Sample class

As part of my Teaching Theatre Teaching class, we each had to teach one play as a sample class. It has been interesting to watch my peers experiment with different styles and approaches, some more successfully than others. (A sick part of me was very sad to miss Zero's train wreck of a sample class, but at least my friends took some good notes.) Going last, I have had a chance to watch everyone else. And offer directing notes.

I got back to CA and realised that I had to plan my class which was 2 days away instead of next week. As of last night, I hadn't even picked out my play! Originally, I had signed up for Miracle Worker, but changes in schedule combined with my conference, prevented me from it. Instead, I chose Tenure. (I question the legitimacy of a play that has NEVER been produced, is published by a company that accepts unsolicited scripts and was written by someone who teaches and writes as a film/culture critic, but has never left home.) On one hand, I really wanted to just teach the play instead of making it a pawn in my larger agenda or using it to offer a gimmick. On the other, I thought of a cool context. Largely grounded in my own mixed feelings toward the tenure process (I love the idea of guaranteed employment, but often hate the people who get it and the lazy asses they become as a result.) So I framed the class in terms of Advocacy, for the play, the ethics of hiring processes.

I wish I could say that teaching makes me nervous, but at best it might elevate the heart rate. Today, I got to teach, with impressive success. I offered statistics, worked with personal experience, and actually had a discussion going! Got some really good feedback, mostly on my inclusiveness of participants and roadmap. I don't know that I had an exact roadmap, but I had objectives and lots of questions. I felt like I handled difficult students well, and fielded all of the questions/comments effectively. My professor called me out on the use of personal. Dumbass asked about how frustrating it was when people's comments veered off my roadmap (he was the major violator, followed shortly by Zero), and I managed to come up with something sufficiently elegant (there can be interesting things on the side of the road that you stop or slow down for, but you are still headed in the same direction.)

I get such a charge from teaching, and based on the feedback, especially the unusually-effusive Professor, I just might be good at it. Woot! Maybe I really am heading in the right direction!