Hey you,
I am writing because I want you to know this - I see you. 
                                                                                                I SEE YOU. 
You are not invisible although you try to be. 
You are not invisible although you think you are. 
You are not invisible even though I know you want to be.
I see you. 

I see you and I am sorry. 
I am sorry that school sucks.
I am sorry that life sucks. 
And yes some days it does suck.
I am not going to lie to you and tell you that school is great and that everything is peachy. 
Some days it isn’t. 
Hell, some days I don’t want to get out of bed either… but I do.

Do you want to know why? 
Because I understand how our brain works. 
Uncertainty makes us worry, makes us anxious, warps our perspective. 
“She thinks this of me...
I am not going to be able to do this...
I don’t fit in...
What if I fail…
What if I am not enough? 
In fact, 
I am not enough.”

Block out those voices. 

I see you and I want you to know that YOU are enough. 
You are more than enough. 
Don’t believe me? 
Well, listen up.

You are love. When you mother held you in her arms for the first time, her heart exploded with love. As a mother myself, I know this of all things to be true. You did that.

You are joy. When you entered my class today for the first time in a week, I smiled with absolute joy. Absolute freaking joy. And so did your classmates. You did that.

You are hope. When I see what you are capable of, when I see how creative you are, when I see you get that next idea... I have hope. Hope for the future; not just yours, but everyone's. You did that. 

Are you listening? 
Did you hear what I said? 
                                                      You are hope and joy and love. 
                                                                 You are enough.

So here's the deal.
I promise you that every time you rock up to my class I will be waiting to greet you with a smile. 
I promise you that everyday you come to my class will be absolutely worth it because I will give you 100% of my energy and my complete and full attention.
I promise you that you will always be seen, always be heard, always be loved in my class no matter what.
I promise you that I will never let you be invisible no matter how much you try.
I promise you that I will always believe in you, especially when you don’t believe in yourself.
And most of all, I promise you that I will mirror the love and joy and hope I see in you
                                                                                                                                    ...right back at you.

In return, I ask for nothing. 
Nothing except that you get out of bed and face the day.
You will make it through it. Things will improve. 

How can I be certain?
Because you are hope and joy and love.
                                                                    And you are enough.

Image by Volkan Olmez.

Yes, I know what you are thinking - “Um, really? Drama teachers?” Drama teachers generally sit at the bottom of the educational food chain. “I mean, how hard can a puppet show really be to pull together? It’s just dressing up, playing games, having fun right? This is not what good teaching and learning looks like.”

You are wrong. 

Today I sat in a wonderful PD session run by some amazing colleagues of mine. They were discussing ways to ensure that our students became life long learners. Teachers were asked "What do we want the students we teach to be like when they are adults?" The answers included risk-takers, curious, creative thinkers, reflective, listeners, confident, creative, open to ideas, empathetic and adventurous amongst others. I sat there thinking, “This is what drama teachers do and do well.”

So here are six things I believe all teachers can learn from Drama teachers.

1. Play - There is one maths teacher that walks past my classroom on a daily basis and every time she looks through the door of my classroom she cringes. What she sees makes absolutely no sense to her. You can guarantee that whenever she is walking past she may be blasted by a strange noise, confronted by two students sword fighting in the corridor, witness a masked greek townsperson crying out in disgust or be greeted by a student bursting out the door only to turn directly around and burst straight back in making the grandest of entrances. In this moment she sees chaos; I see students playing, imagining, exploring the world, empathising with it’s people, taking risks, developing confidence in front of their peers, collaborating, trusting and most significantly learning.

Charles Schaefer wrote, “We are never more fully alive, more completely ourselves, or more deeply engrossed in anything than when we are playing.” All teachers should build play into their daily practice. Play with numbers in maths. Play with words in English. Play with materials in DT. Play with elements in Science. When we play we are engaged. We are exploring our world. We are learning about ourselves and we are learning to work with those playing with us. 

2. Teach The Whole Student - In Drama we are not teaching facts, we are not teaching equations -  we are teaching people. We are teaching people how to feel, how to interact with others, how to respond to the world and express ideas and feelings about what they see and experience. This can make Drama teaching exhausting some days, but it is also the most rewarding element. 

When students are giving an answer in Drama they are giving of themselves. They must be completely present; they must show up; they must participate. Drama teaches students about themselves and by learning about themselves they become more confident, more self-assured and more empathetic to others. 

Aristotle said, “Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.” So let’s give students the opportunity to know themselves. Teach them how maths is relevant to their life and experience. Teach them the science of emotions. Teach them about their cultures, their world, their lives and explicitly connect it to who they are. They will be engaged, reflective and curious in their learning.

3. Collaborate Daily - I don’t think I have ever taught a lesson in my class where students were expected to work through the entire period on their own. We are constantly collaborating. If we aren’t working in groups, we are working in pairs. Even if a student is working on an individual project they are sharing the work with their classmates, constantly seeking feedback and suggestions. In order for this to work I explicitly teach collaboration and team work skills at the start of the year. I teach trust and listening as core skills. I assess their ability to collaborate and provide them with ongoing suggestions on ways to improve in this area. All Drama teachers do.

