The Theatre Classroom — Another Theatrical Year About Over

May 15th, 2013

Wrapping up another school year

For the last three weeks, I have been writing to every college and university that has a drama program, “hawking” my books. The count is over 750! As my husband says, it doesn’t cost anything but time, and who knows, I might sell a book or two! If any of you are using either of my books and are close to a university/college, please let them know about their availability. I am a little disheartened to note that there are not as many schools teaching drama education as art, dance, and music. Obviously, I feel theatre is so important in developing so many important life skills and to not be offering theatre education is a darn shame!

Letter to parents

As you are winding up your year, one thing you need to think about is letting the community know how important their students are to you, whether they are in your drama or English class. As you know, in this time of drastic educational cuts, schools and teachers are taking a beating.

If I may, I would suggest as I do in A FINAL NOTE OR TWO at the end of The Drama Teacher’s Survival Guide #2 to take the time right now and write a letter/note to your parents. In this age of computers, the trick is to make it personal. PLEASE. Below is the letter I sent home to my senior students who were taking my Children’s Literature Class. Their final project was to write and illustrate a children’s book. I also added a little Clip Art, which always sets this apart from the formal type letter parents dread getting! Parents love to hear how special their child is and this is just another way of promoting your program/school and hopefully gaining support from your community.

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Dear Mr. and Mrs. Glutz,

I would like to take this opportunity to tell you how much I have enjoyed having Sally in class. We’ve just finished our “golden books,” and they were wonderful. What a joy to read. It is rare to have so much fun teaching. I wanted to let you know what a great quarter I had. Be sure to have Sally read her book, ANYTHING YOU WANT to you.

Sincerely,

Margaret F. Johnson