It was during a recent PD on Arts and Deeper Learning that a beautiful partnership began to form. The dance teacher at a high school nearby asked if I would be willing to bring my students to their school. She had a dance class that wanted to teach students younger than them about dance.
Her students did a great job of showing off their skills, and teaching us some new skills. After a bit of skill building they joined with us to play and create together. It was such a fantastic experience and my students went home buzzing with excitement.
From this experience my students found their inspiration. As drama lovers, they decided to create a similar experience to some kids younger than them.
The goal was to create relationships with some younger kids and show them why drama is awesome.
With the support of our admin we were able to secure two separate get togethers.
During the first meeting we went to them (less intimidating we figured). My drama kids split into small groups, each taking on an entire classroom of grade 4's. They decided to focus on building relationships and getting to know the kids. They did this the same way we do it in class, through warm-up games! Trust is built through making memories and getting out of your comfort zone. And that is exactly what happened.
Two weeks later the grade 4's came to us and got to sign up for 2 workshops. My drama students created workshops based around some of their favourite skills (improvisation, movie making, storytelling, etc.)
My drama students were able to successfully pass on their love for drama and had a great time doing it (albeit they decided teaching was HARD work!).
Too often we stay inside the four walls of our classrooms. Too bad. There are amazing partnerships out there to be had and with those partnerships comes rich and deep learning experiences.