21 Hours and Counting

"The Foreigner" goes up tomorrow night, yet I'm strangely calm. Maybe it's because I've done this before. Maybe it's because I fell strangely detached because I've had to be at ESOL class two nights a week rather than at rehearsal. Maybe it's because I'm just having a hard time caring this year. Maybe it's because I've lowered my expectations. Regardless, I'm calm, and I'm trying to decide whether that's a good thing or a bad thing.

I've realized that regardless of my mental/emotional state, the show will go on, and it will probably be relatively good. Sure, the run time might be a little long, but that's okay I guess. There's nothing I can do about it at this point, so why should I worry?

In fact, I think this is the most comfortable I've felt about the technical side of things. We actually programmed light cues this year. I have three reliable people running the boards. I think I can actually sit and watch without having to worry about the house lights not coming up. Or maybe I do. Maybe I'm being foolhardy.
Anyway. There's that.

Baby Steps

Someone asked me in the first few months of teaching what my goals were for my Drama program. I didn't really know how to answer; my best response was basically that I wanted it to be like the drama program when I was in high school. That was my goal two years ago, and still is, to a certain extent. But now I approach the question with a slightly more educated and realistic eye (is that the best way to say that? I don't know). My ultimate goal is to be able to put on excellent productions that are primarily student run. I want to be able to sit in the front row and watch, without having to worry that there will be some disaster backstage that will require my immediate attention.

That is a pretty lofty goal, especially from where I'm standing. But I think it's doable. Here are a few steps we need to take towards excellence:

1. Establish a sense of pride in the program as a whole and in the quality of work. At this point, we don't know what a really excellent program or even an excellent production looks like, nor do we know what it takes to get there. I need to start showing my students what excellence looks like. We need to go watch other people who are being excellent. This has its pitfalls. The tendency might be for them to compare themselves, rather than take it as inspiration to do better.

2. Get out of the mindset that we can wait until the last minute to pull it off "because we always do." I think this is what has killed us with "The Foreigner." A few strategic people have established the attitude among the cast that later is okay, so we've taken far too long to get off book, and find costumes, know our cues. In today's rehearsal, we were where we needed to be about two weeks ago because two weeks ago, I was still yelling at people to be off book, and they were still making excuses. This is a great segue into my final point.

3. I need to be a jerk about things like missed rehearsal/tardiness, and missed deadlines. I don't know how to do it. I don't have the heart to tell someone who has been in rehearsal for a month that they won't be in the show because they aren't off book, or because they missed 3 rehearsals, or because they were late a few times. How do I tell a parent that their kid is out of the play because they had some kind of obligation and didn't tell me in advance? In reality, I HAVE to if I want the program to succeed. Teaching them that being there sometimes is not okay. Aside from the difficulties of trying to rehearse or block a scene without a character, it also destroys a sense of trust among the cast. How can I expect one person to rely on the other to make an entrance or know a cue if they aren't even at rehearsal?

Why I Wanted to Do NaBloPoMo

I used to write a lot. Not because I wanted to, but because I had to. Papers for various classes were always on the horizon, so I frequently got to stretch my writing muscles. Now that I'm an adult I hardly ever have to write. Ever. And I've begun to feel my writing skills atrophy. Here's a quick example: I was in ESOL class the other day (its a requirement for all teachers in OCPS to take ESOL), and the instructor was talking about dual something-or-the-other (see how much I was paying attention?), and I thought, "Duel? Like they fight each other?" I also lost any spelling ability I had.

Anyway, I've become increasingly aware of the decline of my writing skills, and I didn't want that to continue, or at least to slow the process. NaBloPoMo seemed like a good way to do it.

Side note: it was a REALLY long day for me, I was at work from 7:10 AM until 11:30 PM. I actually am retro posting this, because well, it's still the November 2nd in my mind. Anyway, if it seems like I'm a little delirious, it's okay, I probably am.

NaBloPoMo

I'm an avid reader of blogs. By 'avid,' I mean that I read 6 or 7 every day via Google Reader (yay Google Reader), and one of the things that starts popping up this time of year is NaBloPoMo: National Blog Posting Month. It's a challenge to write 30 posts in 30 days throughout the month of November. That's one a day. So, when the blogs I read started talking about them (okay, I think there was really only one that mentioned it, but that was enough), I began thinking about participating. I've never posted more than 9 times in a month, so this is going to be a challenge, especially since I've almost failed before even starting (it's currently 11:53 PM, not getting started on the best foot).

Anyway, I have no idea what I'm going to post for the next 30 days, but I'm going to try to do it. Care to join me?

What if...

...Facebook stays around for really long time. And what if I'm still a teacher ten years from now. And what if my students 10 years from now are like, "Miss, you have a Facebook?" And what if I said, "Yes! And I've had a Facebook since before you were born! Stop calling me 'Miss'!"

[Insert Witty and Alliterative Title Here]

So, I obviously haven't been writing much on here lately. I think it's a combination of school starting back up, then Vision '13, then the fall show starting up (The Foreigner, November 5, 6, 7 @ 7pm, November 8 @ 2:30), and online reading courses starting up--not learning to read, I know how to do that, learning to teach reading. Next week I begin my ESOL course, which, sadly isn't online, so I loose another two evenings out of my week.

Anyway, life has been busy, but good for the most part. There are, as always, the normal complaints about teaching and working in general, but I think I'm okay with that garbage. Sadly, getting okay means that I feel like I'm falling into a rut. Oh, the ever dreaded rut. Ruts are bad. Ruts are what make me feel like I need to get out of said rut. Ruts are indicative of discontent.

Basically, I'm going through a quarter life crisis.

I was at a meeting for area drama teachers a few weeks ago, and I sat there looking at the faces around the table wondering, "Is this my life in 10 years? Really?" What happened to doing something adventurous? Now, I know on the grand scale of things, my job is pretty sweet. I get nice long summers, and two weeks at Christmas, and a week for Thanksgiving, and Spring Break and I don't have to clean toilets. And don't get me wrong, I love my students. Sometimes I catch myself imagining what the program will look like in two or three years when my freshmen are upperclassmen, and they know how I roll. And then I imagine the dark circles under my eyes and the slight hint of madness etched on my face. I don't know if I'm that resilient.

Straight from the Headlines

I have news headlines from the BBC on my iGoogle page, and on occasion the headline can be taken the wrong way. Usually, this taking of things the wrong way results in some kind of funny image popping into my head. I thought I'd share what I see (sort of, in a poorly executed way). Hope you enjoy it as much as I do.