My Story
Since childhood, I have been obsessed with the question “What if?” What if I ate apples and bananas at the same time? What if I wore two different socks? What if I touched the inside of a power socket with a fork? It was the phrase that would send my mind into endless possibilities. Of course, these were just thoughts going on inside my head, but it led me to discover the limits I wanted to push.
High school was a pivotal time in my life, not only because that is when I started speaking and performing, but because that is when I realized I was destined to teach. I always found myself researching the current shows most high schools were doing, audition materials for my friends, and helping others with their performances for class. I also volunteered at a summer camp, that I now teach at, and discovered my favorite thing about teaching. In the education field, we call it Visible Learning. It was a concept first introduced by none other than the educational rock-star, John Hattie. Visible Learning and Teaching occur when teachers see learning through the eyes of students and help them become their own teachers. In other words, it is when we can see the lightbulb go off above their head or the gears turning in their mind. In the Summer of 2019, pre-pandemic, I was a Teaching Artist for a local performing arts training center for their summer productions. I was tasked with creating a lesson about the diaphragm as well as incorporating elements from the show into any games. Since we were doing the show Frozen Jr., I decided to do an activity with Olaf because who does not like Olaf? My students were tasked with creating personal snowmen from marshmallows and each given a straw. With their straw, they were to suck in the air and pick up their marshmallow-man and safely deliver it to the next person's straw. After the activity, I asked the students 1. If it was a fun game but 2. Why did they think I taught this game? I had a variety of answers ranging from, “Miss Monte, you love marshmallows!” to “You love to watch us struggle.” When I started to explain their use of the diaphragm in the game, I had a little boy’s lightbulb go off in their mind. Later, I could tell these same kids were focused on the strength and support in the use of their diaphragm while rehearsing. One little lightbulb sent their gears turning and produced an amazing outcome that they will use for the rest of their artistic journey.
Seeing this fueled my passion to continue teaching. Every time I see the light bulb go off in a student of mine or an actor I’m working with, I know I have done something right. I know that something I have said has moved them to make smarter choices and allowed them to go beyond “What if?”, pushing their creative mentalities into a realm of endless possibilities. I’ve said before my goal in life is to teach, inspire, and create, which is all true, but I really want to push the imaginational “what if?” into students and see if that will lead them down the same road it led me.
My Philosophy
I believe all students are individuals, so everyone will learn in their own special way. I love to scaffold different methods of teaching (kinesthetic, visual, auditory, and linguistic) to ensure that no student is left behind while I am teaching. John Hattie is a researcher in education whose theories and ideas have greatly influenced my teaching style as well as how I conduct my classroom. Hattie established high-yield teaching strategies to help improve efficiency and clear focus in the classroom His strategies include identifying reinforcing effort, providing recognition, nonlinguistic representations, cooperative learning, setting objectives, providing feedback, and lastly, generating and testing hypotheses. I know what you are thinking, how does this apply to a drama classroom? A drama classroom creates a different atmosphere for itself based on whether the students allow themselves to open up and be vulnerable in the space. Once students realize this, there is the magic that consumes each artist in the room and leads to self-discovery. Hattie conceptualizes the idea of internal thinking by questioning students on their opinions as well as recognizing the effort put forth in the thinking process. Each student will process their discovery and findings differently, so we must honor that, as artists and educators.
I enjoy teaching theatre because it is about the individual’s process; how one conceptualizes and internalizes what is being told to them. I facilitate the learning process by understanding I must be my students’ mentor, not just someone who lectures from the front of the classroom. This stems from building trust with them and opening yourself up to learn as well. In the summer camps, I have taught at, I love to eat lunch with my students because not only do I feel like I’m building a connection with them, but also goes to show I am much more than their teacher. Nothing warms my heart more than a student reaching out for my help. I am someone who loathes confrontation – I avoid it at all costs, but I am also that person who dwells on a problem to try and figure it out myself. Therefore, I have implemented designated hours or periods I am available to my students for beyond-class help.
I understand that not everyone is as excited as me to take a drama class as I am to teach it, so I try to implement life lessons in my teachings. For instance, something I have run into is most people not knowing how to sew on a button. We start out learning five different stitches on a small piece of felt and we combat hand stitching. From there, I ask each student to bring something from home that has a small hole or a fabric we can repair. After that, we move on to learning how to use a sewing machine. I know most students will rarely own a sewing machine, but it is my job to ensure they learn life skills before they venture into life. I like to reward students based on their efforts and at the end of the quarter, there is a quiz based on their bellringers in their notebooks. I create my rubrics for projects or discussions alongside my students, so they understand exactly what is being asked of them – no extra surprises or added pressure. Based on the structure of my teaching, my students must make goals for themselves, they must strive and earn what they picture their educational outcome to be.
As I have discussed before, a theatre classroom can be a transformative space if you allow yourself to be engulfed in the magic. The older I get, the more I see that magical, transformative world expanding and allowing my areas of interest to grow with it. From there I dive headfirst and learn as much as I can. Learning is beyond the classroom, it’s the little strides you take outside of your bubble where you learn the most material.