It wasn't a big Drama

I am just going to write about today, because this is important, I think. I am not a confident actor, and I tend to struggle with pretending to be someone else, so Teacher in Role stuff is a little bit scary for me. I spent much time thinking about drama games and checking out things online, trying to find some ideas that I would feel comfortable with and that would fit with what I was doing in class. And it just so happened that I came across a drama lesson plan, on the TKI site of all places, that was absolutely perfect. It is a plan to use with Matau - the Giant of Wakatipu (Maori Myth). I love Maori myths and legends, and the names weren't too difficult to pronounce. I actually checked with Pam first- how to pronounce the names. Anyway, this was good for me because I usually inform the children of how I have trouble with correct pronunciation of Maori, but for the first time ever, I ACTED like I knew what I was saying and I am really proud of myself for getting that bit right! That wasn't the drama bit though. The plan uses process drama throughout, and every single part of the plan was there for me, step by step! If you're online and you hover the cursor over each thing, like teacher in role, or freeze frame, or spoken thoughts, it tells you exactly what it means. So I printed it off and got the book and read the plan a million times so that I knew what to do... and today I did it with my class, and it was superb! We did every single thing in the plan, the children gained confidence, I gained confidence, and by the end of the day we had some very excellent things happening. The children were easily able to take on a variety of roles, and from the comments they made, were able to see things from many perspectives. It was just gorgeous!
I might put a couple of photos on of the children in their various roles. We hadn't time to complete the story/ drama, and will do so tomorrow. But we did reflect at the end of today and the class shared their ideas and feelings about what we have done so far, and all of the comments were very positive. I am so pleased, at least now I know that I can do this :)