A Teacher's Prayer

I want to teach my students more than lessons in a book;

I want to teach them deeper things that people overlook-

The value of a rose in bloom, its use and beauty, too,

A sense of curiosity to discover what is true;

How to think and how to choose the right above the wrong,

How to live and learn each day and grow up to be strong;

To teach them always how to gain in wisdom and in grace,

So they will someday make the world a brighter, better place.

Lord, let me be a friend and guide to give these minds a start

Upon their way down life's long road, then Ill have done my part.

-Jill Wolf-

Oops!! I forgot to talk about my second workshop. In the afternoon, "Creating Basic Drama Templates Across the Curriculum" took the book "The Lonely Scarecrow" by Tim Preston and guided us through basic drama strategies and techniques that could be implemented in the classroom: teacher in role, freeze and tableau, soundscape, chant, voices in the head, hotseating, elements of movement, get in - do something -get out. In groups of 4, we were asked to walk towards something scary, then freeze. This particular example of a tableau was to help students understand a section of the story where all the animals slowly walked up towards the scarecrow to investigate him. It was interesting to see the different tableau's our group of teachers came up with. We were able to express curiosity, being scared and friendship. If anyone is interested I have a copy of the handout to share.

Drama Workshop

Today I attended two drama workshops that were both very well done and extremely educational. The morning workshop looked at the Ontario Ministry Guidelines for Drama and Dance for JK to Grade 2 and we explored how "Noah's Ark Meets the 21st Century." The workshop had my associate teacher and I, acting as two ostriches building Noah's' Ark for the upcoming flood due to global warming. We explored present day dilemmas of global warming through creative movement and role playing, and looked at the elements of tableaux, voices in the head,and moving and speaking in-role of animals. The workshop was amazing!!!