Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Michiko Detwiler
ITE 329
Spring 2019
Teacher! Teacher!
The theatrical performance I attended on April 16, 2019 is called “Teacher Teacher”.
Admittance to the performance was free, as it was a production created by the UHM College of
Educations Jamie Simpson Steele, and by Nicholas Brown, a MFA Theatre for Young
Audiences Candidate.
This performance is an insight into the challenges many face as first year teachers.
Much of what was included in this production were actual experiences of first year teachers who
volunteered to be interviewed. This performance was simple, no costumes, not many props,
everything was portrayed through acting and script.
There are three parts to the production: New Beginnings, The Students, and The
Profession. In new beginnings we see first year teachers face the challenges of actually getting
a job as a teacher, setting up their classroom to be “pinterest perfect”, and then finally facing the
first day of school. In the second chapter, we see teachers struggles to connect with their
students and the challenges that their students may present to them. We see ethical dilemmas
between students and teachers and how theyʻve chosen to respond to them. And finally, in the
third chapter “The Profession”, we see the professional side of being a first year teacher;
interacting with colleagues who have been a teacher for over 15 years, lesson planning, and all
the other professional challenges that come with the job.
As a member of the audience, my job was simply to enjoy. Once in a while, the cast
would hold up signs that said “applause” for audience interaction at appropriate moments. Most
of the audience there were either current teachers or teachers to be, which made this production
very relatable to everyone and either provided us candidates with insight into our first year, or
gave the veterans horrid flashbacks.
In the very beginning of this course, one of the takeaways I got about integrating arts into
the classroom was that you really donʻt need much to do it. Props arenʻt necessary because we
can pretend to have them through our acting. Costumes arenʻt necessary because with our
movements and words we can show that weʻre portraying a certain character. If anything, this
production reinforced that concept that all you really need for a theatrical performance is oneself
and an idea.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XuN1m22qAAe6mN9AGlYvy1GCd29pThIHM79XOeBmD6k/edit 1/1