Professional Development for Teaching Artists

THE ACTORS FUND WORK PROGRAM

A Professional Workshop in the Art of Teaching

MANAGING YOURSELF IN THE CLASSROOM

Classroom Management Skills for Teaching Artists and

Other Creative Individuals Who Teach

This four- session workshop will help participants understand how they can use their creativity to bring discipline to the classroom. Led by Howard Katzoff, the class will learn recommended practices of the NYC DOE and learn how to manage their own approach to classroom control. This hands-on workshop will also give participants the opportunities to analyze situations that they have faced in the classroom. All participants must attend all sessions and complete homework assignments.

LAST YEAR’S CLASS

JULY, 2011

Consortium for Worker Education

10:00- 3:00

THE ACTORS FUND WORK PROGRAM

212-354-5480

Course Outline

Assignment #1

MANAGING YOURSELF IN THE CLASSROOM

“Eat your carrots!”

THE NEW YORKER

INTRODUCTION

Study the cartoon, “Eat your carrots!”

Catch the face of that innocent child, so calmly, even respectfully, looking down the barrel of his mother’s gun. Your sympathies are, of course, with him. Doesn’t that woman look deranged to you, now? Logic and common sense would make you question how a mother could ever be driven to such an extreme.

As you learn to assert yourself in the classroom and with the educational system, expect to be pushed to your very own personal extremes, relentlessly.

After a few weeks in the vortex, believe me, you will look at “Eat your carrots” in a new light. Your empathy will make you call that cartoon mother, Sister. You will come to appreciate that insanely angry look on her face because, at any moment, you could be feeling it on your own.

This Classroom Management course has been crafted to raise your consciousness about who your students are, what schools are like, and how good teachers thrive. You will learn to affect positive change every day you come to work.

There is no guarantee that by taking this course you can avoid becoming either a raving maniac or a dithering wimp in the presence of a class. We cannot protect you from A) Frustration B) Error C) Fear of Failure or, even, D) Failure Itself.

Materials included will serve to inform you of institutional wisdom and best practices in matters of “Classroom Management.” However, you are mistaken if you ever hope to find proven, data- driven or research- based methods to control other people, of any age. Be wary of experts who would offer you scripts ready to perform flawlessly, in place of daring you to bear the risks of improvising in the here-and-now.

To frame any realistic conversation about Classroom Management, you must first accept that you can never actually manage other people.

You can only intend to manage yourself.

FIRST CLASS

Please come prepared with the following assignments:

1. READ

Read the William Carlos Williams short story (3 pages), The Use of Force.

Bring a copy of the story with you for reference.

THE USE OF FORCE (link)

2. WRITE

On a sheet of lined notebook paper, put your name at the top.

Number and answer each of the following questions about The Use of Force:

Please skip a line between answers.

QUESTIONS

A. Why does the doctor have contempt for these parents?

B. Why does the doctor praise the little girl?

C. When the doctor says, “It was a pleasure to attack her,” what do you think he means?

D. What does William Carlos Williams teach you about using your will on others?