Maja Abramović

I participated in a course Drama in Education in Piraeus, Greece. The course was held by IDEC organization. Our treiner, a theatre actress and drama pedagogue, taught us some basic theatre elements and showed us how to include simple techniques in our teaching process, and implement them in our school curriculum. We started with various ice-breaking activities which opened the course, mostly breathing exercises for relaxation and minfullness exercises. We did some basic exercises which helped us understand the importance of our bodies in space, recognizing space and time as basic drama elements. The activity was to walk around the room among other participants, using different levels/awearness of every passer-by. Another task was to let go of the control we tend to keep in our everyday life and let another person lead us through space. We discussed different levels of energy. We used short improvisations. Afterwards we had a discussion and reflection on how these exercises help with anger management, bullying, and verbal violence. After choosing a problem we came across in our school, we were asked to act out the story in 4 scenes and give a solution. Activity: showing or hiding feelings. All the participants were asked to act a scene in which they would show one emotion and hide another one. Also, we did a couple of improvisations like Still Frames and Talking Statues. We did various team bonding exercises, exercises for being alert and to rise levels of energy. Creative writing: each trainee had to choose a fairy tale and change the ending. The final task was to produce our own narrative play with 3 characters, specific problem, first obstacle that characters easily overcome, the second obstacle (moral dilema) for which we needed to present the solution. After directing our play, we were given some time to rehears the scenes and performed in front all the other participants. The aim was to implement all techniques that we've learned throughout the course.

I am an English language teacher teaching children and young teenagers in different age-groups from grade 1 to grade 8. I strongly believe that teaching drama elements to children and implementing drama into Education presents itself as a helpful tool for many reasons. I've learnt there are so many positive outcomes, one of which is developing students’ social skills such as social awareness, anger management and tolerance to difference. I have also learnt that the aim is not to teach our students how to become actors and actresses, but to use basic theatre elements to foster learning. Children are learning about themselves, about people around them, about differences that exist between people. Also, drama allows students from different backgrounds to share their unique perspectives and stories. Through character development, improvisation, and storytelling, students explore diverse experiences, cultures, and identities. Finally, teaching drama in class builds students’ self-confidence and self-esteem. They perform in front of an audience or participate in group activities, they develop a sense of accomplishment and overcome stage fright. Simply said, by playing theatre games and performing short improvisations, children have the opportunity to be creative and imaginative. Students also practice body expression, develop social and emotional skills, and improve their language and communication skills by practicing articulation and intonation. They develop active listening skills, by observing and interpretating body language, facial expressions, gestures. I believe I am skilled to use everything I have learnt in my work. It is the teacher’s role to guide and encourage these types of drama and theatre activities because learning through drama is all about playing, learning to express emotions, and actions to learn new things in a natural surroundin