9 Sept 2026
I have blisteringly clamored against the teacher evaluation process so frequently that even Shakespeare's line "I trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries" does not communicate the level of frustration I feel.
Their favorite thing is to give you the elements they are looking for ahead of time, so you know to change everything you have planned so you can perform a dog and pony show for them.
They give you "Look For's"- that I bellow loudly are "Gotchas"- which are great if you're doing That Thing the day they do the walk through.
Today's case was the gotchas are all on baseline rituals in class; Cell phones, CLO posted, kids engaging in "discourse".
I refused to do CLO's last year, 'cause I was ON STAGE where would you like me to post it? But in the classroom I have AV capability to show slides, so no excuse other than "But I don't wanna do it."
We're in week three, I do not give a cell phone performance every class period. They get it and they comply.
The "discourse" thing is annoying because...it's week THREE and sometimes I have to say things so they know what's going on, and there is nothing for them to discourse about.
So if they land on a lecture day, or a work day, I'm done for.
Today was supposed to be a research work day.
They came to stagecraft. I've taught this class a few times in different buildings and my most successful class was the one that focused on the shows we were doing. It's practical application---I had to teach math and geometry to get them to understand set design, which they then built.
But today, the theatre is dark. It's closed for renovation--as you know from the many verses we have sung together. So not only am I teaching stagecraft without a show, I'm doing it without a stage.
This isn't new, I taught stagecraft online during COVID and found myself joyfully making kids dig through parental craft closets, recycling and kitchen ingredents--blood packs were a Big Hit. It wasn't ideal, but they showed up. A few even enrolled in theatre when we reopened.
So I leaned into design, which is a lot of me talking and watching videos of set changes, quick costume changes, light angles and vocab. I recommend watching Legally Blonde the musical for this approach.
Then we read She Kills Monsters using highlighters to track their chosen tech needs. From there, we revisited vocab and began design conversations once we chose a theme on which to focus. Which would be discourse, but that was Tuesday.
Today is Wednesday and they were supposed to be working on their morgues, which is screen time on chromebooks doing research into photography, art, opera, D&D and other productions.
This is a bad idea when admin wants to see them engaged in discourse.
So I split tasks between groups, and did a warmup that imagined they had ten minutes to curtain. Set and lights had to figure out the new air conditioner, mask it in the window and troubleshoot why it keeps turning off (the old extention boxes I have daisy chained into my one outlet keep flipping off). Costumes had to stitch five buttons individually back onto five different shirts, and props had to go find five props the "actors" removed from the prop table.
I thought it went great.
I had nary a single kid who could stitch a button, but they know how to do it now.
The costume crew won---they finished in seven and half minutes--so I gave them bubbles. Two of them gushed "Miss, you're my favorite teacher", which had nothing to do with teaching stagecraft and everything to do with soapy water and a wand.
I haven't received my feedback, but let's go ahead and call what it will be:
My CLO of "Ten Minutes To Curtain" was not wordsmithed in such a way that the prescribed vocabulary was included. Deduction.
My kids did not "engage" in discourse, they collaborated to work together to problem solve. Deduction.
The only phone out was mine. I took a photo of the prop table to give them for their search, but it never made it to my email box for printing. So I had to show them the photo on my phone. Deduction.
It was delivered to my email at 11.33, which was an hour after the evaluation. I put it in the slideshow, 'cause my STL was looking at it, with the note "Received at 11.33". The only reason to do this was to be annoying.
My kids talked to each other to determine what their biggest obstacle was and how they overcame it. Point.
Then they dove into their research----which is surprisingly exciting for them, they are loving it---but that kills discourse. Deduction.
One kid at a time used the restroom, but K disappeared for 20 minutes so I had to call culture team to ferret her out and send a second kid who was going to explode with a second pass. Only one kid can go at a time. Deduction.
I praised them for being methodical and focused, as it's imperative that techies keep a level head at all times. Do not yell at the actor who took their prop to the bathroom and left it in the sink. Just go find it and dry it off. Point.
I told a story of a kid in the room who stage managed both shows last year---a task we all refer to as "Building the plane while flying it". The second night of Odd Couple he kept a level head when the actors lost their way in the script and could not bread crumb their way out of it, so he made the quiet executve decision to just ring the doorbell so the next actor could enter. He was on headset, and told the ASM in the wing to place the actor behind the door and help her breathe and not panic, as it was pretty bad and most of the exposition explaining why she was at the door, was lost in the scrabble.
And it was not made worse by J. He did not cry and run away from the board. He did not panic and turn off the lights, which would have triggered the actors and alerted the audience that something much bigger was wrong. He didn't hit the ringing telephone cue, as the actor who would answer was the one who was confused, and she would have said lines from a previous scene or worse, started a scene in the next act. Point.
At this juncture I wish to again vociferate: performing arts do not fit your round holes. We are Proud Square Pegs.
It was not a masters class in anything new. All theatre teachers do this.
It just felt nice to show the process to admin, because seeing two shows on the stage for the first time in years clearly was not enough to give this 24 year veteran a "pass" and say "Clearly, you are teaching The Things, the kids are on task and they must engage in discourse or how else would this get done?"
UGH.
I tried to attach said photo, alas it does not want to post here, either.
Scene.
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