What do Drama Teachers Do In the Summer? Part One
Episode 98: What do Drama Teachers Do In the Summer? Part One.
The biggest misconception is that all teachers head to the pool and relax for two months during the summer. What to hear what really goes on? If you’re a beginning drama teacher listen in and take notes!
Show Notes
Episode Transcript
Welcome to TFP – The Theatrefolk Podcast – the place to be for Drama teachers, Drama students, theatre educators everywhere. I’m Lindsay Price, resident playwright for Theatrefolk.
Hello, I hope you’re well. Thanks for listening.
You are in Episode 98 and you can catch the links for this episode in the show notes at theatrefolk.com/episode98.
So, the biggest misconception is that all teachers, during their summer vacation, head to the pool, put their shades on, feet up, eat bonbons, right? Well, I recently talked to ten Drama teachers from Korea to California and, let me tell you, there’s not one of them who are sitting by the pool, eating bonbons – not one.
I’ve got to tell you, I mean, I’ve been amazed – always been amazed – at how hard Drama teachers work during the school year and I’m pretty gobsmacked at what they do during their summer vacation – vacation – during their summer vacation.
So, today, we’ve got part one with teachers from Virginia, Ontario, Alabama, North Carolina, and, if you’re a beginning Drama teacher, I think you really want to listen in and take notes. You are going to get some great ideas.
Lindsay: All right. Hello, Allison!
Allison: Hello!
Lindsay: Hi! How are you?
Allison: I’m doing good; really busy but that’s just the norm.
Lindsay: And where are you in the world?
Allison: Yes, I teach at the York County School of the Arts which is located in Williamsburg, Virginia, in the United States of America.
Lindsay: Awesome. And when does your school year end?
Allison: It does not end until next Friday which is June 13 so I’m still in the throes of school.
Lindsay: You’re counting the days though?
Allison: I’m trying to! Like, last show done.
Lindsay: Oh! Break a leg!
Allison: Oh, thank you!
Lindsay: Awesome. Okay. So, what we’re talking about is summer vacation and what teachers do for summer vacation, and I think it’s the big misconception that teachers are just, you know, sitting around with their feet in the pool, sipping on a fruity drink, and eating bonbons, right?
Allison: Absolutely. It is definitely a misconception.
Lindsay: What do you do?
Allison: Well, I have, in fact, I even created a checklist for myself years ago to make sure that I actually accomplish everything before the first day of school. Some of these things are very common for any kind of teacher.
For example, during the summer, I reflect on last year’s notes and on lessons to make sure that I don’t make the same mistakes moving forward, or I make some adaptions. I also go on Twitter and connect with educators for new ideas. I go on Pinterest too lately to browse for new ideas on classroom management, how I want to set up my classroom because good teaching is just good teaching. I also buy school supplies just like the kids, I get my pens and pencils and my Expo markers, things like that, and try to hit up the sales in August that typically happen in office supplies stores.
For theatre specifically, for my classes, if I need to get certain art supplies that would help out for next year’s lessons. For example, I do a unit every year with my upper class that deals with neutral masks so I make sure that I’ve ordered the materials for that unit and I try to do it in the summer when I have a little more time, especially if something’s happening right at the beginning of the year.
I go in and I clean and organize my classroom because, during the school year, I really don’t have time to set it up and to especially make any changes. I clean my desk, I change out my posters, things like that.
And the theatre as well, for Drama teachers especially – going in and, you know, really cleaning up backstage, taking an inventory of supplies such as lamps for the lighting instruments, you know, making sure the props are organized, the costume closet is organized, because that’s a lot and lot of work, especially with the more things you accumulate that you really, yes, you should maintain it during the year, but during the summer time when you’re unencumbered by teaching then you can really get down and dirty and clean up everything.
And deciding a season for the year, granted some of that comes from knowing your students and what kind of pool of talents you’re going to be dealing with. So, if you did teach the year before, you kind of know what students are going to be available the next year. So, if you can select a season before going into the first day of school, that’ll make your life ten million times easier.
