this state wouldn't be good for me.  We will see how tomorrow goes.  I will probably need a workout since there is another event using our rehearsal space for one act play and I will be confined to my black box.  It's difficult to rehearse this play without our stage. 

I usually bring a 64oz water bottle to work and fill it up again by the end of the school day.  I got down the road this morning and realized I didn't grab it.  I stopped at the gas station near school and found a gallon of electrolyte water so I grabbed it.  I finished half of it, and I'm about to drink more.  How much water do you drink a day?  Does it leave you satisfied or do you feel symptoms of dehydration?

Have a great week!
Cheers,
Kasey

Non-teaching Tips for First Year Theatre Teachers

Congratulations!  You got the job!  Your dream job!  You've been through new teacher orientation, staff development on your campus, and met a ton of new people.  Your students will be walking through those doors in just a few days.  You've been trained on teaching techniques, and behavior techniques.  Your passion for theatre runs in your veins.  You're so ready!

Returning teachers: finish your fruity, frozen drink, put away the swimsuit and floaties, and try to find your school ID badge.  It's time to inspire a new group of shiny students!  These tips could work for us returners, too.  As I was drafting this post, I realized that these tips are good reminders for myself, as well. We know that the day-to-day can be really hectic with all that we do.  It's good to step back and take it all in, and take care of ourselves.

The following are tips for new (and old!) teachers that have nothing to do with instruction, because let's face it: instruction only covers a percentage of what we do every day.

1. Buy a large, long-lasting water bottle.  I have a 32 oz bottle that I refill throughout my day.  Staying hydrated helps fight fatigue, headaches, and the grumps.

2. Train yourself to use the bathroom once a day.  I'm not kidding.  Last year, I had a morning conference, so between 11:20 and 5:30 I had to sprint to the bathroom if I had to go.  Those teacher memes about the bathroom are not jokes.  They are true.

3. Make sure you have a microwave and refrigerator near your room/black box/office/auditorium.  Lunch is precious, precious time and you don't want to waste it walking across campus to the lunch room.

4.  On that note: bring a lunch and sit down and eat it.  I mean it!  Preferably with other adults with whom you can engage in an adult conversation with.  Fellow middle school teachers: trust me on this.  You need a break from adolescents in your day, no matter how much you may enjoy them.  (Confession: sometimes I don't have food to bring, or I didn't have time to pack a lunch, so I get a tray in the cafeteria.  Some schools have a great lunch program; others do not.  Investigate first before it's too late!)  Also, keep plastic silverware, plates, and paper towels in your office.

5.  Don't wear your school shirt to happy hour on Fridays.

6. Keep healthy snacks in your office/desk.  Our days are long, and lunch times vary.  Our last lunch doesn't start until 12:20.  I would DIE if I had to wait that long between breakfast and lunch.  (for some reason I can make it from 11:30am-8pm with rehearsal and a workout before I get hungry.  Go figure.)

7.  Have instant coffee/a Keurig/tea.  I think scientific studies have been done that indicate humans need a siesta in the afternoon.  That's why it's the "afternoon slump".  Mine always hit during 6th period, with three classes, rehearsal, and a workout to go.  Caffeine in any amount is very helpful.

8.  Attend as many meetings on campus as you can.  Be visable.  Work with other teachers on campus.  Don't hide away and be forgotten.  Attend staff parties and happy hours.  Do Secret Santa at least one year.  Treat the office staff like queens (or kings), give treats to your custodians.  Participate in a pep rally.  Do the "non-theatre" fun stuff on your campus.  You are not an island; you are a part of a community.

9. SLEEP.  I confess that this is something I struggle with during the school year, and I LOVE sleeping.  I slept a lot this summer and I don't regret it.  My body needed it.  I'm pretty sure that I read somewhere sleep studies have shown that you can't "store" up sleep that you missed, but man it sure feels good!  One of my goals this year is to go to bed at a certain hour (especially during my peak running training).  It's so hard to multitask and not be grumpy when your body is lacking sleep.  Lack of sleep also leads to missed workouts and bad food choices, which leads me to...

10.  Make healthy food choices.  I'm not saying you should do a Whole 30 or even count calories.  Eat more fruit instead of processed food.  Avoid fast food on those evenings when you are just bone tired.  Mental exhaustion feels like physical exhaustion, but you can still muster up the energy to eat better to keep your body functioning the way it should.  Without that, how can you be there for your students?  Along those lines, schools and teacher's lounges are filled with junkie goodies.  For example, the first day of training we had candy scattered on our tables.  Tomorrow, the PTA is providing donuts.  (YUM!  You know I'm going to eat one, but the key here is ONE.)  It's ok to say no to free junk food.

The bottom line is: Take care of yourself.  We give so much to our students (it's THE reason why we go to work every day).  It's so easy to forget about taking care of yourself in this profession.  But, if we teachers don't take care of ourselves, how can we be at our best for our students?  Veteran teachers, I hope this was a helpful reminder for you, as well.

We have such an important job.  Do little things to make sure you are the best that you can be every day, from August to June!

