Well, that was a nice note to leave my blog on for three weeks…

I haven’t posted for three weeks obviously because the play was last week, and I’ve been completely immersed in rehearsal and performances. I had one every day on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, and we had two on Saturday. In my opinion, the Friday and the Saturday matinee shows were horrible - but the Saturday night one was the best one we did, so it ended well. It’s so sad now that it’s over now though - my life was that play, what am I to do now? I felt so bad for Paul (Tony) during Intro to Theatre today as we were striking the set that took four months to build. He spend the whole time in almost complete silence, and he was sitting on the balcony for a while. Sure, it’s sad for me, but that was his play. I had wondered every since they started painting bricks on the set if they would give some away after it was over. So today while we were literally cutting away bits of the set, we got to keep bits of the bricks, so that’s cool. But I do get a break from theatre until next week when auditions for Desert Theatre will take place. Of course, I suck at sketch comedy, so I probably won’t get in, but it’s fun to try out at any rate. We are also reading Romeo and Juliet in English at the moment, and I fount it interesting how there are several phrases and words used in West Side Story that the writers copied from the play as a sort of inside joke.

I am not the stereotypical student, getting mad at his teachers simply because they are the physical extension of something they resent. I do however, get very annoyed at certain teaching styles certain teachers use. Just as teachers have different ways of teaching, students have different ways of learning, and everyone has to learn to accept both of those differences. This is where the concept of differentiating comes in. While one student may flourish by answering every question they can, only to learn that they were wrong (but subsequently learning the right one by actively participating in the process), another may be infinitely helped more by quietly taking notes, and may dread the idea of a teacher even thinking about asking them for an answer (either out of fear they don’t know the answer, or will inadvertently give an incorrect one due to the stress levels associated with being called on). While some teachers will not do an exceptional job in their work at making sure their style fits the majority of students, we must all accept that, for the most part, that cannot be changed easily. But what must be considered is how the teacher involves the student. Teaching in an entirely verbal manner to a group that contains a student with for example a much higher visual learning style than verbal, is one thing; but actively treating each student as simply part of the group - be it by not allowing the first student to answer any questions in class and becoming irritated whenever she raises her hand, or forcing the quiet note-taking student to “participate” (in the strictest, least accepting form of the word - there are more ways to participate than answering question verbally in class) - is another thing all together. Both are wrong and should be avoided, but whereas the first puts the student in a position where they are less able to learn as much as their peers (a problem), the second can place at times emotional stress on the student (in my opinion, and even larger problem). By all means, make sure the student is paying attention and understanding the material, but the instructors need to find alternative ways of doing so other than expecting a quick answer in front of 30 peers (whether they care or not).

#m

“I am not the stereotypical student, getting mad at his teachers simply because they are the physical extension of something they resent.”

Ahem, two things: 1) I don’t think I’ve heard of that so it’s not really a ’stereotype.’ Unless they see their teachers as extensions of homework or a particularly problematic subject. 2) What’s so wrong with that? If you have to have something to be angry at…