First, I do my best to remember that my students are teenagers and are therefore going to act like teenagers. I take theatre seriously, but I need to keep in my mind that my kids are not all going to take it as seriously as I do and that that is okay. I can refocus them without getting upset. It is taking me a while to remember that, but if I can get it into my brain, I might be better off.
Second, listening to my students. They often know what they need. For example, today in my advanced class we were going over physical character creation. I asked how we can translate the energy they had during those exercises into rehearsal. They suggested a couple of warm-ups they have done with my in the past. So I'll be starting class with those now.
I also used that technique in my last period today. It is beginning drama and very squirrelly. It got to the point that I decided not to teach what I had planned on and asked them to come up with ways for them to be focused in class and ways I could help them be focused in class. They provided several suggestions that I will be implementing. I also tried to keep my voice neutral, to keep it a discussion and be open to what they had to say to me.
Positive for today: I was observed by my vice-principal today during one of my beginning classes. The state required that each teacher be observed twice in the school year. After my observation, he came up to me and said that my classroom management had improved a lot since last year. Since that is an area I had a hard time with last year, it was nice to know that someone has noticed an improvement.
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