Padlet and the Theatre News Board

Image taken from Techcrunch.com 

Every year new technologies are coming out which will benefit students across multiple subjects and age groups. Padlet is an online program which came out a few years ago, but still proves to be beneficial in multiple class settings. This simple program can be used during day to day activities and projects but has also within this last year allowed for a new aspect of my curriculum to be further explored and more hands on. In this post I will share with you how Padlet has allowed for my students to explore the technique of searching for auditions in a very approachable and experiential way. 

WHAT IS PADLET? 

It is an online pin board which  comes in various designs and allows for guests to post and share their thoughts and ideas by sharing text, audio files, pictures or video. 

Depending on the layout you choose, Padlet can become a think-tank, a discussion board, a getting-to-know-you activities or portfolios. They are so simple to create, perfect for "Do Now" activities and various types of means to get students collaborating. Below is a wonderful video with thoughts on how and why students can benefit from working with Padlet. 

THE THEATRE NEWS BOARD 

It was during a professional development that I first started using Padlet. I started to explore how the different features could be utilized in a lesson plan to facilitate learning. The ability for students to comment on each other's posts really intrigued me and I also liked how I could create a board which was organized and permitted specific types of information being shared. 

I decided to use Padlet to create a theatre news board. This board would show all the different auditions going on in and outside of the school that students could audition for within the year. The cinema teacher and I had been looking for ways to get our students to collaborate more easily and allowing cinema students to post their auditions on a theatre news board which students would check could prove to be very helpful. 

I have started to use this board within the last few months and have had my advanced students update the theatre news board weekly. Pairs of students in the class each take a week and are responsible to look for audition postings online for professional and community theatres and post those auditions on this theatre news board. 

The board ended up looking like this.. 

The names of the students are blocked out of this image, but you may notice from the picture that students are required to post what information they put on the news board. Some weeks will have more items to post than others but it has been an excellent way to get students to look at the casting websites: Playbill, Theatre Alliance and Backstage as well as a few others. This online planning has really allowed for students to explore the professional aspect of looking for work as  professional actor.  

You may notice from the image that there are no postings as of yet from student films because there still isn't an organized push to have students use this board to look for postings weekly. Right now the board is more of a tool to get students looking for auditions but I still need to find a realistic and feasible way to encourage students to go on auditions during the school year with other projects going on as many of our students will have already been in school productions and theatre productions cast by their fellow students. It also seems to be easier and efficient for our film students to post auditions on the door of my room. 

PADLET FEATURES

Padlet has a free version, which I use, but it also has versions which are designed for schools and teachers which give you more options. Layouts become more advanced, branding options, larger file downloads as well as other features are available with Padlet Backback for schools.   Below is a video exploring Padlet's free and premium versions. 

FINAL THOUGHTS

While I still need to push for the Theatre News Board to be a used resource by students, it is already proving beneficial as I have seen an uptick in students looking for auditions outside of the school and an improved sense of exploration for new work. I have been trying to post more auditions hear of on schoology when immediate action is required but eventually I hope that the Theatre News Board will be a valuable resource for students to take those first steps professionally. 

RESOURCES

Education, C. S. (2016, July 12). How to Promote Student Collaboration with Padlet. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4F60kOS5HYw

Perez, S., & Perez, S. (2015, September 18). Padlet Raises $1.2 Million For Its Easy-To-Use, Collaborative Website Builder. Retrieved from https://techcrunch.com/2015/09/18/padlet-raises-1-2-million-for-its-easy-to-use-collaborative-website-builder/

Tech, T. (2016, July 06). Learn Padlet - NEW! Tutorial. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkBnwPqaIjA

Integrating Tech into the Theatre Classroom

Why Integrate?

For a long time I considered technology unnecessary  in a theatre classroom. I'm not referring to the technology which has transformed and improved lighting, sound and set design and construction, but the technology that I would consider "school" tech. 

Teacher meeting after teacher meeting would be designed to get me and my fellow educators to use new and not-so-new technology. Over and over, I would hear about the ways in which Google Drive, Schoology and SMART Boards could help a general education classroom. I had trouble seeing how this technology could support what I consider an anti-technology subject, that of acting and directing for the stage. 

With my attitude, each meeting became the same. 

Leaving me to feel like...

...And this was how I felt for a while....

But then, as I continued to develop my classes over the years, I started to realize that I needed to find some way to organize and facilitate what was turning into a project-based-learning style of teaching. I was starting to create lessons which required students to produce work for the public and of which they would be in charge of each aspect of their productions. My classes were finally becoming more than just  technique training classes, they now included implementation and experiential work. 

With the direction my classes were going, I was beginning to fall behind and get swamped in paperwork and the headache of organizing student-led work. Students had trouble meeting and keeping high expectations for each other and I had trouble checking progress. As you may be guessing, this is where I started to see the light. I started to look back at some of this "school" tech and see how it could fit into my classroom. After trial and error, I am happy to state that my students are now able to work and communicate more effectively and I am able to individualize their education more frequently. Below are some ways how I have done this. So please, from blogger to blogee, I implore you to try out some of the "school" tech and see how it could be altered for you. 

Management 

Theatre classes, for their most part, require quite a bit of group work. It becomes extremely important to be able to organize groups quickly and effectively. Two of the classes I teach are each made up of about 35 students ranging from sixth to eighth grade. Anyone who has taught middle school knows that at this stage of development it is hard for students to work with peers when honest communication is lacking and when various social pressures start to occur. Flippity is a wonderful tool I use to help facilitate student grouping. Flippity is an add-on to Google sheets and is something I am sure to have stored up in my bookmarks. Primarily I use the random name picker template and have a saved bookmark with the names of my students for each class in a different bookmark. Whenever I need to make quick groups I use this random name picker and can organize the students into groups of however many sizes and can move students around as I choose. This template also works for drawing students to share their performances.


Another way Google has saved my life, and could save yours, is with Google Docs. Until my work in my master's classes I wasn't aware of how effective Docs could become to my planning. I have created a template for students to organize their work as they are in production and acting as directors, actors and designers. Here is a Shakespearean Play Production Template which has links to different google docs in which the students can fill out their own information for their part of the assignment. The students each have a different job during the rehearsal process. With the template students are able to see each other's work when they have access and are able to communicate effectively with me and each other.

Feedback

One of the simplest implementations of technology but also one of the most effective has been the use of Schoology discussions. While I do use them for online discussion topics with students from time to time, Schoology discussion has been adapted for my classroom. I use the program as a place for students to post performance feedback for each other. I will have a student perform and will have everyone reply under their name that they post. I will put my feedback in the discussion as well. Students now have a way to immediately see their feedback and keep track of it. This is so simple but has drastically improved the way in which my students think about their work. 

Resources and More

There are so many resources my students use to enhance their learning in the classroom. Students will use youtube and vimeo to watch performances of monologues and scenes to critique. There are now several sites available for students to stream live productions. There are articles and webinars geared towards different lessons. This is not only a benefit to the students but teachers are now able to use webinars and online lessons to progress professional development. Though it took me a while to see the many advantages of integrating tech into my non-tech classroom I now am grateful that I have since it has made so much more possible.

References

Free Image on Pixabay - Portrayal, Portrait, Crying, Cry. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://pixabay.com/en/portrayal-portrait-crying-cry-baby-89189/

Free Image on Pixabay - Yada Yada, Board, Insignificance. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://pixabay.com/en/yada-yada-board-insignificance-1430679/