Setting up royalties and getting licenses for the shows you want to produce the next year and, depending, I guess, on your school, our school requires us to fill out paperwork to request the use of our theatre space for rehearsals and for our productions and getting it on the school-wide calendar. So, we call them facility requests. So, we do that during the summer, too. So, obviously, when we’re doing a show, the band or a random event can’t come in and take up our space when we need it for a rehearsal or for a show.
Lining up faculty and personnel that’ll help you if you’re doing a musical, making sure we have a choreographer lined up to help us out, a music director, possibly an assistant director, if we have the funds for a costume designer, trying to set all of that up during the summer as well.
I have a lot more.
Lindsay: Oh, man! Allison, you rock! I think this is just so awesome and I think you’re right. I’ve been in so many theatre classrooms, like, during the year where it just seems like it’s overwhelm has happened and things are in piles and there are just props and costumes everywhere. There’s never any time during the year, is there?
Allison: No. So, it’s kind of like the summer is your opportunity to be relaxed and set everything up.
My program, we do a lot of field trips during the year and I know, you know, not everyone has that kind of luxury or the budget to be able to do that but, you know, I know a lot of Drama teachers that aren’t necessarily in a magnet program like mine where they might take one or two field trips a year, and sometimes they’re overnight field trips, like, to New York City or international trips. We do international trips a lot.
So, during the summer, we use that time to contact vendors to set up for tickets for our field trips, arrange for transportation, kind of taking care of those nuts and bolts so it’s not, especially if it’s an early field trip, and just kind of getting a plan for the year of what we want to do. In fact, my faculty, we’re about to have that kind of meeting next week, during our last week of school, so we can plan for next year.
We also have, like, if we want to have guest speakers or guest performances come in, we also, you know, try to have something set up or start making those communications out to those people during the summer or way early out so we have that set in place.
And then, I kind of write in those dates on my desk calendar and my plan book during the summer, before the first day of school, because it usually takes me about an hour or two to write all those dates in. Like, when are the main stage shows going to happen? What is my rehearsal schedule going to look like? So, I kind of have an idea in my head.
And I could just keep going.
Lindsay: Well, I think what’s really important, I’m thinking, if there are new teachers out there, organization and checklists. I love the idea – make yourself a checklist. And then, when you get to the end of the year, you don’t have to – exactly as you say – you don’t have to flounder and figure out what it is that you should be doing before that first day of school; you’ve got it written out. And what a great thing to come into the first day of school and you’re prepared.
Allison: Yes! And, of course, you know, there are things that are specifically for, you know, being a Drama teacher, like, you know, selecting your season, things like that. But then, you have all of the school’s expectations like you need to make sure, you know, you have your syllabus made and your classroom management planned and make sure you’ve prepared for an open house and for a back-to-school night and make sure you’ve read the teacher handbook and reviewed the school’s emergency procedures and et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
And, every summer, I send out welcome letters to my students before they have me on the first day of school so they’ve had one, you know, example of communication of me before they even get into my classroom. So, that’s on my checklist.
So, it’s a lot, but it’s the stage manager in me to make a checklist.
Lindsay: Aha! Aha! That’s your background! I can see it! It’s written all over you!
Allison: Yeah! Yeah, I’m definitely a director, stage manager, and every year I go back to this checklist and I edit it.” You know what? I need to put this on this checklist,” or, “I don’t need to do that anymore.” So, I think, as a first year teacher, having a running document on your desktop of your computer or wherever or a journal and just writing down notes as the year happens – like, “I better make sure I do this,” and throw that on my checklist because I didn’t have this checklist until my second year of teaching.
Lindsay: Wow!
Allison: And so, it’s like, if I could have had this checklist from the beginning, that would have made me feel a little better, especially when I mark them off. I did that!
Lindsay: Absolutely. Oh, Allison, that is so great! I think that is really, really. And how great must it feel too for your students to come into this organized, they’ve already heard something from you. I think it makes a big difference when you’re setting the scenario for that first day of school. I think it makes a difference when someone’s walking into a chaotic situation and an organized situation.
