Search the Drama Teacher Academy

This section covers strike procedure.

Two sets of posters - one for students and one for teachers, to provide visual cues and reminders.

In this workbook, teachers will identify soft skills, identify where we find them in the theatre curriculum, and identify the games, activities and assignments you already utilize in your classroom that use soft skills.

Looking to implement Social and Emotional Learning into your program? This resource contains SEL connections to specific games and activities that are commonly played in the drama classroom, and the underlying actions, skills, or outcomes affiliated with those components. Use the provided SEL Component Worksheets to identify SEL connections to other games and activities you use. Lastly, use the Reflection questions to reflect on your personal thoughts and experiences using SEL in the drama classroom.

This resource offers guidance on working with your students to create an anti-slur policy. Included are two additional resources - Start With One Thing, and Social Awareness documents.

The goal in this ongoing work to be a loving, inclusive teacher in a loving, inclusive space is to continue to build the library in your room to represent every student. Providing access to these materials within the walls of a classroom allows students to engage in the literature without judgment. This document offers a teacher self-assignment task to populate your bookcase with inclusive, diverse material and then a couple of classroom tasks you can do to make sure your books get noticed.

Author Nick Pappas has created a resource for teachers to develop the tools they need to help student writers find their voice. This resource focuses on two big questions: What is Feedback?, and What is Useful Feedback? At its core, all answers will focus on giving notes that will improve the work, which, in this case, is our students’ plays. And, as a teacher, that’s the goal: we want our students to write and to grow through their writing. If we want students to get better, we need to get better. Understanding the definition of feedback and understanding how to provide useful feedback is the key to all of us getting better.

This is a guide to trying a recorded video journal to use as a reflection tool. It can be used during a rehearsal period to reflect on the process, or it can be used as a classroom tool to reflect on your teaching practice. This guide will walk you through the process and give suggestions for use with your class as well.

In this resource, we will look at the components of SEL, suggest some activities and reflection questions, and go step-by-step through a Defining Ensemble Activity that you can use as a template. Finally, there’s a SEL Worksheet to take activities you use, apply SEL components and make connections: What specifically about the activity connects to the SEL component?

A common unit to start the year has teachers and students setting classroom expectations, identifying procedures and at the same time establishing community through ensemble-building exercises. The two concepts go hand-in-hand if you want a smooth running classroom. This also makes it the perfect unit to introduce inclusivity. This section includes suggestions for discussions around respect with regard to classroom expectations, and ensemble building exercises with a focus on “Who am I?” and “Who are We?” This section also includes a document on creating an Anti-Slur Policy.

Improv sketches are often based on heteronormativity. From characters, to audience suggestions, to scenarios, it’s easy to slip away from anything inclusive. This section includes questions you can ask yourself and discussions you can have with students about current Improvisation guidelines; the use of character names and pronouns; being aware of using accents and affectations for a joke or punchline; occupations without gender and character/relationships.

The study of design is visual and the internet can be a valuable resource for examples. To that end, for an inclusive design unit, include LGBTQ+ individuals working in the different theatrical fields. In this section we will mainly focus on LGBTQ+ theatre professionals Set Design, Lighting Design, Sound Design, and Costume Design. There are lesson plans, activities, and resource documents that you can use to supplement your various design units.

This section focuses on some of the fundamental skills involved in acting, movement, voice, and character development, through the lens of LGBTQ+ students. There are also trans and non-binary actor interview links, lesson plans with an LGBTQ+ actor focus, and scenes that feature either LGBTQ+ characters or “any gender” characters.

This section offers a variety of lesson plans, activities and resource documents to allow students to analyze, infer and synthesize within the context of LGBTQ+ inclusivity in the world of theatre.

Inspirational quotes for a new school year. Printable calendar to customize for any school year.

Teaching students the act of effective discussion, either as a full class or in a small group, is teaching students a lifelong skill. The ability to listen and engage and learn in conversation is something that will serve them way after they leave your classroom. Effective discussion may not come naturally for a great many of your students. This resource shares best practices for setting up effective discussions in your classroom.

The purpose of this resource is to offer opportunities through discussion, exercises, activities, unit add-ons, research links, and lesson plans to visibly support LGBTQ+ students in your classroom.

Use this journal to take some quick notes in the moment for your lessons. What worked? What didn’t? How did your time management on paper work in real time with students? This way when you’re ready to assess your curriculum in full, you’ll have a good picture of the individual pieces and where changes need to be made.

It’s important to keep track of your own personal journey as you step into the classroom for the first time. This way, you have a document you can use to review and reflect on at the end of the year. You don’t have to write volumes every day. Just enough to jog your brain and help you take steps to continue doing something or change something for the next school year. There are two months worth of daily journal pages and weekly reflection pages in this journal. Save/copy a blank one so you can continue recording your personal journey!

This journal was created as an accompaniment to Steven Stack's DTA course: Playwriting Outside the Lines. It can also be used as a stand alone resource, as a writing tool and a path for creation. The journal is divided into 5 sections: Creative Sandbox, Play/Scene Development, Random Thoughts and Lines, Home of the Rough Drafts, and Notes from Others.