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Ravenswood Elementary is doing something new this year with the middle school. The enrichment staff has come together to form an electives schedule! The concept is that the students will choose the main courses that the enrichment teachers have decided to teach for three of the four quarters throughout the year, leaving one day of the week set aside for the P.E. to make sure the students receive a fully enriched education. Their choices will lead them to taking each of the Arts Enrichment class at some point in the year. For example, if a student chooses to have drama for the first quarter, they will have music and/or art for the next two quarters. So far, I have seen a really positive turnout for all of the these classes. Based on what the students are interested in, I have decided that my quarter courses are going to be:
The set design group for this first quarter has been awesome all week. As a lot of the students didn't know each other very well, being a mixed grade class, I started the course with a team building exercise. In small groups, the students were assigned to design and build a fort using only the materials we had in the room! In a few short minutes, the students were collaborating and creating fantastic structures using stacks of books, tables, tape, rope, and each other. It was a sight to behold! I can't wait to see the brilliance that is bound to come out in the next few weeks.
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What a summer. Though it has been shorter than normal, I feel like so much has happened. As most of you know, our principal Heather Connally, made the very difficult decision to transport her talents to Iowa. The school website can provide more the details, but suffice it to say, she will be missed. As Ravenswood widens it's search for new leadership, I have the privilege to say that I am surrounded by the most talented and innovative teaching staff there is. We will come out of this situation even stronger. I know it. On the the same vein, we as a staff at Ravenswood have spent the last few days together in our professional development sessions that for the prelude to each school year. Now, I have have been around a bit, and taught at a numerous schools in a few different states. As some of you may know, the first few days for teachers are usually wrought with hours of data driven meetings that, at best, give us teachers fuel for naps, and at worst, take away precious time for planning or room set up. However, this year's meetings have been so incredibly inspiring. The teachers led most of the Professional Developments (PD), and the administration took care of the rest. All of it was inspiring, and useful. I can honestly say that I have never had such a grand series of meetings the gave me new insight into my profession. But enough about meetings. Let's talk Celebrities. Here's Ameya Pawar and myself at a local “friendraiser” event: 
I'm going to go out on a limb and say the my alderman is cooler than your alderman. Also, I saw Johnny Knoxville on a trip to L.A. But enough about celebrities. Let's talk Drama. This years plays have been chosen! In case you missed the home page, we will be doing “Boo: Thirteen Scenes From Halloween” for our fall play (to be performed on October 30th, and our musical will be “Charlotte's Web.” Stop by the Drama Table on August 29th during the back to school BBQ to learn more about dates, requirement, and to pick up permission slips for auditions. Also, the drama space has changed! I had a blank slate to experiment with this summer, and as such a few things have changed. Come by anytime to see how Drama has carved a new space on the fourth floor. I want to give a special thanks to Jeff Switzer (P.E.), Ashley MacDonald, and Kitty Conde for their help in moving things around and/or lending tools/supplies. There is so much more to tell and I can't wait to share all the exciting things that are happening with Drama this year! There are pictures to be posted, and announcement to be made. Stay tuned!!  What do shadow puppets have to do with westward expansion? Well, if you're not in the 4th grade at Ravenswood, then probably not a whole heck of a lot. The students in 311 were hard at work experimenting with their own shadow puppets on Friday. They showed great creativity and produced some really awesome shadow puppets.  So, what if they take these new found skills and apply them telling the experiences of the people involved in westward expansion? We shall soon see. Now that there is a bit of time, I can officially post some of the awesome stories that the students researched and created based on Lewis, Clark and Sacagawea's experiences exploring the northwest. I'm not gonna lie, a good majority of the stories deal with the traveling party's encounter with a bear, but if I were looking for some historical content with which to dramatize, I would also seek "bear fighting" stories. At any rate, I think the students did a great job. Especially with the backgrounds that they drew on a sheet of copier paper that was then projected from a document camera through Miss Kitty's projector (thanks again Kitty). The effect was awesome and the students did great job while having fun. Here you go. The audio is not the best on any of these, but the performance effect is still pretty good. Check out the mountains on this one... I love how the students were able to create the expressions on the puppets faces. None of the puppets had articulating parts, that's a lesson we just didn't have time to get to. I am looking forward the next year when we can add those details into the performances!
Earlier in the year, the second grade classes were working on a script writing unit. Their goal was to take a book and turn it into a script, then perform the script. One of the classes just happened to choose to work on one of my favorite children's books, Something Beautiful by Sharon Dennis Wyeth. The students worked very hard adapting the script and choosing the roles. Some even memorized their lines with very little time with the script! I took a video of the class' last day of school performance and wanted to share it here on the website. I'm having a bit of a hard time getting the video into the 'media' section of the website, but I'll get that worked out before too long. Until then, here it is! I couldn't be more proud of the work they students put in to making the play. They started by breaking up the dialogue from the narrative, then we worked together to write the dialogue down on a scene by scene basis. This was followed by a group reading of the first draft, then we edited for content and staging. The students then democratically chose the roles they would play and we began practicing. One of my favorite moments came when the students couldn't get past the diner scene because they wanted to "set the scene" (their words!) by having Miss Delphine say "ORDER UP." I started making the corrections on the master script and it took the students a moment to realize that they had the creative license to make adjustments. They took such an amazing ownership of the whole collaborative process after that point!
In other news, I am going to be spending a good portion of the next few weeks this summer going through all of the photos I've taken of projects that the students have worked on in the 2012-2013 school year. Drama class is so much more than just the spring musical and mask making projects (which branched into a 5th grade unit as well). So look out for past pictures and new ideas alike. I've got some grand plans for this upcoming school year and would love feedback as I assemble and post new units! Lastly, don't forget to post play and musical suggestions for the next season. I will be diving into a stack of dramatic literature very soon to plan for the next year and love hearing about the types of performances the students, staff and community would like to see. I'll keep you posted! Well, it certainly has been much longer than I anticipated for us to finish the projects for Wonder Fest, but here we are in the last stages of the students' work. I will say that after seeing how hard the students are working on their presentations, I can't wait to post the final products! We have topics from sharks to what makes bullies mean to the educational benefits of music. It's going to be an exciting few weeks.
