Acting Lessons for Teachers

Students learn better from teachers who are enthusiastic. Presenting a foundation for the benefits of enthusiastic teaching, this book presents descriptions of strategies that would benefit the teacher: physical and vocal animation, teacher role-playing, strategic entrances and exits, humour, props, suspense and surprise and creative use of space. Acting Lessons for Teachers presents a solid theoretical foundation for the pedagogical benefits of enthusiastic teaching. Simply put, students are more engaged, misbehave less, and learn better from teachers who teach enthusiastically. A teacher's enthusiasm for his or her subject matter can be contagious. Since the dynamic of the classroom is similar to that of the stage in terms of speaker-listener relationships, the acting craft offers teachers a model for the skills and strategies that could be incorporated in their work to convey more enthusiasm for the material and for the students. This book presents concrete descriptions of the specific acting strategies that would benefit the teacher: physical and vocal animation, teacher role-playing, strategic entrances and exits, humor, props, suspense and surprise, and creative use of space. Special attention is given to the potential advantage of instructional technology as a modern-day prop. Strategies are explained in terms of their importance and ease of incorporation into the classroom. Each is proposed as a skill that can be learned by any teachers who have the desire to enliven their teaching. Student descriptions of their own experience with teachers' use of acting strategies add real examples for each lesson. Finally, testimony of award-winning classroom teachers from a variety of disciplines and age levels provides evidence of the wide and easy applicability of these strategies.

Teachers find themselves competing with high-powered media to win the attention and interest of students. Many are adopting a variety of performance skills to reach, hold, and convey information to a diverse and demanding audience. Tauber and Mester stress the essential qualities that make up a good teacher/actor: deep familiarity and understanding of the subject matter, use of a battery of communication skills, enthusiasm for the subject matter, and evidenced love of the art and craft of teaching/learning. Lessons taught involve the use of physical and vocal animation, classroom humor, space, teacher role-playing, props, suspense, and surprise. Each lesson contains actual examples and scripts with testimony as to their effectiveness by award-winning college faculty. An entertaining and effective manual for all levels of teachers, sure to inspire clever and effective new ways of teaching and learning.