Pain and Passion

Pain and Passion was a strong topic. The class was divided into pairs to take a 50-minute lesson linking with pain and passion. Two drama techniques had to be introduced. After each lesson a five minute debrief took place. We were given two lessons of preparation time and had to work to a time plan. I knew it would take a lot of effort to run a lesson. I chose a topical issue sparking off lots of strong opinions. My lesson was about abortion. I felt it tied in well with pain and passion. The pain being a child's life was at risk due to the night of passion. I wasn't first to lead the class so I listened attentively to what criticism was put forward during the debrief. I learnt from other's mistakes. One of the things I found was that a lesson should be expressed through different scenarios, keeping the class's attention. I set the scene with a young couple, Sarah and Jake, who were in a crisis. The crisis being, should have an abortion or not. The first part of my timeplan was explaining the situation and then asking the class to show, what state of mind Sarah was in. The ideas were to be expressed through stylistic drama using one drama technique or more. In other lessons more time was spent on planning helping to produce good drama pieces from the class. I decided to have more time spent on planning rather than performing. The second part consisted of what if Sarah had the abortion or didn't. In each scenario there had to be a good and bad side. The good side of having or not having the abortion was to be shown through dream sequence and the bad side of having or not having the abortion shown through nightmare sequence. I thought I planned my lesson well considering I was on my own. I wasn't prepared for the lesson I took the class. I had forgotten my watch and my partner was away leaving me to be the teacher. One improvement can be to go over my planning strategies. I relaxed and addressed the class with a BBC accent! The first piece of drama was on Sarah's state of mind. The class planned their pieces quite well but the pieces were short giving me more time. One group had only four people. Many people think more people in a group make a better drama piece. This group proved it wrong. The drama piece was very distinctive. The other groups showed one feeling throughout their drama. This play showed how Sarah was happy at the thought of being a mother and sad at the thought of having a child to bring up. As the teacher I was able to see abortion through other people's eyes. Each student had a major role to play especially Maria as Sarah. It's really hard to change expressions every second but she made it look so easy. Everyone got involved and this boosted my confidence as a teacher to see that they were enjoying the lesson. The other half of the lesson went perfectly. The class had to use the drama techniques I set, dream and nightmare sequence. Everyone performed well due to good planning. Scarlet's group did a nightmare sequence about Sarah's life with a baby. It was a negative outlook on having children. There were strong ideas expressed throughout the play. The audience was able to see how having a baby at a young age was stressing and sometimes left with no financial or emotional support. It was an excellent piece of drama. I think I showed good teaching skills. I was quite patient but I felt it was quite difficult to keep the class quiet even when raising my voice. I went round to see if there were any problems and keeping track of time, which is a vital part of teaching. One of the hardest things was the way I had to address the class. I had to step out of the role of a friend and step in as a teacher. When it came to commenting on a drama piece I had to use ‘excellent' rather than ‘wicked'. The lesson was very packed with things to do and this put off a few students from working. In future I would slow everything down slightly. Apart from that everything went according to plan. Rochelle and Yasmins lesson was very valuable. Rochelle explained everything whilst Yasmin organised the lesson. Yasmin is normally the quieter one but in her lesson she was very confident. Their topic was about war. War is probably what the news is all about. There is so much of it, people are forgetting about those in need. The main theme of the lesson was we should be grateful for how well off we are and think about others before worrying over small problems. The lesson began with a piece about a boy escaping from war to a new area. I took on the main role as the boy. We were playing basketball when I got the ball and everyone was telling me to shoot. We used flashbacks to show how the boy was told in his homeland to kill his own flesh and blood. We were showing the pressures of war. I was very enthusiastic about everything. Next we did hotseating. We questioned people part of the army in Africa. We asked why many boys were forced to go to war. It sparked a lot of debating. Rochelle and Yasmin were good teachers. I enjoyed myself whilst I was learning. They were role models for good teachers. I think being a teacher was a worthwhile experience. Sometimes we forget to realise what teachers do to provide good education. This topic was a good way to see that teaching is not as easy as it may look. It takes a lot of hard work and 100% commitment. Through this topic I have more respect for teachers.