I don’t teach English—yet literature is at the heart of my discipline.

I don’t teach History—although I encourage students to investigate the

social and historical implications of events and how they affect those with

whom we live.

I don’t teach Science—but introduce the analysis of human behavior,

society, and the natural world.

I don’t teach Math—yet evaluating structure, space, and change is a skill

constantly being developed.

I don’t teach the Visual Arts—although calling on the elements of form,

line, shape, color, texture, space, and value is commonplace.

I don’t teach a Foreign Language—but my students learn to decode and

encode dialogue in scripts and plays.

I don’t teach Music—yet rely on the elements of pitch, melody, harmony,

rhythm, dynamics, timbre, texture, and articulation to share this craft.

I don’t teach Technology—but foster the use of tools to control and adapt

to the work we do.

I don’t teach Physical Education— although working as part of a team

while making connections between cognitive functions and physical

movement is a major benefit of this process.

What do I teach at BISS?

I teach Drama.

Adapted from a poem by Tim Reagan

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Puppetry 01/20/2011
 
It is amazing how lots of things are about timing.  I have been doing Puppets with Gr 6 as storytelling from other cultures.  I wanted something different to do with my Gr 10 and started to investigate Puppets.  One of the starting points was a National Theatre Workpack that I downloaded three years ago.  Brilliant and creative.  So that go my thinking.. then ISTA sent me a fantastic edition of scene all about ... puppetry.  So I am off and running.  I have spent quite alot of time the last couple of weeks building a puppetry section on the website - with video ( because Youtube is blocked in China) and links so the students are exposed to quality.  It is great because it applies to two classes. I am looking forward to see the development.  Stay tune for photos later in the year.  
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Having a Imacs make my life so much easier for this unit.  It is working really well.  We have look at Melodrama and Silent Films.  The students learn about the stock characters and the gestures and movements associated with them.  Then in groups, they have to create the storyline and show me a story board before they film.  The kids have been using Celtex - which is a on line storyboarding site, Pages on imac - gives you a story board and then for some the old fashion way - drawing.  I like that I have a range.  So at the moment they are doing the filming.  A couple have finished and now as a link with Music, they are creating a sound track to go with the movie.  The imac allows you to edit quite easily.  Will out up some past exampled and the ones from this year.
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I have sent the last week or so updating parts of my website.  I have added in a contents page which I think might be helpful.  I am going to try and update on my blog a little more.  Fingers crossed.
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PINK - Play 09/08/2010
 
I have just been doing some reading on this for my Masters.  Some really good articles that highlight the importance of Play in children's education.  Here is what Daniel Pink thinks...

 P179 Brain Sutton – Smith - professor Education University of Education- The opposite of play isn’t work. It is depression.  To play is to act out and be willful, exultant and committed as if one is assured of one’s prospects. Homo ludens – man the player

 Humour is showing it self as an accurate marker for managerial effectiveness, emotional intelligence,

 Albert Einstein – Games are the most elevated forms of investigation

 Video gaming – big business

 P185 -John Paul Gee What Video Games have to teach us about Learning and Literacy Palgrave Macmillan, 2003 – p 205 “ Learning is about memorizing isolated facts. It is about connecting and manipulating them.”

  Pat Kane  Play Ethic – Play will be to the 21st century what work was to the last 300 years of industrial society – our dominant way of knowing, doing and creating value.Right H Brain is essential for understanding humourP190 – P. Shammi and D. Stuss, Humour Appreciation: A Role of the Right Frontal Lobe, Brain 1999 vol 122 p 663 Humour represents one of the highest forms of intelligence.  P 190 – the most effective executives employ humour twice as often as middle of the pack

 The importance of laughter. P 195 – can decrease stress hormones and boost the immune system Laughter links with social relationships – we rarely laugh alone Laughing creates more creative peoplewww.laughteryoga.org humour scale – tinyurl.com/6t7ff www.inventionatplay.org

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PINK - Empathy 09/08/2010
 
Empathy is an very important skill.  Not  all people develop it.  Theatre is an area where students can. Here are some key points from Pink.
 
 P153 “ empathy is the ability to imagine yourself in someone else’s position and intuit what that person is feeling” – walking in someone else’s shoes; mimic behaviour
Sympathy – feeling bad for someone else

 P 154 – Oprah Winfrey “ Leadership is about empathy.  It is about having the ability to relate and connect with people for the purpose of inspiring and empowering their lives”Computers cannot produce empathy

 P 156- facial expressions are universal – Charles Darwin, Paul Ekman  Test yourself – Empathy Q – www.tinyurl.com/9qdi www.nte.com/interact/eiq www.tinyurl.com/277vm

 

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  P126 – is the ability to put together pieces – synthesis rather than analyse; to see the relationships is seeming unrelated fields

P127 – Brain Bromeisler “ Drawing is about relationships”

Becoming adept at analogy – seeing one thing in terms of another

p130 – Three types of people – “ the boundary crosser, the inventor, and the metaphor maker”

 p131 - Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi – Creativity – Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention. – The most creative of us see relationships that most of us never notice

P131Designer Clement Mok “ the next 10 years will require people to think and work across boundaries into new zones that are totally different from their areas of expertise’

Samuel Taylor Coleridge – Great minds are androgynous

Trevor baylis – the key to success is to risk thinking unconventional thoughts.  Convention is the enemy of progress.

