Courses

PD COURSE
Creating the Ensemble-Based Classroom
by Gai Jones
Gai Jones will help you establish an ensemble-based environment from the first day of class or rehearsal.
Learn how to set up your ensemble-based classroom from day one, get students to set classroom norms, and find the balance between creative activity and structure. You’ll learn how to give your students creative freedom through structure and classroom management. The cornerstone of this course are the detailed ensemble experiences from large group to small group and even individual experiences.
This course culminates in a devising model that you can use with your students, and takes you through process, product, performance and an evaluation.
You too can create the ensemble-based classroom.
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PD COURSE
Organized Chaos: 2nd Edition
by Matt Webster
Organized Chaos: Discipline in the Theatre Classroom will give you tools and strategies to prepare you for challenges you may face as you step up in front of a class of students and introduce them to the art of theatre.
Whether you are a student teacher finishing college, a first-year teacher just starting out in the classroom, or an established teacher with a few years of experience under your belt, these lessons will provide insight and support as you establish discipline in your classroom.
This is a revised, 2nd edition of a favourite original course in the DTA, brought to you by experienced theatre educator, Matt Webster.
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PD COURSE
Preventing Pandemonium: Part 1
by Maria Smith
In Preventing Pandemonium Part 1, Maria Smith will share with you a classroom management tool critical to success. It’s called procedures. Procedures are daily classroom management routines that are the key to classroom management success. They are the essential element of classroom management.
This course will give you straightforward, practical “this is how you do it” information, as well as procedures catered specifically to the drama classroom, to help you maintain order from start to finish, even during that chaotic group practice time.
Imagine yourself in a classroom where you can spend most of your time teaching and keep students on track without the constant lecturing. If that sounds appealing, then start the first module.
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PD COURSE
Preventing Pandemonium: Part 2
by Maria Smith
In Preventing Pandemonium Part 02, instructor Maria Smith shares a classroom management strategy that transformed her class from a discipline zone to a thriving environment. It’s called positive incentives (or rewards) that make your students want to behave and participate positively in the drama classroom.
This course includes straightforward “this is how you do it” information, as well as posters, passes and rewards for teachers to print out and use in your classroom. Learn how positive incentives cut down the need for discipline,and find the joy in teaching.
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PD COURSE
Rethink Pacing in the Drama Classroom
by Matt Webster
Pacing is one of the invisible hands of good teaching. Pacing is a fundamental component of a well run classroom. Many challenging issues that teachers face in the classroom stem from undiagnosed pacing issues: From comprehension to classroom management, pacing can be identified as both the source, and the solution of these problems. This course covers the Definition of Pacing, Non-Standardized curriculum, Pacing and Authentic learning, Expanding and Contracting The Pace, Transitions, Rehearsals and Hidden Pacing.
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PD COURSE
Teaching Theatre with Divergent Students and Class Sizes in Mind
by Steven Stack
Have you ever wondered how in the world you can have a successful theatre classroom with so many variables that you have absolutely no control over? The two biggest ones being the size of your class and the students that you’re in charge of turning into some truly talented theatre geeks. This course by Steven Stack explores that wonderful and often ridiculous world of theatre classrooms while giving you the tools for you and your students to not only succeed but to flourish as well.
Lessons will include how to make any size class the Goldilocks class as in "just right", defining and working with all types of students you may encounter in your classroom, the seven must-haves of any theatre class, and the importance of structure in the theatre classroom by providing a guideline for setting up your day-to-day class time.
The course also provides tons of ideas, games and activities that you can use instantly in your classroom. So, if you’re a first-time theatre teacher or one just looking for new ideas, this is the course for you.
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Toolkits
Individual Resources
RESOURCE
Adapt, Observe, Engage: Re-Imagining the Drama Classroom
You know how to run a traditional classroom. The virtual classroom is going to be a whole new learning experience. Theatres have been shut down many times over the centuries and have always returned. Theatre thrives with people who are flexible, excellent problem solvers, and creative thinkers. Theatre teachers, you will survive this! We hope this guide will help you adapt, observe, and engage with your students.
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RESOURCE
Curriculum Assessment Journal
Use this journal to take some quick notes in the moment for your lessons. What worked? What didn’t? How did your time management on paper work in real time with students?
This way when you’re ready to assess your curriculum in full, you’ll have a good picture of the individual pieces and where changes need to be made.
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RESOURCE
New Drama Teacher Journal
It’s important to keep track of your own personal journey as you step into the classroom for the first time. This way, you have a document you can use to review and reflect on at the end of the year. You don’t have to write volumes every day. Just enough to jog your brain and help you take steps to continue doing something or change something for the next school year. There are two months worth of daily journal pages and weekly reflection pages in this journal. Save/copy a blank one so you can continue recording your personal journey!
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RESOURCE
New Drama Teacher Toolkit
In this toolkit you’ll find exercises, activities, and information that will help you get you through your first days, build your classroom management skills, and articulate the importance of your program.
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RESOURCE
New Teacher Primer
If you’ve never done a first week in the drama classroom, how do you know what to expect? What to say? What to do? Let the New Teacher Primer be your guide.
We’ve divided this toolkit into high school and middle school sections. There’s definitely a specific way to approach each level. However, there will also be some overlap between the two, so don’t be afraid to read it all and adapt for your situation.
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RESOURCE
Virtual Body Language
The goal of this distance learning exercise is to help students become more aware of their body language in the virtual classroom (both conscious and unconscious) and how it makes others perceive them. Students have to turn their cameras on to participate, but it is fairly low-risk as they will complete the movement portion as a group, and they don’t need to have their microphones on.
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PLCs

