Teaching
At my core, I am a teaching artist. I have served as a performer, music director, choreographer, and assistant director on many productions, but my most important and most highly treasured title is teacher. Educators have the unique ability to introduce young minds to the craft and see them develop and change as artists and as people.The arts speak to and feed into the soul, and a theatre classroom provides a welcoming, safe environment for students facing personal struggles and a brave place for all students to develop general soft skills and theatrically-based skills without fear of rejection or failure. Through theatre, these students find a place to matter, to belong, to escape, to uncover, to connect, to feel, and to simply be.
Theatre is an escape. It is a safe haven in which one can experience the whole world and all its history and stories without ever leaving your chair. Theatre is a means for change. Theatre serves to drive forward the human experience through exposure to those with backgrounds different from our own. Most importantly, theatre is a place to belong. Theatre is a place where we can fail and still be supported, or we can thrive and be applauded. Theatre is a guiding light that welcomes the outsiders, the broken, and the overwhelmed, and it tells them to pull up a chair and wait a while with us. Theatre is a place to find family, acceptance, and hope for tomorrow. All of these things cannot be overstated and must be acknowledged.
Philosophy of Classroom Management
My philosophy of classroom management is based on Dreikurs's democratic classroom, Ginott's student cooperation and self-esteem building, Kohn's formation of community, Glasser's choice theory, and Montessori's hands-on learning techniques. These thoughts are detailed further in this document.
What Makes a Monster and What Makes a Man: Uncovering the Key to Disney Theatrical Productions's Success in Transferring Animated Films to Broadway
My undergraduate thesis reflects both sides of my brain, the analytical, research-driven side and the creative, dramatic side, as well as revealing my passion about the magic of Disney. Here, signed, sealed, and defended, is my ode to Disney on Broadway. I place my thesis under my educational documents as I feel it is important as a teacher to always keep learning and striving for knowledge.
Selected Lesson Plans
Iambic Pentameter
This lesson was taught to two Theatre 1 classes as part of my Residency 1 experience. This lesson began a unit on Elizabethan language and followed after a week of Shakespearean history instruction.
Voice for the Actor
1.5 hour lesson taught to 27 6th grade students. TEAM rubric included.
Context for A Streetcar Named Desire
45 minute lesson taught to 10 high school students. TEAM Rubric included.
Drama Adventure Outline
This is a standards-based role-play integrating dramatic play into the core curriculum, as seen through an English class's reading of The Crucible
Semester Outline
This is a full semester's outline for a Theatre 1 class, based on Tennessee state standards.
*Additional lesson plans available upon request