Incite/Insight Spring-Summer 2019 Incite_Insight—Spring_Summer 2019 Final | Page 23

important part: it’s not a hall pass.
They can’t leave the room unless
they have experienced some sort of
severe trigger.
They can’t get on any sort of
technology, and they should remain
engaged as an observer if possible—
this way they can re-enter without
missing a beat.”
On working with “troubled” and
“privileged” students.
“Who’s more troubled? Students
whom society has stacked the deck
against or the sons and daughters
of affluent parents who were able
to pay their way into USC? Who’s
at risk? Is it a group of youth whose
schools might not have enough
money for sufficient textbooks
and technology, or is it our society
which is at risk if we don’t educate
everyone of the younger generation
to compete in the next shift of the
global superpowers? Some people
may say it’s exhausting working with
students who are under-represented
or marginalized. For me, it’s
exhausting working with people who
are privileged because of the ways
in which they feel entitled to have
everything come easier to them.”
Dr. Bob Colby of Emerson College in
Boston, Massachusetts
“The trick is probably to engage
less in the theatre skills part of
the conversation and more in our
instinctive ability to tell stories, to
engage in imaginative play, and
use that to evoke. We can all act—
particularly if you don’t call it acting.” and-affirming Gospel Choir course
at Tufts University—an institution
not affiliated with a faith tradition.
Students watched a BBC report on
Coleman and were instructed to
devise questions based on what they
observed.
On creating buy-in. On teaching when you, or your
students, are drained.
“Engagement’s everything. So, you
can’t start until you find something
the students can emotionally attach
to.”
On learning from students.
“I really do think the person doing
the most talking is doing the most
learning in most educational
situations. So, I often feel that my job
as a teacher is, as the British would
say, to make yourself redundant so
that you’re not needed—(or you’re
only needed as a support).
“Eye contact. People want to been
seen; they want to be recognized.
I believe that people look forward
to my class not only because they
like singing; it’s church for them—
regardless of what kind of church you
think it would be. They look forward to
it; they need it—not only because of
the music but because of the spiritual
food which we all need in some way.
Of course, there are days when I
come in—especially when there’s
something happening in my personal
life which is not awesome—and the
last thing I want to do is to smile
My brain lives almost exclusively in
for two hours and talk about how
the essential question mode, and I
awesome life is. Life sucks sometimes.
will never go into a classroom without
But singing, history, connecting with
a question which doesn’t engage me
other people, clapping, moving,
as much as I hope it engages them.
playing music—when I engage
And I never bring in [an essential
myself in all of that, I realize that life
question] which I know the answer
is amazing because I’m connecting
to—or—am unprepared to have a new
with these other people and we are
answer to by the time we’re done.
bigger than ourselves. While my
That’s how I keep fresh in learning
life may not be ideal, Life itself is
alongside the students.”
awesome.
Lin Wright Award winner Dr. Bob Colby
is the newly-minted Chair of the
Performing Arts at Emerson College—
where he has instructed Theatre
Education for decades. Students
read Colby’s essay “Kindling Fires
and Facing Giants: Learning About
Drama From Children with Special
Needs” published in Peter Duffy’s A
Reflective Practitioner’s Guide to (mis)
Adventures in Drama Education—or—
What Was I Thinking? On increasing access to theatre
education.
On engaging students with little
theatre experience. David Coleman is a prolific music
director in Boston’s professional and
educational theatre scene. He is
the iconic orchestrator of the open-
So even on my worst day, give me a
piano, give me a song, and give me
people who want to sing together—
“I think we can only model it one
it’s a wrap. When rehearsal’s over,
classroom, one interaction at a time. and I have to go back to my struggle,
If [one teacher] does good work, it will the energy and positivity I needed to
ripple across the school, and it will
teach that day are found right there
maybe pick up in other schools.”
in the material I’m teaching.”
Professor David Coleman of Tufts
On making mistakes as a teacher.
University in Boston, Massachusetts
“Tell your story. Make sure that your
students see you. I want to know the
fears, the doubts, and the insecurities
of the person that’s teaching me
because then I’ll follow them.”
Alex Ates is a member of AATE’s
Board of Directors and is Managing
Editor of this publication.
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