Teaching Drama at the RFS!

When you start teaching your students to learn how to push beyond their boundaries, you then smile to yourself and say, “I did it!”

Being a teacher for more than twenty years gave me an insight into what the students’ desire and need the most. Though I have always taught English Language and Literature, I always believed deep inside that I should be adding more to the grammar and fiction until I started applying Drama in education and training theater skills. Though Drama and Theater are two different fields, I can only say that they both made all the difference I wanted for my students at the Upper Campus in the RFS.

Drama and Theater are two practices that introduce the students into a world of stories, where each one becomes a researcher of who we are as human beings. At the time when Drama introduces the students to a wide range number of role-play activities inside the classrooms, the theater prepares them to deliver their ideas on the stage and in front of an audience. Academically, the students will expand their vocabulary and become better writers and presenters in their Language classes. They will expand their cultural awareness and start appreciating history and philosophy in their Social Studies class. And they will definitely start questioning and exploring new ideas in their Math and Science classes. On the personal level, the students learn how to communicate with others, work as team, build their self esteem, access emotions, along with understanding and interpreting information, and learn how to start showing positive energy.

I am forever thankful that I work in a school, which encourages me to go further in teaching the students through Drama and Theater how to think outside the box and develop higher order thinking skills so that they can be open minded and creative thinkers, who are ready to be future leaders. As a drama teacher, I invite all teachers no matter what they teach to start using Drama in their classrooms and enjoy the progress they can achieve on daily basis. I think it’s about time we, as teachers, start thinking of the educational process as a journey where our students can explore new learning approaches themselves at the time when we keep on challenging ourselves to help all students learn how to push beyond their boundaries.

Samah Hussein/ Drama teacher and theater trainer