It kind of feels like Christmas, doesn't it?  New school supplies, new clothes, new scripts, new faces.  Drink some night time tea and get to bed early, and have a GREAT school year!

Cheers,

Kasey

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

Career and College Prep in Middle School Theatre

I don't know about you, but I am feeling the pressure to include more obvious college and career prep lessons in my curriculum lately.  Administration and parents love to hear that children are being offered this kind of instruction and support these days, but they do not realize they are already receiving it in their Fine Arts electives.  It's not in an obvious way, but the skills we teach in theatre directly pertain to college and life skills.

In Texas, the standards require that we teach theatre careers to older grades.  This year I had my advanced class (7th and 8th grade) create a theatre resume and I took a "headshot" (they ended up calling them mugshots) and laminated it to put on the wall next to their resumes.  This is something I saw my  high school director do with his advanced kids as they prepared for college, prep school, or a career.  Since schools are forcing kids to think about their future as early as 6th grade (!) I figured my kids could do their resumes, too.  My advanced kids participate in every production in some shape or form and are required to attend our speech contests, so they had plenty to put on their resumes.  I checked out a cart of chromebooks and had them do the assignment in Google Docs in a shared folder.  I can monitor their progress, give them feedback, and print the final product.  Easy.  This three days, starting with an interactive notebook lesson on jobs in theatre.

The next project I had them do was partner up and research a job in theatre, using local theatres as an example.  They had a week to research, analyze, and create a poster to present to the class on their career.  The poster had to be sturdy enough to be displayed to my other classes, and they did an assignment on this "Career Fair" while I had a sub.

Here's the finished Career Fair! (as you can see, one group didn't realize they were under a deadline...)

I've included the lesson plan, rubric, and PowerPoint for this lesson on my TeachersPayTeachers store for FREE!  It won't be free for long, though! Click HERE for Careers in Theatre Unit!

Cheers!

Middle School Theatre: Why I Love Google Drive

There is nothing more exciting than finding a tool that I can share with my students that actually works!  I find that Google Drive has been amazing for keeping up with all that I do at work (and personally), and my students can easily use this tool.

How I Use Google Drive in My Theatre Classroom

Most kids (and parents!) question why we have to write in theatre.  Not only is drama a genre of literature, but performance is the analysis and study of writing and the human condition.  When it comes to getting middle school students to write in an elective, it's important to start out small and work your way up.  I start with daily warm ups, short monologues, and short scenes.  My advanced class by far does the most writing.  I teach them modern oratory as we prepare for our speech contest.  I would only do this unit for this class as they are competition-driven and want to be in the class.

Modern oratory, for those that don't know, is a 3-6 minute long speech written by the student about one of the given UIL topics.  Students must define the problem, determine the pro and con issues, research the issue, look at both sides of an issue, reach a conclusion, and support that conclusion with documentation.

This means we will need methods of finding such research.  That's where technology comes into play.  My school has a few carts with Chromebooks, so I checked out one for a week and a few days.  I gave the students a few days to research their topic online, copy and paste their articles into a Google Doc in a shared folder, then discuss their research with students who chose the same topic.

First, I created a folder just for Advanced Theatre Arts.  Then I shared this folder with every student in the class.  Then I created a folder for each unit so it would be organized.

Students submitted their research through Google Classroom, and typed their speech on a document in the shared folder.  This way I was able to see them working on it live, see if they worked on it at home, and give them live suggestions as they wrote.

I love this feature about Google Docs the most!  I can keep my students accountable and give them instant feedback.  Throughout class I would hear students say, "I see you on my speech, Ms. Korth!" and it would motivate them to work.  Or, "Thanks for the suggestion!" It saved me time, as well, from having to print and read all 18 of their papers and make corrections by hand after school.  I read them and made corrections as they worked.  

I could also print them from my computer, which is already tied to the printer, when I felt they were ready.  We only needed to print the final draft so they could annotate and memorize for the performance.  Google absolutely made this project so much smoother than hand-writing, and my kids who have a tougher time writing found it an easy mode of doing so.

I also love Google for auditions.  I have a separate folder for each unit and each production that I do.  Instead of printing out an unknown set of copies of the audition forms and contracts, I had students scan a QR code or go to the URL for the Google Form to sign up.  I added at the bottom of the contract that students agree to said contract by signing up.  All of their info is sent to a spreadsheet so I can number and organize and make notes during auditions, then have that information for students who make the cast.  It's such a breeze!

My school has really pushed to have assignments and lessons online, so I have been using Google Classroom since it's password protected.  Students must use their school district Google log in to access your classroom (or personal if you have them set up their own accounts).  I post all kinds of things, like the link to the Daily Warm Up questions on a Google Slide, or screen caps of their interactive notebook lesson for the day, and especially make up assignments if they miss a performance or day.

Google has definitely been a time saver for this busy theatre director and has made life easier for both me and my students.  I encourage you to play around with this fabulous tool if your district has not implemented it yet.  My students also use Google Slides and other apps when we use iPads for presentations of information.

I love new technology and finding ways to make teaching and learning easier!

Happy Googling!

Kasey