Week 2 Recap

The second week of school can often be the time when our new goals, routines, and intentions for the school year are put to the test. Students are starting to get regular homework in class, and falling back into a school year routine can be both positive and negative, depending on whether or not you're trying to establish a new routine this year. After that first week push, where everything seems to revolve around back-to-school, parents and teachers may find that week two is when reality sets in as we go back to balancing all of our other responsibilities with making sure our children and students have what they need to succeed this year.

Things to celebrate: 

Maple Drama students have now had the opportunity to create drama work with their new peers, share it with their classmates, and even give and receive feedback in some cases. This can be a huge step for students who are new to drama or those who are just getting back into the habit of creating, sharing, and discussing with others. Both take lots of teamwork, trust, and commitment, which is why these have been the focus of our work this past week.

The grade nines and tens continued with team-building games as we continued to practice and assess our application of the classroom norms we established last week. By the end of the week, students showed incredible initiative and courage in working with new people in fast-paced activities involving teamwork skills, and they were given their first assignment on Friday. More about that in a moment.

The grade elevens and twelves flexed their creative and critical thinking muscles this week as they explored variations on a theme and reviewed some of the most critical elements of source work and theme work, which will be essential in our collective creation work moving forward. Students were placed in assigned groups this week to encourage them to get to know some new classmates and to practice sharing and supporting each other's ideas and visions. We saw some amazingly thoughtful and creative work on Friday, with each small ensemble developing a mini-collective creation based on each member's interpretation of quotes on the theme of freedom.

Things to look forward to:

As mentioned, grade nines and tens will begin working on their first Drama assignment of the semester this week. Their work this week will be to practice using each step of The Creative Process, and is designed to set them up for success next week when they will be assessed on their use of the process to create an original work of drama based on a source in a small ensemble. This week, we're continuing our emphasis on team-building as we work together as a class through the steps we would need to take to create a drama work based on a poem. Students arranged themselves into seven groups on Friday, and each group signed up to lead a different stage of The Creative Process for their classmates, with me guiding, facilitating, and providing feedback the entire time. Again, this week is all about getting practice as a whole class so that students are ready to work more independently and intentionally as small ensembles the following week.

Grade 11s and 12s will be reviewing character-building and narrative-development this week as they continue to familiarize themselves with the collective creation technique. They will continue to work with a variety of sources upon which they will base their individual and collective work, and we will continue to explore how different ideas, techniques, styles, and approaches can be coordinated or incorporated in order to develop one unique drama work that highlights the contributions of the collective and all of the different perspectives and voices that are found within it.

Things to work on at home:

As we move into the second-half of our first month back at school, maintaining positive routines and attitudes becomes critical for all of us. It can be easy to slip back into old habits like staying up too late or old attitudes like the ones we may hold towards classmates, teachers, or even ourselves. Though the new year doesn't feel quite as fresh and shiny anymore, this is an important moment to remember that it takes a lot of intentional effort and time (some say about three months) to establish new routines and habits, including in our thinking and our responses to perceived challenges or setbacks. Try to encourage students to focus on their goals for this year--or to set some clear and meaningful goals if they haven't already--as these can help motivate us when we find ourselves struggling to stick with new routines and habits. Goals should not be strictly academic or grade-based, either; while improving measurable achievement can be a motivator for some teenagers, it can have the opposite effect on others. Consider goals like mastering a concept they found difficult last year, making friends with new people, or becoming more comfortable presenting in front of a group--whatever it is your child may have struggled with last year and wants to try to succeed in this year. Keep those words "try" and "yet" in your vocabulary when talking about goals, and continue to emphasize small victories while helping students gain confidence in their ability to problem-solve when setbacks occur.