Employed Mish

So, today was the interview at Beaumont College that I’d been called back for.
(Thankyou to Serial Girl for her books – THANKYOU SO MUCH)

I got to observe a class, the class that I’ll be teaching. It’s got nine pupils, each with a helper, and two physios for the class as a whole. Woah. The teacher though, was Dancer Boy! It was great, the lesson was really intense and more than a little intimidating, remember if you please that this is a subject I effectively have no experience of… oh yeah, the job, it’s teaching Performance not Art.

I’m excited, I’m more than a little nervous.

Theres a paid for two days of induction, I have to go up again to the class on Thursday where I’m expected to join in with the teaching. (They keep saying, yeah we’ll split the class, somehow I feel like this is probably bollocks) One of the teachers is a stand in (not Dancer Boy) who doesn’t seem too enthused by having to teach this class though I’ve only met him once and could be jumping to conclusions.

I really emphasised things that I have minimal experience of at these interviews. So, um, I need to be able to pull it off.

Ok. I’m going to need help on this one. There are nine kids, mostly with communication difficulties (some can talk to a limited extent, some totally can’t), all with movement difficulties. The theme is contrasts. We have all sorts of funky equipment. The idea is to promote communication with others and get them to understand cause and effect.

If you have experience with Performance I want ideas.

If you have experience of Cerebral Palsy I want ideas.

If you have none of the above I want ideas.

What would you do?

10 thoughts on “Employed Mish

  1. "We have all sorts of funky equipment."

    Do they have a tin bath?

    😉

    Yeah, ok, comes of asking a Yellow Sign ref for ideas!

    More seriously…I have no ideas…so I would ask this ‘ere Dancer Boy where he gets his from! There must be webpages, resources and books that cover this…maybe even online fora?

    Go for getting the parameters, then improvise like crazy within them.

    You can do it!

  2. What comes to mind for me is the old "mirror" exercise used in amateur theatre – you put two people opposite each other, and they have to mimic each others movements. When I’ve done it, the two are supposed to do it entirely without talking, and the lead person is supposed to change without a word being said, by observation and silent communication. Sometimes, you can only do so much with fancy kit…

  3. For the cause and effect portion… see if you can rig up a marble runway/row of dominoes.

    Dominoes could be groovy, actually; black and white, lines and circles…

  4. He knows nothing that useful about interacting with them only the condition, he has more experience with Parkinsons and MS :/

    *I meant CP but I said B in my head :blush:

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