Drama with Character Education and Mental Health

The mental health of children is something I am deeply concerned about.  My goal as a teacher is I want every student to look forward coming to school each day knowing that it is a safe environment that is rid of apprehension and disrespect.  I want students to feel comfortable to share answers and express their opinions and thoughts openly without fear of being ridiculed.  That being said, I’m always looking for ways to advocate this notion so every student has equal opportunities to learn with less difficulty. 

Curriculum Connections – Grade 6

The expectations associated with this week’s lesson are:

Drama
B1.1 engage actively in drama exploration and role play, with a focus on identifying and examining a range of issues, themes, and ideas from a variety of fiction and non-fiction sources and diverse communities, times, and places

Health

C2.3 apply personal skills and interpersonal skills (e.g., self-awareness and self-management skills, including anger management; communication skills, including listening skills and assertiveness skills) to promote positive interaction and avoid or manage conflict in social situations

 The Theory

This week’s theory focus was Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.  The essence of this theory is to establish the foundations of the student’s physical ability before progressing to other needs.  If students have a physical limitation, then if the need is not met then their ability to perform successfully will be unlikely.

The Activity:  Masks

The activity we perform today required us to create, cut and wear masks to illustrate a scene.  At first, I was again hesitant because my artistic skills are not scholarly, however like many I made a mask that had two sides of opposing emotions; one happy and one sad.  The scene my group perform was a member getting pushed aggressively by another member which turned our faces from happy to sad.  In order to prevent audience from noticing the change in emotions, we made sure to face away from the audience in order to flip the mask around.  It’s a clever trick that makes the scene more fluid!  To make the scene more colourful, we made sure to add gestures and motions of varying speeds.  This adds another dimension to the scene because we are unable to speak during the presentation, so looking for other expressive means is crucial. 

This was a very fun and engaging activity that allowed for a lot of creativity when creating masks and creating a scene to perform.  I can definitely see students because creative in creating masks that replicate movie characters or their favourite superheros which can make the environment even more interactive and engaging for everyone.

Concluding

The weeks have been going by quickly and it’s sad to realize that there is only one day left of drama.  Going into this course I felt very apprehensive because this was a subject that I was not familiar with at all.  However from the previous weeks, I feel I have developed a stronger understanding of the curriculum and most importantly, for me, learned different activities that I can incorporate into my teaching.  I want to make the learning experience enjoyable for students because they’ll remember the enjoyable experiences over the mundane ones.  From what I’ve learned thus far, drama can achieve this aspiration.