Choosing a Play

I am the All School Play director.  (Nonmusical!) Directing is fun, but I HATE choosing the play.

Why?

1. I need shows that can cast quite a few students. (Small casts are easier to find.)
2. I need an equal number of girl and guy parts. (Most HS plays are heavy toward girls.)
3. We have no counterweight system (a tragic oversight of administration when they built the new school), and building sets is a pain.
            A. If you have a show that changes scenery, everything has to be on wheels.
            B. The traditional box set is a nightmare.
4. There are quite a few shows out there that are written for big budgets.
5. In a fairly conservative community, there are quite a few shows that border on inappropriate.
6. I need a show that will bring in large audiences.

Did I mention that we have almost no money?

So, what have I done so far?

*Curtain Going Up
*Our Town
*The Outsiders
*Three Musketeers
*Father of the Bride

Father of the Bride was probably the best show, but The Outsiders had the largest audience.

Where am I headed this year? No idea. And I have a couple more weeks until a decision needs to be made. Gulp!

I have seen so many play scripts that my head hurts. Stay tuned.

Seating Arrangement #237

The title of this post is an exaggeration, but I do rearrange my desks frequently. I keep playing with arrangements and discover some that work well for some activities, and others help me separate some problem areas. (OK! The talkers!)

I am trying this for the week.

This is a huge open rectangle. I should be able to see every face from my desk. When we are using the board or the document reader, one row will have to have chairs moved to the opposite side of their desk.

Is this going to work? Stay tuned.

The First Days of School

We have completed the first two full weeks of school, and I am exhausted:

Rosters
Seating Charts
Pre-testing
Computer assignments
Setting up Google Classrooms
First faculty meetings
First PLC's
Grading
Last year's State Assessment results to analyze**

And my feet are killing me. (My Apple Watch thinks I am a rock star in the "Activity" app.)

If you think I'm complaining, you should know that I'm pretty sure I have the best of the sophomores in English and incredibly talented students in Drama and Forensics. I really like my classes.

Friday's footwear. My feet deserved a break.

**Analyzing meant going back to see if their grade in my English class was an indication of their success on the State Test.  Ideally, since we use Standards Based Grading, it should be an exact match. It wasn't. About 12% of the lower scoring students did not have scores that were reflected in their grades.  Another 4% of the higher scoring students scored higher on the test than would have been expected by looking at their class grade. I know there are quite a few factors that figure into this, but it serves as reminder to be very vigilant when grading.

**I also marked the areas that were our weakest overall. I will use that information in planning and teaching for this school year. 

So, how is your year going?