Question about teaching high schoolers

J

jayrevis

New Member
#1
#1
I'm teaching a workshop for high school students next month, and I've always worked with adults. I have a few questions about things that are different when working with minors, both from a maturity level and legality standpoint. I want to treat them like adults to the greatest extent possible, but also avoid being inappropriate. I feel like common sense will guide me pretty well, but if anyone has experience working with kids I would appreciate a heads up on the gotchas.

1. Generally when teaching a workshop I give out email and facebook contact info in case anyone has follow up questions or thoughts after the workshop. This feels like it's probably inappropriate, or at least risky when working with minors. Thoughts?

2. Are there different rules I should use regarding physical contact in scenes, content, etc.?

3. Anything I haven't thought about?

Thanks,

Jay Revis
 
P

Paul Barker

New Member
#2
#2
Re: email and facebook, I'd say the real concern is on your end in terms of how much contact you want to invite and what sort of privacy you want to maintain with young students. Could be a little confusing for a teen to see a teacher of theirs holding a beer in a picture on Facebook.

Our solution at one of the schools where I teach was to create a Facebook group for the students to join - that way we didn't friend each other but had a way to message everybody / keep a forum. We always told students they could friend us once they'd graduated. But we worked with them year-round, where in your case it's a one-off thing, so maybe there's no harm in being friends. Do make sure you get permission from parents before you post any pictures of minors, though.

As for physical contact - I think high school students can handle it. But you do need to get some agreements up top that you could just take for granted working with adults. We start each semester laying down ground rules of safety and respect. That way if something does come up you can refer it back to your prior agreement, rather than make a student feel like she's done something wrong. It's also worth thinking about the bigger group dynamic. You're probably going to have some people who are already buddies and others who are new and scared. The buddies may have a relationship where they tease each other / touch each other all the time, but a new person may not be comfortable with this. So I'd also look to make sure students are thinking about how their behavior affects everyone in the group. You want everyone to feel safe and supported.

Last thing, in general I think high schoolers need more and simpler warm ups. Some stuff involving skills, but also stuff that's just plain fun and gets them out of their heads. One good game is worth a thousand scene notes.
 
Holmes

Holmes

of the Rare Bird Show
#3
#3
If the workshop is through a school or community center, stress that the rules of that place apply even if you're pretending stuff that could get out of hand. If it's not, maybe still keep the kind of guidelines that you have in school; stress respect and making sure that your fun doesn't ruin someone else's fun.

For example, it's not okay to grab someone's ass, so let's keep that rule for the scenes, even though you're playing Creepy Uncle Grabby. Same could go for cursing or punching or slurs or abortion jokes or what-have-you.

You could clarify that some improv groups get to know each other and can erase some of those boundaries with trust, but that it's best to not get too fresh with people you just met, even if you're also around people you know really well.

For facebook/email, maybe keep it professional. If your email address ends with @Something-Theatre-Group.com instead of Gmail, it's a little less personal. For facebook maybe give a fan page where they can post follow-up questions or thanks, instead of befriending a 13-year-old.

I recommend laying out some kind of ground rules at the beginning: some kind of "we'll all participate, we'll all pay attention and show respect, etc." though this might not be as necessary in the situation I'm inferring from your post.

People of all ages get too riled up. It's helpful to have some kind of fun thing that makes people shut up, like a game. Whenever I put my hand on my nose, everyone else has to ...or I yell What Are We Doing? and everyone says IMPROV! in a funny voice. something like that
 
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