week 1

Express Yourself

 This week we were encouraged to express our feeling towards Drama as a subject. Personally I feel pretty laid back about the class but with a quick activity I discovered very quickly that my classmates varied in their expressions. 

To start off, the teacher puts a chair in the middle of the class, and it is to represent Drama. The students are to place themselves in relevance to the chair. If you like Drama you go close to the chair, and if you do not like Drama, you place yourself further from the chair. Below you will see pictures of where my classmates stood. 

 

These were the students closest to the chair- the most comfortable

 

This image shows students who stayed the furthest back (least comfortable)
 from the chair or in the middle

 As you can see the majority decided to go to the back wall to symbolize that they did not feel comfortable with the subject. This is not something to be ashamed of as it is normal for every one to have their strengths and weakness, or feel vulnerable in certain situations. The students we may teach will also have a variety of comfort zones, so it is important to get to know your students from the beginning in order to set up a positive classroom environment. 

Keep Positive

 The next activity was a great way to ensure students had the idea that negativity was NOT excepted in the classroom. Since students already have a hard time maintaining their self esteem, it would be wise to introduce the class as a safe space where students are free to express their creativity without judgement from the teacher or their peers. Our class decided to make a tunnel of positivity, but to create a bigger impact, students should be introduced to the opposite concept which is a tunnel negativity. 
Students will first create two lines facing each other. The two lines will connect by raising your hand and linking them to the other side. First the teacher will walk through and the students are asked to shout out mean things to them. They will see the teacher will have a sad, closed off expression. Next the students will walk through the tunnel one-by-one, however, this time the tunnel will shout out nice things to them. Most students will feel happy and confident going through the tunnel with such comments. 

 

This is the tunnel the students are to create

Students are to take home with them the message that anything they say can make an impact on the others in the classroom. They should now be aware the affects of their actions, and that it is better to be positive and give everyone a chance to feel good about themselves. The last thing you want is one student being left out, or seeing everyone else getting praise from their peers. Positivity can create positive changes in students, and you will see a great improvement in them both academically and emotionally.