Yes, Drama lends itself to collaboration, but doesn’t every subject? Build a culture of collaboration in your classroom. Start each lessons with a problem that must be solved in pairs. Use google docs to write a group essay (one paragraph each). Embrace group discussion. Encourage peer assessment and feedback. Set team challenges on a weekly basis. Mix up groups and partners every lesson to allow students to develop new relationships amongst their peers. If this collaborative environment is nurtured correctly and taught explicitly, students will become open to new ideas, empathetic towards others, and fantastic listeners.

4. Change The Physical Environment - I have one highly intelligent student who enters my classroom and either commando rolls or spins or leaps or runs through the door every Drama lesson. Why? She has told me that she feels free. Free to move, free to explore, free to be herself instead of sitting contained at a desk every other lesson. 

What does my classroom look like? Basically an open space. I have two desks for quiet writing and work if needed. We generally work on the floor in a circle, even when we are writing or I am giving direct instruction. I don’t have a whiteboard. Instead we collaborate on the mirrors and windows in my classroom with liquid chalk or butcher’s paper. The students work-in-progress is plastered on my walls making thinking visible. I currently have an entire script of a play on one wall so we can all stand around discussing different points of interest rather then all hiding in separate books behind desks. I have chairs in a cupboard that I can pull out if needed. I have cushions against a window. Boxes that can be converted into makeshift collaborative tables. I expand into the corridors if I require separate group space and if I still need more room to move I take them outside. My classroom allows them to work comfortably, freely and collaboratively. This encourages students to become creative in their thinking, adventurous and confident in themselves. 

Teachers of the world listen up. Remove your furniture. Replace it with various work areas that allow freedom of choice for your students. Create a flexible space that encourages collaboration and open discussion. Build an environment that allows freedom and creative expression. 

5. Assess The Process - In Drama we asses three areas - Performing, Making and Critically Analysing. The most interesting and difficult part of this is assessing the making. We mark the creative process. This encourages students to really focus on the decisions they are making, examine how they are collaborating and authentically establish and refine the thinking process as they work towards the final product. The whole method allows us as teachers to concentrate on the learning taking place and the individual growth of the students throughout the process.

There are various ways we do this - observational records, logbooks, self and peer assessment, questioning, progress assessments throughout the unit and reflective essays documenting how they approached a task. These could all be strategies used in each and every classroom. Throughout the last term we worked on a large group project. At the end of each lesson all groups had to show the class what they had achieved that lesson and received feedback from their peers. Each individual student needed to document the process and reflect on their learning in their logbook during and after each lesson. I also collected observational records on how each group was collaborating and the contributions of each individual student. Two-thirds of the way through the term each group had to present a raw performance (unpolished) in order to receive extensive feedback from myself and their classmates on how they could take the piece to the next level before their final assessment. This made the process extremely transparent and shifted the focus from the final product to the learning. These are all strategies that could be implemented in other classrooms despite the topic area.

6. Allow Your Students To Fail - My year 11’s will clearly articulate that it is ok to ‘fail in Drama’. This is because I say to them all the time, “If we aren’t failing we aren’t learning.” Throughout my lessons the students in my class are expected to perform, contribute and participate in every moment. This is difficult because when they are giving an answer in Drama they are giving of themselves; they are putting themselves on the line. I need my classroom to be a safe place, built on trust and love (and of course joy) so they will give everything a go. After developing a safe environment where failing is valued as part of the process students start becoming risk-takers. Creating this culture is difficult but completely worth it.

One way I encourage this is by modelling risk-taking myself. My lessons frequently start with,  ‘Today in class we are going to try this… I haven’t tried this before… It may not work but let’s give this ago.’ Additionally at the start of the year I tell my classes, “I am not going to ask you to do something I am not willing to do myself.” Yes, they call me out on it often and yes I get up straight away and put myself on the line…. and sometimes I fail and that is ok. They learn that it is ok. Ok to take risks and fail. Ok to make mistakes. And they also learn that by taking risks they win. They discover something great. They achieve more then they ever expected. They find the best in themselves. And we talk about it and we write about it and we learn from it.

I know other teachers do many of these things, but Drama teachers do them smashingly well! Drama teachers teach their students to be risk-takers, curious, creative thinkers, reflective, listeners, confident, creative, open to ideas, empathetic and adventurous amongst other things. 

What life-long skills are you teaching your students? What could other teachers learn from your area of teacher expertise? If you would like to share what we could learn as teachers from your area of teaching please email me. I would love to hear from you. 

My students have been working so hard for me in class this term that I have set them some extra holiday homework. Before you judge me for being a hard task master, check it out. I want them to return next term with a renewed energy. Relaxed, refreshed and ready to learn. I will be completing the tasks too. It would be unjust to give them so much homework and not complete it myself!

This character wall is my favourite feature of my physical classroom. Some of the pictures on this wall have been with me for over 10 years now and I feel I am still learning about the people in the photographs. You see, my character wall is a source of inspiration for in-depth characters, playbuilding, compositions and creative writing in my class. Over the years I have seen these images come to life and each time I am able to glimpse briefly into the world in which they live. Occasionally I add different photos to the mix and it surprises me how quickly the kids notice our new visitors.


The photos consist of people of various age, gender, socio-economic status and cultures. You can do it the old school way (cut and laminate) or make a board on Pinterest for the digital classroom. Students love it as it pushes them to think outside teenage stereotypes and assists them in conceiving complex characters. Character wallshave a place in the English classroom, the Geography classroom (an opportunity to write about different cultures), the History or Science classroom (think anthropology) or even a primary school setting.


So get snipping or pinning!