PLC
Classroom Management
Hosted by Matt Webster, Lindsay Price, Maria Smith, Claire Broome
We are halfway through the school year and it is time to assess which classroom management strategies are working, and which ones should be left in the rear view mirror. When classroom discipline has been less than ideal, the new year is a great time to hit the reset button. With a new semester comes new opportunities to fine tune your classroom management and get your classes ship shape. If your students are driving you crazy, this is the PLC for you!
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Attachments

PLC
Classroom Management Tune-Up
Hosted by Matt Webster, Lindsay Price, Jessica McGettrick, Gai Jones
The school year is up and running, and so are your students! Should they be? Classes are settling into routines and this is a good time to review your classroom management strategies and change whatever isn't working. Don't know how to start? Easy! Start by joining us in this PLC dedicated to tuning up your classroom management plan.
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Attachments

PLC
Classroom Management with Social Emotional Learning - Session One
Hosted by Matt Webster, Lindsay Price, Christa Vogt, Lea Marshall
If you talk to teachers these days, the same topic pops up over and over: Post pandemic classroom management. It doesn't matter if they are a highly experienced educator or fresh out of their student teaching, they all say the same thing - the vibe in the classroom has changed. Teachers say they need new tools in their classrooms to address these changes, so in this PLC we are going to break out the best tool in the toolkit: Social Emotional Learning (SEL). Join us for a timely conversation about how you can use SEL in your classroom to reset your students and improve your classroom management.
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PLC
Classroom Management with Social Emotional Learning - Session Two
Hosted by Matt Webster, Lindsay Price, Christa Vogt, Shelby Steege
If you talk to teachers these days, the same topic pops up over and over: Post pandemic classroom management. It doesn't matter if they are a highly experienced educator or fresh out of their student teaching, they all say the same thing - the vibe in the classroom has changed. Teachers say they need new tools in their classrooms to address these changes, so in this PLC we are going to break out the best tool in the toolkit: Social Emotional Learning (SEL). Join us for a timely conversation about how you can use SEL in your classroom to reset your students and improve your classroom management.
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Attachments

PLC
Dealing with 'that kid' in the Drama Classroom
Hosted by Matt Webster, Lindsay Price, Lea Marshall
Every teacher will tell you that the hardest part of teaching is dealing with 'That kid'. The kid who has a rotten attitude. The kid who is disruptive. The kid that won't participate. The kid who just doesn't care. Every teacher can tell you a story about 'That kid'. They are the kid we obsess over, lose sleep over, and cry over. Teaching careers have ended because of 'That kid'. Join us for a very special PLC to discuss the best way to deal with 'That kid'.
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Attachments

PLC
Setting up your classroom for the year
Hosted by Matt Webster, Lindsay Price, Lea Marshall, Maria Smith
Summer has flown by and any day now your students will be coming through the door. Are you ready for them? Is your classroom?? Believe it or not, much of the success the coming school year will depend on how you set up your classroom now. Discipline, organization, concentration and classroom management all hinge on a well planned classroom space. Whether you teach in a classroom, a theatre, or something in between, this is a PLC that will help you put your best space forward!
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Attachments

PLC
The Adult in the Room - Understanding your relationship to your students
Hosted by Matt Webster, Lindsay Price
New Drama teachers put a lot of thought into their relationship with their students as a way to build a successful classroom. They don't, however, put as much thought into their relationship to their students. Yet that relationship is the cornerstone of successful teaching. Join us for an interactive conversation about how to define your relationship to your students as you build your relationship with your students. New teachers, and teachers who are new to teaching Drama, are especially invited to this workshop that will focus on relationship building in the Drama Classroom.
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Attachments