Technology in a Theater Classroom (Christy SE) Blog 1

About Me 

    My name is Christela Mendoza, I am from Uvalde, Texas. This course is one of my last courses on my journey in receiving my master's degree with SE. I received my bachelor's degree from Texas Tech University in 2012 with a major in Theater and a minor in Spanish and Education. Right after graduation I dabbled into a few different roles in the education world in hopes to gain experience with students of different ages and backgrounds. Some of the positions I held were, Test Scorer for Pearson (1yr), Substitute Teacher (2yrs), Special Ed Assistant (1 year), Pre-K Assistant (1yr), Middel School Theater Teacher (2yrs). Unfortunately, this year I decided to resign from my position as a High School Theater Director (4yrs) to care for my father. While caring for my father I decided that this would be the perfect time to work on my Masters. In the future I am hoping to find a teaching position online so that I can work from home so that I may continue to care for my father. If the opportunity opened to work at the Community College in town, I would try to work my schedule to fit the needs of the position.  

Standards  

    After reviewing the ISTE standards I was really intrigued by the 1.4 Innovative Designer standard that states "Students use a variety of technologies within a design process to identify and solve problems by creating new, useful or imaginative solutions." I think this would be a great standard to use while teaching a lesson on any element of design in theater. The first one that came to mind was a set design lesson. It would be great to have the students create virtual models of different scenes of a play. The students would not only have to be creative with creating the set design, but they would have to have knowledge about the play itself. The students would have to know the time period as well as the stage directions and scene description for the design they are creating.  

Insight with Gura

    After reading the introduction and part one of the book by Gura I feel confident that my lesson could be a great way to teach my students to be innovative through their creativity. If I am being honest, I feel that fine arts educators have an upper hand at creating innovative and creative provoking lessons because it is what we have always strived to do. Educators in the arts do not have a state mandated test that measures the success of our students yet many of our students leave our classes with skills that they will carry with them throughout life. Creativity has always been placed at the core of my curriculum. As Gura stated  “They must elevate creativity from the margins of the instructional program and place creativity at its very core where it can take its rightful place as one of the most important dimensions of modern education.” (Gura,p11)