Allison: Exactly, because it’s embarrassing and, you know, we’ve been in this position before – just from outside reasons – but, you know, the first day of school, when they come in, they want to know, “Okay, when’s the first audition for the show? What is our season? What are we doing this year?” and, if you can’t tell them, “Well, we have the first show figured out, but we don’t know when the next one’s going to be,” or, “We think we’re going to have auditions for the first show next week but, if you have, this is our season, we have audition forms already for you to fill out on the first day of school and our audition is happening next week and this is the rehearsal schedule,” then they’re going to be like, “All right. I can get excited about this. Everything’s already planned.” You know, they’re going to feel better. And you, as the teacher and the director of everything, you’re going to feel a big breath of relief because you’re already set up.
Lindsay: Absolutely, absolutely. Thank you so much for this, Allison. That’s awesome!
Allison: Thank you for the opportunity. I hope it helps somebody out there.
Lindsay: Oh, I know it will.
***
Lindsay: All right. So, now I am talking to Troy Taylor. Hello, Troy!
Troy: Hey! How are you?
Lindsay: I’m awesome. How are you?
Troy: I’m doing quite well.
Lindsay: Good. That’s what we like to hear. Tell everybody where you are in the world.
Troy: I am currently in Birmingham, Alabama, where I teach at Hueytown High School. I’m the theatre teacher there. I’ve been there for two years now. I’m only about to start my third year in my teaching career so I’m quite young in my career and my experience.
Lindsay: That’s awesome. Are you still enjoying it as your first year?
Troy: Yes, and I love it a lot – I really do. Each year, it gets better and better, and my kids get more and more excited and we just are doing more and more things as we keep growing and every day passes by.
Lindsay: What made you choose theatre? What made you choose to be a theatre teacher?
Troy: Really, my journey as a student through theatre in high school was an important part of my life and growing up and my teacher was very important as far as me becoming a man and learning life lessons and just what it brought to me was very, very valuable. And so, that was a journey that I wanted to take as far as giving back to society, so to speak, and being able to do that for students of the future.
Lindsay: It’s an important job, isn’t it?
Troy: It really is and it’s a very big job.
Lindsay: Absolutely. And on that note, so the question we’re asking is what do teachers do during the summer? What do you do on your summer vacation?
Troy: Well, I wish I could say that I had a summer vacation. For the last two summers, ever since I was hired, I’ve spent literally every day at the school, and working to get ready for the upcoming year, or cleaning out and putting stuff away from shows that are still left out, or returning things that we’ve borrowed. You know, working on lesson plans and, I mean, you name it, that’s what I’m doing. There’s not much of a summer for me, you know? And that’s something I knew would be a part of my job if I really took it seriously and there’s a lot to do to get ready for our kids and, you know, shows and planning and production and all those kinds of things.
Lindsay: Why do you think it is that people assume that teachers just take that time off? “Oh, they’ve got the summer off. Oh, the lucky teacher!”
Troy: Realistically, there may be a lot of teachers that get to do that, but teachers who really care about what they get to do and the opportunity that they have to work with students every day don’t take the time off during the summer to rest because they’re too busy trying to prep for the upcoming year and for the next batch of students they’re going to have – you know, new or they may even have some of the same students – because they care about what they’re going to present to their students who want kind of opportunities they’re going to give and, you know, especially being a theatre teacher, we’re always thinking, “Okay, what can we do next? What’s the next opportunity that we can give our students?” and that takes a lot of planning and a lot of time outside of the normal 8:00 to 3:00 school day, you know? And, during the school year, you’re doing rehearsals so that summer is really when you do your planning and prepping for the next school year.
Lindsay: And that’s awesome, I think, that you have got a grasp on that so early in your career. I think it’s just going to serve you well.
Troy: Well, thank you.
Lindsay: Awesome. Thank you so much, Troy!
Troy: Thank you, Lindsay!
***
Lindsay: And now, I am with Danny. Hello, Danny!
Danny: Hi, Lindsay. How are you?
Lindsay: Oh, I’m great! How are you?
Danny: I’m perfect.
Lindsay: Aha! Oh, I love to hear that!
