Theater Educator | Teaching Artist | Director| Actor
My guiding light and touchstone as an educator, and as a human being, is to create a safe environment in my classroom that fosters community, collaboration, and support. Students will know that they can always rely on me for help beyond the subject matter I am teaching. I believe that a theater classroom has a special ability to become a place where students can feel seen, appreciated and learn to proudly present themselves to the world in any way they'd like. So much of a child’s life is spent behind a desk, hunched over a laptop or notebook. Theater Arts, whether it is acting, directing or technical theater, gets children up, moving and their creativity flowing.
In a performing arts classroom, so much of the learning is just getting up and doing. Being an interpersonal and kinesthetic learner myself, I understand the importance of taking into account what kind of learners you have in your classroom. During my time as a student teacher, I made the mistake of assuming that ‘learning’ almost always meant ‘moving’, when there were students who thrived on writing and visual aid. After discovering this, I adapted my teaching by creating Google Slides and have my students write journal reflections at the beginning and end of every class. This gives me an insight into how my classroom is responding to my unit of study even if they aren’t some of the louder voices in the room, which informs what I teach the next day.
I believe that acting is a process rather than product-oriented art. The skills you develop over the course of a few weeks like self-awareness, vocal projection, and collaboration matter to me much more than how you perform in your final scene assessment. What I do not expect is mastery of an ever-evolving art. All I expect of my students is to try their best. Everyone’s best looks very different and I would never make my classroom a place of anxiety or tension. A lot of the young people I’ve taught have come from academically rigorous environments. Almost daily, my kids come to class or rehearsal burnt out and stressed, where I remind them that the scenes they are working on should not be a part of their daily woes. The scenes they are acting in should have high stakes, but the journey that gets them to their final showing should be anxiety-free.
I consistently believe in the capability of all of my students, even if they don't believe in it themselves yet. They already possess all of the answers they need, I am only there to guide them in the right direction.