P 135 -Twyla Tharp – Metaphor is the lifeblood of art.  Everything you create is a representation of something else” The idea of a MQ – metaphoric quotient

Pattern recognition

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People often ask me why I love history - I said that History is the same as Theatre.  It is all about telling a story.  This is what part of the arts is all about.  Telling a story and making connections.  Often students take the Arts as a " easier" optoption or because parent's don't see the value of it.   Daniel Pink highlights the importance of the story.  It also makes me think about what we have all lost in the drive for money and so called success.

P102 – Joesph Campbell – 1949 – book The Hero with a thousand Faces – all myths – across time and culture – contain the basic ingredients and follow the same recipes – there are no new stories – just the same stories retold

Hero’s journey – Departure – hears the call refuses and then accepts crosses into a new world, Initiation – faces still challenges – gets a mentor – be transforms and return – master of two worlds

Robert McKee – book – Story: Substance, structure, Style and principles of screenwriting

Advertising – story writing – big business

P 106 Steve Denning – World Bank story – story telling doesn’t replace analytical thinking – it supplements it by enabling us to imagine new perspectives and new worlds  - abstract analysis is easier to understand when told through the lens of a well chosen story

P 106 – Richard Olivier – “ Mythodrama” – his clients read Shakespeare to elicit lessons in leadership and corporate governance

P107 - Alan Kay -  “ We are all just cavemen with briefcases, hungry for a wise person to tell us a story”

Enable to distinguish goods and services in the market place – marketing – house sales; wine sales

Narrative medicine – stories – that is how people make sense of what is happening to them when they are sick

P112 – Barry Lopez – Arctic Dreams – if stories come to you, care for them.  And learn to give them away where they are needed.  Sometimes a person needs a story more than food to stay alive.

P117 – mini Sagas – 50 words beginning, middle and end

www.storycorps.net   www.storycentre.org Australian national Storytelling confest; www.dstory.com; www.lanes.org


P122 – Story is an ancient art – but like all art it can be enhances with modern tools


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Having a husband that teaches Design there were lots of important aspects.  However i truely understood the impact of Theatre in design.   Of course students design in drama/theatre.  They create and use their skills to develop something "new" - their own version of something.  It is not only people skills and communication that the arts facilitates but also the whole design process.  Students can be involved in all aspects - costume, stage, make up, set design.   My sister is the classic example of this.  She completed a Theatre degree and is now in New York working as a Event designer.  She can see the overall picture and see how it all comes together - much like a theatre production.

Some interesting points about Design -
P69- John Heskett – “{D}esign, stripped to its essence, can be defined as the human nature to shape and make our environment in ways without precedent in nature, to serve our needs and give meaning to our lives”  John Heskett, Toothpicks and Logos – design in Everyday life, Oxford university Press, 2002

Design has consequences – health care; learning; environmental benefits; Al Gore/GW Bush election;
Design – the differences of selling an item.

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This a new book that I am reading - I think it has lots of interesting points
  Pink, Daniel, H A Whole New Mind, New York, RiverHead Books -Penguin Group 2005. Print ISBN – 1 – 57322-308-5

P1 – The future belongs to very different kind of person with a very different kind of mind – creators and empathizers, pattern recognizers and meaning makers.  These people – artists, inventors, designers, storytellers, caregivers, consolers, big pictures thinkers – will now reap society’s richest rewards and share its greatest joy.

P17

1.    The left hemisphere controls the right side of the body; the right hemisphere controls the left side of the body

2.     L H is sequential; R H is simultaneous

3.     LH specializes in text; the R H specializes in context – RH is responsible for understanding metaphors

4.      L H analyses the details; R H synthesizes the big picture

P28 Abundance, Asia and Automation

P 51 three questions – 1. Can someone overseas do it cheaper? 2. Can a computer do it faster?  3 is what I am offering in demand in an age of abundance?

 P 55 more Americans today work in arts, entertainment and design than work as lawyers, accountants and auditors – “2002 National Cross Industry Estimates of employment and Mean Annual Wage for SOC Major Occupational groups” Occupational Employment Statistics Program, Bureau of labor Statistics – www.bls.gov/oes/home.htm

  P 61 aptitudes “the six senses”. Design. Story. Symphony. Empathy. Play. Meaning.

  P65

1.     Not just function but also Design – must be beautiful or emotionally engaging

2.     Not just argument – story – p 66 the essence of persuasion, communication and self understanding

3.     Focus – symphony – seeing the big picture, crossing boundaries

4.     Logic – empathy – to understand what makes their fellows tick, forge relationships and to care for others

5.     Play – need to play – best bosses have humour

6.     Meaning

 




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