Danny: It’s night-time and the sun’s going down. It’s beautiful over here.
Lindsay: Aha! It’s beautiful where I am, too. Tell everybody where you are.
Danny: I’m in North York, Toronto. Just north of Toronto, Ontario.
Lindsay: Just north of Toronto, Ontario. I love that. I love being able to talk to somebody as close to local as I’m going to get, I think. That’s great.
Danny: Nice.
Lindsay: So, how long have you been a teacher?
Danny: This is my twelfth year. It feels like forever but only twelve years so I’ve got lots to go.
Lindsay: Yeah. Why does it feel like forever?
Danny: Well, first of all, as a Drama teacher, we’re always busy so every year feels like four. But it’s all good, though. You know, I’m definitely not going to complain. I love what I do but it’s hard work.
Lindsay: I don’t know a Drama teacher who isn’t on the move 24/7 who just puts in so much extra time. I think that’s something.
Danny: You have to.
Lindsay: Yeah, you do! Well, if you’re going to do the job well, right?
Danny: Well, usually, I tell parents, “Anybody who’s willing to listen, our job is almost 90 percent marketing and then 10 percent teaching,” and that’s a great thing too because the marketing is really a lot of great stuff that we do, right? Because it’s the kids doing their work.
Lindsay: Yes, absolutely. So, you’re heading into the end of your school year.
Danny: Yes.
Lindsay: How do you use your summer months?
Danny: Well, first of all, the summer is – although it can be seen as a time to relax – really, especially as a Drama teacher, again, it’s a refresher more than anything. And so, I guess that includes doing a lot of reading. For me, I like to learn, but really, that comes from reading new things and seeing a lot of stuff and obviously that includes plays, but it’s also traveling and finding new inspirations for stuff and within all of that is obviously finding passion and revitalizing passion because it’s very easy to get stale – not just as a Drama teacher but as a teacher in general, especially the longer you do it.
So, in order to be motivational and in order to get your kids to be passionate, you have to stay revitalized. Almost like every September, you come in and it’s your first year all over again and you can’t do the same thing. So, I think refresher is the most important thing.
Lindsay: I think that’s a great idea to look at it, that you have to kind of come into every year as if it’s the first time because, otherwise, you’re just repeating the same games and doing the same exercises and, I think, students know when you’re just going through the motions.
Danny: Oh, yeah, absolutely. I mean, obviously, they take Drama because they have an expectation coming into the course and, even if they, you know, if they have an idea of what to expect, if they’re surprised pleasantly, they’re going to be more engaged as well. And so, it’s not tricking them but it’s keeping them on their toes and, again, the only way to do that is by being fresh every year.
Lindsay: Yeah. Well, you’re leading by example, right?
Danny: Absolutely, that’s one of my prime beliefs.
Lindsay: So, when you started out as a teacher, did you always have this principle of how to use your summer months or has that changed over time?
Danny: Well, as far as the staying fresh and the passion is concerned, you know, for me, I remember – I can’t remember what it was exactly but some sort of lecture in teacher’s calls and it started with that. Again, I think, when you get into the profession in general, but then, specifically as a Drama teacher, if you’re not thinking in terms of leading by example – like you say – but with passion and always staying fresh, that’s always been a part of who I am as a person so I think that just comes natural as a teacher.
Lindsay: If you could give an example of one thing that you think every starting Drama teacher should be doing on their summer months, what’s the one thing that you think would be incredibly helpful?
Danny: Writing.
Lindsay: Ah!
Danny: Yeah, absolutely, and not necessarily any plays. I mean, me, personally, I keep three or four journals at any given time and it’s ideas. You know, I’ll be driving in the car and I’ll ask my wife to write something down for me that comes to my mind and it’s based on something I see or something I’m reflecting on from the day. But, again, the more you write, it’s inspirational, it keeps you fresh. Like I said before, you know, it comes from a place of passion, obviously, if it’s coming, you know, from that moment.