So, what does a typical musical rehearsal look like at Ravenswood? First a snack, then the magic begins. At 4pm you'd see the student leading themselves in a drama warm up. It's a simple vocal and physical warm up that the students have been learning in class. As of right now, I could ask anyone in the show to begin warming up and they would all know what to do. It's pretty amazing. We then have a check-in period of about 5 minutes where the students ask any questions that may be on their mind about the show, as well as respond with any research they may have done for the current play.
Blocking or running come next. These are strange words that refer to the director telling the students where to stand and move on stage, and going through the scenes that we've blocked already. Theatre terms can be weird sometimes. This is the meat of the rehearsal where we make discoveries about the characters and the play. All of the really funny or interesting moments that get to the stage happen in this part of the rehearsal. Then we finish with a reflection of the evenings events and sometimes obtain some new homework (yes, there is totally homework). This process is one that you'd be able to find at any theatrical rehearsal from Ravenswood to Broadway. So what makes our rehearsals so awesome? Quite simply, the cast. Throughout the rehearsal process for Adventures with Young King Arthur, I had the pleasure to watch the students grow and take the musical to amazing heights that I never even expected. From the beginning the students were enthusiastic and ready to work. If I said that lines had to be memorized by a certain date, they were memorized (mostly). If I told the students to learn something new about their character before the next rehearsal, they were begging to share what they discovered. One of my favorite parts of the process was when the ensemble rehearsals began with the knights and evil minions. One of the homework assignments was to give your character a full name and history. The students came up with the best names! Sir Gutsalot and Adams Wabash stick out presently. As the students delved deeper into their characters the show began to come to life more and more with each rehearsal. On some of the non rehearsal days I would pop my head down to Ms. Kitty's room and see the fantastic work the set crew was doing. They were always hard at work creating the props, painting the set, and generally making the show look awesome. So, day by day, we got became more and more ready for the big show day. During the last week we added something very new to Ravenswood musicals. Our live accompanist, Mr. Tom Clear from ACM School of Music came to work with the cast and supplement the vocal work our music teacher, Debbie Sanchez, was doing. Hearing the cast sing along side the piano for the first time was absolutely magical. When I asked the students how it felt to work with live music, their eyes lit up while they exclaimed how magnificent it was. The difference was night and day, immediately. The students, cast and crew, looked unstoppable. There were a few last minute jitters, sure. But that will always happen, and it doesn't matter. What matters is that the students involved in the play, many of them getting ready to go onstage for the irst time, were able to face whatever fear they had and keep going. It was amazing. I could not be more proud of the cast and crew of Adventures With Young King Arthur. They worked their fingers to the bone, and the end result certainly showed it. The curtains are here! I'm so excited to see the new curtains being installed. It is going to make a huge difference for the stage! Check back soon for more updates.  I spoke to the good folks at Grand Stage today, and they will be installing our new curtains on Monday and Tuesday of next week. Fingers crossed all goes according to plan and we have beautiful new curtains to enjoy on Thursday for the performances of Adventures with Young King Aurthur! Thanks again to FORS for all of their help making this a reality!  The 6th grade is well into their Greek Mask Making Unit (thanks again donors!) and it couldn't be more fun. The picture to the left will take you to more photos of the experience, but here's a little on the process. The students started out researching Greek myths/plays and chose a character that they found interesting. Using a template they began designing a mask based on their character. I have been really impressed with the types of designs I've been seeing. Some are half-face masks, some full-face, some include patterns and colors to show character... it's really been fun to listen to them explain their thinking on the designs.  Then our Assistant Principal, Mr. Fay, came into the classroom and let me demonstrate the process of laying on the plaster strips on his face. It all starts with proper clothing, and a plan. Then the subject covers their face with vaseline to prevent the plaster from sticking and tugging on the eyebrows. The person laying down the plaster 3 inch by 1 inch plaster strips carefully dips them in water, presses the excess water out places the strip on their partners face. Two to four layers later, you have a base for your mask. After about 5 minutes the mask is dry enough to carefully remove. A day later, the plaster is set, and ready for additional molded features. The students got a big kick out of this(especially the vaseline) and I'm pretty sure Mr. Fay had a good time with it too. I know I had fun.
After the demo it was just a case of getting our materials ready and turning the drama room into a delightful mess. For their first mask experience, everyone has been doing extremely well. It is amazing to see the students collaborate and cooperate with such proficiency. As they worked with their partners to create the base mask, I noticed that each team was doing a fantastic job taking care of their team mate. It can be a bit scary to sit in a chair 30 minutes while someone places gooey plaster gauze on your face, but each team made sure to ask their partner if they were okay and took measures to ensure their safety and comfort. Phenomenal students, plain and simple. Check out the Gallery for more pictures of the experience and stay tuned as I add more! 
Within 48 hours of posting my first Donors Choose, the Greek Mask Making Project was fully funded! Thank you so much to everyone who donated to help our students get supplies for this project. It is wonderful to be a part of such a broad and supportive learning community that jumps at the chance to help students be successful. Thank you again everyone for supporting the Arts, creativity, and the love of learning.
I have recently posted a DonorsChoose! Check the link to see how you can help the 6th grade learn about Greek Theatre. Use the code INSPIRE to have funds matched through January 26th. Thanks for your support!
http://www.donorschoose.org/we-teach/1360834.482681627 |
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