While I was on placement at a secondary school in Hull (UK), one of the main obstacles I had to overcome was facilitating a group of 10 students which ranged from 11 years to 16 years. These students were not recognised to one another, as this drama session ran after school. Our drama sessions’ required an energetic atmosphere from the students to complete the main objectives of each session. This was overcome by completing bonding exercises and activities which built on confidence. The result from this decision allowed the following sessions to have high energy, as all the students felt more comfortable in the space to work at their full capability.
I have used the subject of drama to accompany workshops which work alongside sensitive topics. Drama allows individuals to explore sensitive topics in a broad, open, and in a safe space. Filtered and adjusted specific activities are chosen to construct each workshop to deliver the main objectives.
For example, while I was on placement with the Prison Partnership Project at HMP Newhall Prison, I experienced the most overwhelming emotions when visually witnessing the rewards of my work. HMP Newhall Prison is a female only prison in Yorkshire. After weeks of working with the same group of women in the prison and the prisons facilities, the women and ourselves showcased the women’s work to the prison officials, guards and fellow inmates. The workshops within the Prison Partnership Project has the main objectives of bringing confidence to all women and to take that confidence and new learnt life skills with them when they are released back into society. The activities delivered through the project and through the facilitators, encourage the women to open up about their experiences, their personal emotions and feelings, and be creative with their responses to the activities. In prison these women feel they can’t express their feelings as they are worried of being labelled as ‘weak’ and ‘easy to manipulate’. These workshops create a space which is safe for them to be human and express their emotions. They are aware through a group agreement that they aren’t being judged in the space and that together, everyone can work through their personal issues. Having the opportunity to work with these women and witness their development over the weeks made me realise how important drama can be as a subject on confidence building; As well as people giving their time to help heal and teach one another through drama as a subject. Giving others your time to help develop their self-improvement is the most rewarding aspect of being a facilitator, for any type of person, at any age.
When teaching any age range, in any subject, making a mistake is vital to self-development and improving for the success in your future profession. While I was studying at college, I volunteered once a week at a local primary school. I assisted the children in the year 4 class with learning difficulties, as well as directing their annual Christmas show. After my online training, I was introduced to the class and the children I would be assisting. An area of conversation that will stay with me my entire career is the topic of the make belief: Santa Claus, The Tooth Fairy, and The Easter Bunny. During a reading exercise, I was asked if I believed in Santa Claus. I explained that my younger siblings did – but I didn’t mention my opinion on the topic. This conversation was miss communicated to one of the parents and I was complained about to the school. I was horrified. This situation made me realise this is an everyday for teaching staff. The school and its staff reassured me that this happens all the time and it’s part and parcel of the profession. Overall, this situation has taught me to always be mindful and vigilant on what you share with students. Especially if it’s any form of personal information or your own personal beliefs.
A teaching style I have used in the entirety of my experiences has been allowing students to question their work, my work, and what more they want to discover. Drama is a subject where students energy and the facilitators energy bounce from one another. The facilitator needs to feel passion for what they are exploring and teaching the group. I have personally noticed, when I haven’t felt 100% on an exercise or decision, I have felt the overall reflections from the students haven’t been as promising as they could be. The feedback from students and their questions only develops their learning. Overall, this benefits the success of the workshops/ sessions. When students question their learning, they are independently communicating that they want to fully understand what you are teaching them, and further understand the extra information they wish to know. This teaching style occurs through out the sessions, not just at the reflective process at the end.
The age range which most appeals to me for my future career are the age range of secondary school students (11 – 16 years). I find working with this age range is more stimulating and requires more challenges in the classroom environment. Children and young people at this age can have developed critical discussions with you around their education. The work you help them produce can become extremely valuable the students. Inspired by my previous education at secondary school, I experienced the most support and understanding through my drama subject. I want to create a safe, supportive, and understanding environment for students. I want to allow drama to become an outlet for students who are struggling emotionally and mentally. I have done numerous studies at university, including my dissertation, on the benefits of drama on young people’s mental health and students developing their understanding of what they are feeling using drama. I want my teaching career not to only focus on drama and the professions within drama and theatre, furthermore, I want to help and guide every student which needs an outlet through the use of drama.
A strength which has been developed overtime is my use of creativity within all my work. Drama allows me to creative and experiment with my imagination. For example, during the placement in the secondary school in Hull, every activity within the 2-hour workshops had to be chosen by the York St John students. In my team of facilitators, I had the dominant position of creating the activities for each workshop. Each workshop had to flow with coherence to the following workshop; as well as each activity relating and rolling smoothly onto the next activity. During this creating process, I took inspiration from drama activities which already exist. I used my imagination to adapt them or take inspiration from their structures. I used my creativity skills on each activity to provide the most effective and successful workshops for the secondary students. My creativity skills are used to bring each workshop to the main objectives set within each one.
A developed strength has been my organisational skills when leading a group of people. An independent university project required exceptional organisational skills. Predominately known as ‘IPaR’, Independent Practise and Research. This project was created, organised and managed independently. My IPaR, Can I Wear your Shoes?, involved a short film accompanied with 5 workshops to introduce to 13 – 15 year olds in a secondary school environment. The short film features the themes of bullying, with the addition of the personal lives of the 3 main female characters outside of the school environment. The 5 workshops are constructed to develop students understanding of empathy and students understanding empathy’s success and importance through the techniques of drama. These workshops also work alongside the themes present within the short film and the activities allow the students to use empathy through play to address the sensitive issues from the short film. The project required the addition of actors to film the short film. I had a very limited time frame to complete the filming process, so being aware of everyone’s schedules, individuals issues, and organising with plenty of time allowed the filming process to be as smooth and efficient as possible. My organisational skills are a strength to all my work as educational drama has to be planned in order to be the most successful. All individuals involved with your work must be aware of their tasks and responsibilities. This includes dates, times, characterisation tasks, line learning, expectations, props, costumes and understanding the script and project. It’s your responsibility as a leader to communicate and execute with your team.
Furthermore, organisational skills are compulsory with leadership roles. Another example of when I’ve worked in leadership roles and been a manager of a project was when I was a volunteer dance teacher at Reflex Dance Troupe. I had a team of 10 young girls aged 5 – 11 years in competitive dancing. My responsibilities as leader involved choreographing the dance, deciding the song, the theme of the dance, the costumes, communicating with parents, taking payments from the parents, ordering costumes and booking rehearsal spaces numerous times a week, teaching the dancers how to execute the moves correctively, and providing confidence to those first time competitive dancers. This team dance had a time frame of 8 months to be completed. This added additional pressure as all the dancers were first-time inexperienced dancers. To overcome this pressure, I organised additional rehearsals, I organised the addition of more experienced dancers to join in rehearsals to help the inexperienced dancers, as well as create bonds throughout the troupe. My time at Reflex Dance Troupe was my first professional managerial experience, as the outcome actually effected myself, the dancers, the parents and the overall dance troupe.
A personal strength cultivated during my university experience involved my resilience with certain projects. My resilience strengthened during the Prison Partnership Project with my emotional response to certain activities. Becoming and learning to be more resilient with my emotions and learning to control my personal emotional responses has made me a more professional facilitator. Certain activities throughout the Prison Partnership Project made a collective of personal responses from the women; these responses involved their children, mental health, personal experiences and other sensitive topics. I physically showed a response to the women of how their work made me feel. Since this experience I have learnt to recognise when a situation is becoming to emotional for me, especially when working with sensitive themes and issues. I remove myself from the situation or direct the workshop in a different direction.