And, again, I think writing always is going to come from the heart and then, again, if that’s what you’re turning around and trying to give to the kids, it’s going to be inspirational. So, writing is very important. It could be about anything. Again, it’s not necessarily, like I said, about a play. It could be anything – new curriculum, it could be new lesson plans. I believe every two years, I have a two-year cycle, and it doesn’t always stay that way but I totally revamp all of my plans every two years in the summer so that it could be also writing new plans.
Lindsay: I think that’s awesome. I think keeping a journal is, again, something that we want students to do so, if we want students to do it, we should also be, again, leading by example.
Danny: Absolutely.
Lindsay: And I just love it. I love having a notebook on hand so that, when anything hits your brain, you are in the habit of making sure it gets on the page.
Danny: I learned that from a director that I worked with once and it was in his back pocket and it always stuck out to me because he usually had the most creative ideas and so I just took that from him and I applied it to my teaching practice.
Lindsay: Oh, I love that; that is such a great example.
Thank you so much, Danny, for sharing that and I really appreciate you taking your time.
Danny: No problem.
Lindsay: Awesome.
***
Lindsay: Okay. So, now I am talking to Chuck Stowe. Hello, Chuck!
Chuck: Hi, Lindsay!
Lindsay: Hey! How are you doing?
Chuck: Doing great. It’s been a wonderful week.
Lindsay: Awesome! And so, just tell everybody where you are in the world.
Chuck: I am at Stuart Cramer High School in Belmont, North Carolina – that’s just west of Charlotte.
Lindsay: Ah, excellent! I can picture where that is. And how long have you been a teacher?
Chuck: This is my tenth year teaching high school.
Lindsay: Did you teach something else before that?
Chuck: I was on the college level – three different colleges.
Lindsay: Oh! So, what made you decide to go to high school?
Chuck: Moving back here to help take care of family and finding available jobs. But I love it. This is where I’m supposed to be.
Lindsay: Ah!
Chuck: I enjoyed teaching on the college level but I absolutely love teaching high school students.
Lindsay: Oh, why? Why?
Chuck: I get to see them learn to love theatre as much as I do.
Lindsay: It’s an amazing thing. I think that that’s what I love about doing plays for high school students particularly because they’re sponges and they’re so enthusiastic and they’re so energetic and it’s always a joy.
Chuck: Absolutely. I stay young because of my kids.
Lindsay: That’s always good. Okay. So, what we’re asking everybody is what do you do during your summer vacation? What are the things as a teacher that is important for you to do?
Chuck: One of the most important things for me, with theatre, I spend all my time in a classroom with no windows, an auditorium with no windows, a shop with no windows, so to get some sun time and fun time to just kind of recharge the batteries a little bit.
Lindsay: A little Vitamin D is necessary, right?
Chuck: Absolutely, but just making sure, you know, we give so much of ourselves all year. We’re giving and giving and giving – time-wise, emotionally, physically – that it’s time to recharge the batteries for ourselves. Make sure, you know, spending time with friends, with family, those kind of things. Read a few books that have absolutely nothing to do with theatre or with educational development or professional development. Just some “me” time, doing that.
But, for me, one of the most important things I try to do every summer is do theatre where I can be part of a team.
Lindsay: Ah.
Chuck: So often, we are one-person programs. Most of us work as a one-person theatre department and we bring in people, volunteers to work with us and, of course, we have our students that we’re working with, but we’re still ultimately responsible for the whole thing. But to be able to go somewhere and act in a show, or just help build and paint a show, or work on costumes for a show, do something where I can be part of a team where I’m not having to work alone, and that’s refreshing and energetic and you can be creative. You’ve got people – other professionals you can bounce ideas off of. And I’ve often found that I can talk to those guys about some of the things I’m planning for the coming year and getting feedback from other theatre professionals in a non-school setting.
Lindsay: I think that’s amazing because, first of all, all we talk about quite a bit for our students is team building, ensemble, team building and ensemble. You know, we want them to be a team and if you haven’t had that experience of being on their side of the table where you are a part of the team, you know, how can you encourage them to do that to their best, yeah?
