DMP Artist/Educator Statement

This project has, to be completely honest, been a major challenge. I have learned a lot about myself as both an artist and future educator, and not all of it is flattering information. Our project dealt with disabilities, which of course coincided with the first semester I have really felt my hearing loss as a disability. With COVID-19, and everyone being required to wear masks, my ability to lipread has been taken from me for the time being. Though I was blessed to have transcriptionists to aid me in hearing lectures, group work happens at such a rapid pace that I often found myself getting behind on the conversation. I definitely could and should have communicated more openly and often, rather than allowing myself to suffer in silence after communicating my issues once or twice and letting my frustration fester when it didn't stick. As an educator and artist, it will serve me well to be more unabashed and less concerned about inconveniencing those around me. I contributed as much as I could, given the circumstances.

This project taught me a lot about the importance of scaffolding as well. As someone who has been in the theatre education program a good long time, I have experience in devising and have a pretty solid handle on the processes by which a piece can be 'uncovered' rather than created. Unfortunately, my group-mates from the English education side have not had that luxury. I wish on their behalf that there had been either more opportunity throughout the semester to practice devising or had the final project be something closer to what we did for the ghost workshop. As a teacher, I want to do my best to be mindful of the needs and experience levels of the students in my class. As an artist, I want to think less didactically and more abstractly when I have the opportunity to work on projects like this. Since I will be teaching drama, I wouldn't need to make many modifications to this project for it to fit in my curriculum. I particularly love verbatim theatre, and the opportunity to make scenes and whole productions from the words of others. That would make a cool unit, or at least a section of a devising unit.

Overall, I am proud of what we were able to create and I am glad that towards the end I was more active in making sure my ideas and needs were communicated. I do wish that I had done that earlier but I'm glad I eventually did speak up more willingly. I will be more able to help my students who struggle with group work or have special accommodations moving forward.