“‘I don’t know’ is a totally valid response.”
It’s something I’ve said over and over again while coaching students through some of the introductory activities we’ve been working through over the first two weeks of this new (to us) “adaptive model” of education. It’s been tough work, even though many students don’t see it as “the work” yet. I’ve been inviting students to activate prior knowledge and make predictions and connections, even though they don’t yet know what this course will look like–and neither do I, exactly. In arts education (in this case, high school Drama), we so often think of “the work” as simply producing the art and showing it to people. Load in, perform, tear down. Lather, rinse, repeat.
Where I want to go, and the place where I think my students will learn the most, is towards a vision of “the work” as learning how to harness our own creativity; to keep the gasoline tank full so we can keep powering that creative engine which allows us to “make stuff,” to perform, to create, and to “do” the most visible part of the work. Most of us have seen a car drive down the road but have no idea how an engine really works, let alone how to build or service one. In essence, I want to help my students become engineers of their own creativity, so they can own that process, and what they create. To me this is what empowered, equitable education in the arts looks like, and it has applications that extend far beyond the studio or stage.
I say “two weeks” but truly, at this point, we’ve only “done” 6.5 traditional periods (typically 75 minutes in a semester model) for our online afternoon classes, which is where this catchphrase of mine is so often used. Meanwhile, the morning “hybrid”* students have done the equivalent of 20 periods worth of work; 5 double-periods in-person + 5 double-periods at home. More on the tricky balance I tried to strike in this first rotation (and what my plans are for the next one) in another post. The point is, thinking about time as a space within which to explore a process, rather than as a resource we pour into a final product, seems very difficult for all of us. “I/We should (be/able to do/have done) __________ by now” is a common thought trap we want to avoid in the studio, even (especially) if the studio is online in our minds/our bedrooms/at our kitchen tables right now. Especially when we don’t know if/when we will be on stage again. Especially when time drags on and on in quarantine, in limbo, without a sense of a guaranteed end point. I’m all about looking for opportunity in crisis (more on that later maybe, too) and this seems like the perfect opportunity to play with the space time affords us in a way we feel unable to when we are trapped in the endless production cycle.
So far, here is where we’ve gotten in the afternoons (with links to follow hopefully, when I have a chance):
- Norms and expectations for working creatively and collaboratively online and in person. Deceptively dense when you consider the challenges of working from behind a screen, in separate locations, and all the new rules of civility around personal space and comfort with our “new normal”.
- Learning about, creating, and beginning our Thoughtbooks (thank you, Usha!) using the simplest framework I could think of quickly**: a 3-2-1 (3 things we’ve noticed, learned or were surprised by; 2 things we are still wondering; 1 wish for the future)
- Introducing the concept of visual language to get ready to learn some basic mime technique, which will help us with our course focus, and using PearDeck*** to engage in some critical thinking work around activating prior knowledge, making connections, and making predictions based on those connections.
- Selecting a course focus as a class (improvisation, which I think is simultaneously the best and trickiest focus we could choose for doing Drama in these strange times and ways).
It doesn’t feel like much yet, considering that in “two weeks” my online students haven’t performed or created “anything”–other than generated lots and lots of helpful thinking within which we will frame what I hope to be relevant learning experiences for each individual student.
Diving into Rotation 2 tomorrow, with all three of my classes online, with an exploration of the Ontario Arts Curriculum, as I try using what I’ve learned may be a #causalmodel for arts education (thanks Jillian!) and hopefully learn more from Rotman I-Think in a webinar they are hosting Wednesday night (thanks to my partner for putting his own creative production on hold for a couple of weeks while I figure this all out, for keeping us fed always, and for taking over the whole bedtime thing when I want to do a webinar).
This is all just to say… here goes nothing! Or something? I don’t know. But we will see, together.
*Another term I have limited familiarity with and am probably using wrong (and what experience I do have with it is a different model used within the Personal Alternative Education program)
**It should be noted that part of my inspiration for this approach to teaching Drama this year is that we as teachers have been put in a position of having to build the engine while driving the car. This mode of teaching and learning is new to most of us, as are the conditions of crisis and trauma under which some of us are learning and working, as are the tools and technology we will be using. We are have an opportunity to engage directly with the creative process, out loud, in front of our students, if we are ok with that level of vulnerability. And being of the “hey, why not?” mindset, I thought… “hey, why not?” It also means a lot of late nights, responsive planning, and figuring things out with students in class; a great way to model creative problem-solving in a very “real-world” situation.
***I am just learning how to use this tool day by day and am by no means an expert.
P.S. I must also shout-out Emily for being the person to talk me through and to this point in my own professional learning journey!