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It’s never too early for assessment planning. The work currently being done in your classroom is providing a baseline of growth throughout the year, but if you don’t capture this data right now, you can’t present it to your administration when it is time to assess your program. Join us for a discussion of tips and strategies when it comes to assessments in your classroom.

If you have used The Empathetic Classroom or The Empathy Project or you're just looking for a way to approach what everyone has dealt with this past year and a half, join this discussion with Steven Stack. Steven's new DTA course Empathy 2.0 looks at empathy through the lens of what's now: how can students embrace their own and others' narratives and scars? How do we create a stronger classroom community? How do we learn to play again?  Steven will share activities and exercises in the course that you can take directly into the drama classroom.

Assessing students is always a challenge, but in the Drama classroom it's a challenge on top of a challenge! We assess knowledge, of course, but we also assess commitment, skill and performance. Assessment is fundamental to education, but the how and why of assessment differs from classroom to classroom, and lesson to lesson. Join us as we navigate the twists and turns of Assessment in the Drama Classroom.

As the year that just finished rides slowly into the sunset, (or mercifully falls off a cliff!) this is the time to take a minute and reflect on the highs and lows of your classes and productions from this past year. What new things did you try? What worked? What didn’t? How can I make it better and what are my goals for the coming year? Join our panel for a discussion on the process of looking backwards and moving forward.

Theatre is an art form designed to bring people together. But what do you do when you can’t teach your students face-to-face? Whether it is a family vacation, unexpected emergency or natural disaster, there will be times when you will need to teach your students from a distance. You will need to engage your students in Distance Learning. But distance learning comes with its own set of challenges: Do you have the right materials? Do you have the right technology? Do your students? Join us for a crash course discussion about the strategies and challenges associated with Distance Learning.

The holidays are upon us. Whether you’ll be meeting a new group of students in January, or you’re at the midway point, now’s the time to reassess, refocus, and reboot your classroom.

Reflection is a fundamental component of teaching. It is also a cornerstone of running a successful program or production. It can be hard to ask the tough questions once the year is over and all you want to do is just forget it all and move on. But that post-mortem is where the real learning happens! When you reflect on the successes and failures of the previous season or year, you bypass future mistakes before they have a chance to take root, and sow the seeds of a successful new year. So join us for the Year End Post-Mortem: What did you try, what did you skip, what worked, what didn’t. It’s time to build the foundations of the new year on the ashes of the old.

The drama classroom is all about connection and engagement. How do you connect to students who do not feel comfortable turning on their cameras in a virtual classroom? Theatre Educator Karen Loftus has been working with no camera students and shares her insights.

One of the more valuable lessons that we learned during the pandemic was that "Less is More" when it comes to our curriculum. We found that even though we didn't cover as much material, we were able to cover that material in much greater depth. This led to students taking a deeper dive into materials that normally they might skim across. And that, in turn, led to a better understanding of materials. So...Wait, we cut down on our curriculum and increased learning? How did that happen?! Join us in this PLC where we will discuss a "Less is More" approach to your curriculum and find out!

The new school year is looming large on the horizon. It’s time to check the standards, examine your curriculum and write some lesson plans. But how do you make sure that those lesson plans actually advance your curriculum and meet the standards? This PLC will examine how to create and execute a curriculum that meets both the needs of your classroom and the requirements of standards.

The latest tools for assessment in the drama classroom.

Taking a show to competition is always a roller coaster ride. But the highs and lows of performance don't stop when the curtain comes down: You still have to unravel the adjudicators comments and find a way to make them meaningful to your students! Join us for a talk about talkbacks, and learn to interpret that special language we call "Adjudication".