Meredith Daley

Teaching Philosophy

When I was going through school, all I wanted to do was be creative. I would receive a project and
always think to myself, how I can make others jealous of my work. When I was given an essay to write, I
would wait until the last minute and write what I could and hope for the best but it never drove me to a
place of creativity or perseverance. I believe, now more than ever, students will succeed more if we let
them express themselves creatively and be prompted to want to learn and be involved in class. They can
show us, as teachers, understanding through plays, music, drawings, and technology based programs
more than writing a paper or drilling them with tests. With todays technology, we have a great
opportunity to let our students teach us and blow us away with what they can do. I believe, we as
teachers need to let our students be the stars o the class and lead when they can and should.

More and more studies are showing us that creative classroom improves literacy. In the article,
Remembering to Laugh and Explore( Improvisational ): Activities for Literacy Teaching in Urban
Classrooms there is a program dedicated to showing that literacy can be taught and improved through
plays, improvisation, and theatre arts. In Canada, we are continually pressured to increase test scores in
Math and Literacy. Due to this pressure, the focus and time for fine arts are being pushed further and
further away. This study says the opposite, and I believe the same. There needs to be more of fine arts
like theatre arts in your classroom and you will see more results and improvement. Using theatre arts in
the classroom will allow our students to enhance their thinking, listening, speaking and reading - writing
skills. How does this work? When we introduce a text, novel, reading or writing, we can allow our
students to go deeper into the text to connect with the characters. If we get our students to see the plot
and act it out or change the setting, the student will remember the details of the story or character and
apply it in their heads in away that is relatable. When we start using tools like this instead of essays
and tests, the classroom will have a lower level of stress and we will build more confidence and
creativity. I want to always ask myself the question, will the students learn and remember more from
the test they wrote or from the activity they created about the subject and made memories from.

Theatre is not the only form of arts that can help our students in the classroom. Any form of the arts can
be used as a great tool and we should be providing them with those options. If students are too shy to
stand in front of a class and act something out but know how to play an instrument and think they can
interpret a character or text through a song they wrote or know, then they are finding a way to connect
with what they are learning .This applies to dance, music, art and any other creative form a student
knows and love. When a student is showing us their way of thinking, we as teachers are learning more
about the student and even possibility more about the subject we are teaching. When we let our
students be creative, they can take everything to a whole new level. Having worked with students
already, they have taught me many things but one thing I will always remember is that each student has
something special about them and that everyone is good at something. In the age we live in, more
commonly, we see our students being better and better with technology and this can also be a great
way to express creativity in the classroom. When we allow our students to use technology to express
their thoughts or show understanding to what is being taught, we are opening up a whole new world.
Students can do so much with technology like digital storytelling, and I believe, like theatre this will
connect more with a student and they will learn more from it then writing test after test.
All students should be the stars of the classroom in their own particular way and they will be if we allow
them to be as creative as they want and show us, as teachers, that they understand what they are
learning and they know how to apply it in a real way. It is my goal to make many assignments multi-
genre to allow the students to try something new and see it in a new way. I hope that this will open up
my students to start being creative on their own and start creating their own assignments to shows me,
as their teacher, that they are engaged and learning.

References

Bull, Glen, Kajder, Sara Digital Story Telling in the Language Arts Classroom, 2004

Catterall, James S., Chapleau, Richard, Iwanaga, John Involvement in the Arts and Human
Development: General Involvement and Intensive Involvement in Music and Theatre Arts, 1999

Kariuki, Patrick N. The Effects of Readers Theatre-Based and Tradition-Based Instruction on Sixth-
Grade Students Comprehension at a Selected Middle School, 2012

Smith, K. & McKnight, K. S. Remembering to laugh and explore: Improvisational activities for literacy
teaching in urban classrooms., 2009

Stewig, John Warren, Classroom Drama in Language Arts, 2002

Tyler, Brenda-Jean, Chard, David J. Focus on inclusion: Using readers theatre to foster fluency in
struggling readers: A twist on the repeated reading strategy, 2011