Reflections From A Second Year Teacher

Woohoo! I am two years in as a NYCDOE Theater Teacher! As opposed to my previous blog, I will not post success stories this time. I just wanted to use this time to simply share a brief blog of all I was able to accomplish in this short school year. Short? Yes, short. Due to maternity leave, I was only teaching for one term.

However, in just 5 months (and on top of teaching my daily curriculum) I was able to...

• Direct and Choreograph "High School Musical" as our annual mainstage production
• Artistically Direct 4 dance pieces for our Annual Spring Concert
• Produce our first annual Actor's Showcase (performing an original social awareness piece called "The Unseen Life of a Teen")
• Perform our first annual Community Outreach Piece (an adaptation of "Alice in Wonderland" performed for Kindergardeners at a local elementary school)

I was also accepted into the Arthur Miller Theater Education Program Fellowship. Through the fellowship, my school participated in a devising residency with Epic Theatre Ensemble. As a fellow, I have been given numerous opportunities and resources which have helped to support me as a starting teacher. The fellowship is dedicated to nourishing new theater teachers in the DOE. I am very fortunate to be a part of such a unique and wonderful program.

I was also able to continue my partnership with Lincoln Center Education, which is always a great asset to the classroom.

In conclusion, I am extremely proud of myself and my students for their hard work, effort, and trust. I thank them for putting up great pieces of theatre, and I only look forward to next year.

And now... I enjoy summer!!!