DISTANCE LEARNING RESOURCES

Theatre Education in the Virtual World - Panel Discussion

2022-sept-vdoe-finearts-update.pdf
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Arts Advocacy Summit 2022

In partnership with the Virginia Coalition of the Arts, VAEA, VMEA, VTA, Virginia Thespians, and others to present updates and ideas for arts advocacy work across the state. We also celebrated #artsacrossva22 this year! Watch to learn strategies to support the arts in your school as well as larger communities.

Thank you for all that you do!
​“Theatre Education Arts Advocacy Virtual Panel”
Video Now Available!
 
Richmond, VA – Virginia Thespians and the Virginia Theatre Association collaborated to produce a virtual panel to discuss Theatre Education Arts Advocacy on 28 May 2020 at 7 pm. 
 
The panel was composed of Jim Palmarini – Director of Education Policy/Advocacy Leadership Network Chair, Educational Theatre Association; Jim Hoare – Executive Vice President of Theatrical Rights Worldwide; Jason Goldstein – Booktix Co-Owner, who just launched Booktix Live for Virtual and Live Performance Streaming;  Janet Starke – Executive Director of Virginia Commission for the Arts; and Mark Rogers – Administrator, Theatre Arts Specialist LCPS.  Panel topics included resources with which to advocate for keeping theatre arts in a school district’s curriculum, and how teachers and students might create virtual productions in lieu of the ability to produce live events. 
 
The panel was moderated by Tori Kesling-Councill, Virginia Thespian Director, and chat moderators included both Lee Crouse, VTA Executive Director, and Tony Cimino-Johnson, Virginia Thespian Co-Director.  
​FACEBOOK GROUPS
Theatre Education Distance Learning (Resource Sharing and Support Network)
Theatre Teacher Lesson Lending
Technical Theater Educators
High School Theatre Directors and Teachers - check out Jim Hoare's post 
Quarantined Cabaret!
Virginia Thespian Alumni Group

Facebook Posts with multiple resource links:
https://www.facebook.com/joy.novackrosson/posts/10222568754591766 - for all ages, all subjects

ONLINE RESOURCES
GOOGLE LINKS 
PODCASTS
VIDEO & YouTube SOURCES  
Additional : VA Thespians Resources in Google Sheets

And students, before you turn something in for your teacher, you may want to use this English writing checker to double-check your grammar, spelling, and written communication.

But How Do I USE All These Things?
Some Practical Applications for Distance Learning Resources
courtesy of Alison Hall, Woodside High School, Troupe 1629, Newport News, VA

1. Zoom Guest Speakers: I've reached out to professionals I have connections with (hello, they're stuck at home too!) & hosted multiple Guest Speaker Zooms for our students to interact with professionals in the industry. Our students enjoyed asking questions to learn what it's like on Broadway, etc. I invited other high school theater departments to join us, because I collaborate with all the drama teachers in my district regularly, so why hoard this opportunity for just our students?

2. Zoom Master Classes: I've arranged for mini lessons on Directing and the (normal) Production Process in professional theater for my students with VA Stage Company's Education department. I would record the Zoom for students who missed it to view later & attached a Google Form for students to answer questions based on the lessons given by Patrick Mullins.

3. NearPod has been my best friend/enemy! I've built MULTIPLE NearPods on Absurdist theater, Musical theater, Monologues, etc. to replace what would have been in-person lessons. I embedded quizzes within them to keep students accountable for the content, polls to gauge their opinions on the content, interactive activities and open-ended questions, etc. throughout the NearPods. I'm becoming a NearPod ninja! This platform has helped me feel like MAYBE I am still teaching my students our curriculum.

4. EdPuzzle has been another great platform. My colleague, David Kluttz, who teaches our stagecraft classes, found YouTubes on scenic painting techniques and turned them into EdPuzzles for our students to complete. I've created EdPuzzles on Expressionist Theater and Directing too. **What I'm EXCITED about creating is this last EdPuzzle for my Theatre Arts 1 students, who are learning the overall production process. I reached out to an alum who's presently in a college musical theater program. He created a YouTube explaining what it's like to put on a show in COLLEGE versus what we're used to in our school. I'm going to take his YouTube and make it an EdPuzzle for my students to compare and contrast the production process from high school versus college. (*Granted the REAL way to learn this process is by DOING a show, which would have happened for my beginner students- but pandemic... So I hope they're getting the process, on a surface level granted, through these different ways of engagement and "lecture" types.)

5. FLIPGRID!!! I've been having my students record themselves performing monologues & giving them video feedback ALL through FlipGrid. I've also had my students giving EACH OTHER feedback on FlipGrid submissions as well. I know many drama teachers are doing this too. I love this platform as a substitute for performing in-person.

6. I'm learning how to use YouTube to record myself giving announcements, explaining assignments, etc. I'm still figuring out all the features of this. I like how it tells me how many views my video has to give me an idea about how many people actually watched my announcements/explanations.

7. Canva app on my phone has allowed me to create graphics to display on my school-related social media (Instagram) to promote/announce things to my students on their level. (*I began learning how to use this before Adobe Spark.) I spread the word on our Guest Speaker Zooms and our big Musical Closing Night Zoom on Instagram using graphics I created on this user friendly app. I also created a Zoom Etiquette graphic that I shared on my students' Google Classrooms and on my IG during the first weeks of schools closing. I know you can use other platforms like Adobe Spark to do similar things.
(NOTE: The link above will take you to the "Canva for Education" app where you can register yourself as a teacher and receive access to Canva Pro for free! It might take some time for them to validate your account, but in the meantime you can still use Canva's free features.)

***** Outside of the "classroom"- I've been regularly ZOOMING with my colleagues in my school district and in the region through VA Stage Company, who has been hosting Arts Educators Roundtable Zooms periodically. By REGULARLY collaborating, we've been sharing best practices/success stories, collectively troubleshooting issues, VENTING :-), and sharing resources. It's been career-changing to constantly be in contact with so many others who are doing the same thing and learning from the overall beehive of theatre educators.