Maselli @ Maple

Things to celebrate... This week, the juniors completed what may have been the most challenging unit so far: improvisation. Ms. Wilson and I decided to extend this unit by a week to allow students more time to develop the comfort and readiness needed to prepare students for an evaluated improv performance, and we also gave them a performance task that did allow for a level of preparation while still focusing on some of the key concepts of the unit (see photo below). Students should be very proud of themselves for continuing to persevere through what may have been a difficult unit for them and for their continued efforts to develop important transferable skills such as listening to and building on others' ideas, thinking on the spot to creatively solve problems, and trying new things without fear of failure. These also correspond with the IB Learner Profile of being a communicator, inquirer, and risk-taker, respectively. The seniors made their final push towards presentin

Things to celebrate... Over these past two weeks, students have been working very hard to understand, showcase, and celebrate their use of the creative process to devise original stories, characters, and material. From the senior students' work as part of the Quest conference's Artonomy series (photos below) to the junior students' work in improvisation, we have been intentionally working on strengthening our critical and creative thinking skills through inquiry-based games, activities, and workshops. Things to look forward to... Our junior and senior drama students will be wrapping up their current units this week as they prepare for final performances (to be completed in class this Thursday and Friday) and unit reflections (due next Monday). Weekly reflection due dates have been changed to Mondays in order to accommodate students who may require additional processing time to reflect on and process the learning completed throughout the week.  Things to

A personal note... Unfortunately, I became quite sick over the Fall Break and was not fully recovered when we returned, so I needed to take some additional time to rest and heal as I became feverish mid-week. I try to do my best to take care of my health, but, as many of you know, getting sick while pregnant can be an especially tiring and worrisome ordeal, so I am grateful to the patience and support of students, colleagues, and parents as I continue to work towards recovering fully. Things to celebrate... The juniors students began developing their improvisation skills this week, beginning with focus, attention, listening, and memory, and moving into the important role of imagination and application of all the Actor's Tools from our prior unit. Students learned about the five-step story structure this week, which will help them quickly devise or improvise sketches that--as wild, creative, and funny as they can be--move through a coherent narrative towards a r

Things to celebrate... In our final week before the fall break, the junior students completed their Vocal Collage performances with their ensembles and for their classmates, and had time to reflect and build upon the work they did in the later part of the Creative Process; specifically, the cycle of using feedback from producing preliminary work to revising and refining to the final performance to reflection and evaluation. Students were given time on the final Friday before the break to begin, continue, or finish (depending on their own pacing and writing process) their Unit 2 Portfolios, which will be graded as part of their final report card mark. Our senior class worked through the initial steps of the creative process in their teams and ensembles and have landed on the ideas that they will be using as their starting point in developing ten-minute plays on the topic of family dynamics (previously identified and voted on as our primary area of focus or source of inspiration