Chuck: Yeah, I agree, and that’s so important because, what we do, we hear so much about 21st century skills and, you know, collaboration and creating and problem-solving. It’s what we’ve done in theatre for 2,500 years.
Lindsay: Oh, yeah.
Chuck: We talk about it but we need to – like you say – be experiencing it first-hand to then be able to come back. And I bring some of those experiences back into the classroom. A couple of years ago, I did Summer Stock. Last summer, I worked with three summer camp programs in our community where they have theatre camps – three-week theatre camps where they produce shows and I helped with those programs. So, different things you do in different responsibilities. Just finding a way to plug into hone my own craft, working with professionals, gives me a chance to, like, again, you know, that whole recharging the batteries metaphor.
Lindsay: And there’s so many different ways you can recharge those batteries too, you know? Just the whole notion, I just love that idea, because you’re still working on your craft of being a theatre teacher but from a completely different perspective.
Chuck: Yeah.
Lindsay: That’s awesome. I think that’s so really helpful. When you started out as a teacher, what was your vision of what your summers would be like?
Chuck: Ah, well, naively, I thought I would be taking the summer off and I have, you know, from June 10th till August 25th to just relax and hang out and home and work in the yard and projects around the house. But the reality is I still do all of that, but I make time to do the other things – the theatre work as well – and I try to do as much pre-planning as I can without going overboard with it, if that makes sense.
Lindsay: Oh, totally, so that, when you walk in on that first day, you know where you’re going.
Chuck: Well, tomorrow, I’m going to be announcing to my students what our musical for next Spring is going to be and so I’ll start doing some pre-planning on that because I want to know in August – even though we’re doing the show in the Spring – in August, I want to know what the set’s basically going to look like and what our costume concepts are going to be like and who my production team is going to be. So, I’ll be putting those pieces of the puzzle together over the summer – not having all the details done, of course, but just so that you get the big picture at least filled in over the course of the summer with that.
Lindsay: Ah, I think that’s really the only way to survive the life of a Drama teacher – organization.
Awesome. Thank you so much, Chuck. That was really great, I loved that example. I’ve been talking to a number of teachers and everyone has had a different take on this question and I just love it. Thank you so much!
Thank you so much to all the teachers in this episode – Allison, Hall, Danny Dilallo, Troy Taylor, Chuck Stowe. I love how much I learn doing these interviews and I won’t lie, I mean, I assumed that there was someone who was kicking back and going to go into relax mode for the entire time but, ah, you know, deep down inside, I am not surprised – not really. You guys are the hardest working folks I know. My hands are up. You know, all hail the Drama teacher.
So, you can get the links to this episode in the show notes at theatrefolk.com/episode98.
And before we go, let’s hear from THEATREFOLK NEWS.
It’s a play feature! It’s a play feature! It’s time to feature a play!
Okay. Do you know what Roshambo is? Yeah, me neither – until this play came across my desk. So, Roshambo is the name for a tournament of rock-paper-scissors. That’s right. You heard it – rock-paper-scissors tournaments. And, of course, you’re intrigued because I was intrigued and you know that some people take rock-paper-scissors very seriously – so seriously that there’s national ranking, so seriously that they might cheat to win their tournament, that they have to devote their entire lives to practicing no matter what. This is the world of Brian Borowka’s play Roshambo.
I love the title. I love the subject matter. If you’re looking for a fun play for middle school that is not your fractured fairytale, pick this up. If you have a grade nine Drama class, oh, use this for scene work. Interesting characters who throw moves like you have never seen before.
Go to theatrefolk.com. Read the sample pages for Roshambo. Go to the show notes at theatrefolk.com/episode98 and click the link. Read it now!
Finally, where, oh, where can you find this wonderful podcast?
We post new episodes every Wednesday at theatrefolk.com and on our Facebook page and Twitter. You can find us on YouTube.com/Theatrefolk. You can find us on the Stitcher app and you can subscribe to TFP on iTunes. All you have to do is search for the word “Theatrefolk.”
And that’s where we’re going to end. Take care, my friends. Take care.
Music credit: ”Ave” by Alex (feat. Morusque) is licensed under a Creative Commons license.
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