professional staff |

Theatre_2 Have you ever been randomly chosen from a circle of adults to create a monologue on the spot? Have you ever had to convey the text of a Greek myth without saying a word? Or maybe, you have been asked to create a documentary drama in two hours with a group of strangers? That was the nature of the “Power of Leadership” theatre conference that I attended in Anaheim, California, recently. Hosted by the Educational Theatre Association of America (EDTA), this professional development opportunity offered hands-on workshops ranging from commedia dell’ arte, how to create a documentary drama, Disney costuming secrets, to even a master’s class in the Michael Chekhov psychological gesture technique.

As an educator, these conferences offer many benefits. Firstly, I become a student again. I am able to learn new teaching and acting techniques from world class, international instructors. These workshops reawaken the sense of being a student and enhance the curiosity, excitement and apprehension that come from taking a risk and trying something new. This keeps me current and enables me to understand the perspective of my LCC students.

As a result, this experience helps my students in that the curriculum is in infused with fresh new ideas. This year, we will explore the art of Italian comedy through the mask work of commedia dell’ arte in my grade 10 theatre arts class. In grade 9 theatre, I will incorporate the “monologue orchestra” as part of my acting unit.

Secondly, since I find myself surrounded by like-minded thespians, these conferences provide an invaluable support network in my field of expertise. I have always been the only teacher in my field in all of the schools in which I taught. This networking time is therefore important for me because it helps situate my work within a larger community. We are all setting out with the same objectives, passionate about theatre education and are creative observers of the human condition.

Thirdly, each conference has a keynote speaker whose task is to inspire and mobilize new ideas and passions in theatre education. This year’s keynote speaker was Jason Alexander who is best known for his character, George Costanza, on Seinfeld. Not only is Jason Alexander a gifted actor, he is also an intelligent writer and director who has a lot to say about leadership in the arts. He sits on an advisory board for the arts at Boston University and has a compelling argument for theatre education. He highlighted new research that shows how theatre, music and art stimulates and develops the right side of the brain. Secondly he conveyed the notion that it is the artists’ job to go against that which has been established in order to create something new. Experimentation, creativity, risk taking as well as understanding your culture and critiquing it, is a profound way in which the arts shapes us to become more evolved human beings.

—Natasha Hart, LCC Department Head of Fine Arts

NingPic À la fin juillet, j’ai eu la chance de participer au congrès d’Alan November mieux connu sous la banière BLC (Building Learning Communities).

What defines a learning community you may ask? And why is it important? We know that in the 21^st Century, one of the skills we need to teach children is to share resources and seek information through their various networks. As teachers, we must put ourselves through the same process and develop our own learning communities and teach children how to go about building theirs.

Ce congrès portant sur l’intégration des TIC a lieu tous les ans à Boston. Le congrès comme tel se déroule sur trois jours avec la possibilité de participer à deux journées pré-congrès

The BLC conference brings together classroom teachers, educational researchers, consultants and philosophers from North America and beyond which I thought allowed for a great balance between more theoretical sessions and practical workshops.

Below are links to some great teaching resources to integrate ICT into your classes and to help you and your students in developing a digital identity:

I attended two sessions with Marc Prensky, and ICT consultant. Prensky coined the terms “digital natives” (our students) and “digital immigrants” (us). His first session was titled “Partnering with your digital natives” where he talked about engaging students as being key to 21^st Century learning. He reminded us that learning must be connected to passion and discipline (see http://www.marcprensky.com/).

Bob Perlman de la Californie et Thomas Daccord de Boston ont offert des pistes intéressantes en ce qui concerne les habilités necessaires pour le 21ième siècle (see http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/ and http://www.bie.org/index.php).

Daccord talked about asynchronous learning (textured literacy). It is the idea of multimodal text that really interested me (i.e., reading, writing and video texting). By storyboarding, students are able to read and write images which defines this new textured literacy. Daccord also stressed that we MUST teach critical thinking as kids are indeed tech savvy but, all too often, they don’t analyze content and search properly. Asynchronous learning gets students to create and teach one another (see http://www.edtechteacher.org/ and http://iearn.org/).

Autres sites et trucs intéressants à partager :

La taxonomie de Bloom revistée avec le Web 2.0 : http://www.techlearning.com/article/8670
Iphone et autres trucs pour l’enseignement avec les MACs : http://lainierowell.com/
La camera video HD Flip Mino: http://ca.theflip.com/index.shtml
Le trépied Joby qu’on peut accrocher partout
http://joby.com/gorillapod: Le pulse pen (gadget révolutionnaire!)
http://www.livescribe.com/smartpen/index.html

Twitter
I don’t spend a lot of time on social networks, but have found it very informative to follow some of the abovementioned presenters on Twitter and encourage you to do so!

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–Nathalie Lemelin
Interim Junior School Director

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