Transcript Now What?
Amber Stewart and Mary Allen Introductions Recruiting Try-Outs Finding Pieces Practice End of the Year Wrap Up Speech practice was a disaster of Biblical proportions……. When we began coaching at our school, Amber was a first year teacher full of dreams that rivaled most made for TV teacher movies and Mary was brand-spankin’ new to the district (and age group). Both of us competed in high school, so we had some background knowledge. The school had had no speech team for several years and the students there really didn’t know what speech was or how to participate. Which teachers were asked to take on the monumental task of forming and coaching the Speech and Drama team? A. Veteran teachers who were familiar with coaching speech B. Newbies who had no idea how to organize a fledgling team That’s right! You guessed it! The correct answer is B. If you were on Oprah, you would now receive a new car. As you are not, you will now receive the coveted position of Speech and Drama Coach at your school and (if you’re like us) the hefty bonus that goes with it. Sound familiar? Our advice: Breathe. It will all be okay. Amber and Mary are by no means experts and thus any advice received by them is attempted at your own personal and financial risk. The following tips/advice was written by two very busy (and often very stressed) teachers who can only give you pointers based on all the dumb mistakes we have already made. Kay? For some unknown reason, directly after the State Competition (before the next season starts) expect to feel jazzed up and ready to go. Ride this wave! More than likely in a few weeks, you will catch Summer-itis and no longer want to think about school and/or speech. Some of our best plotting happens at this time. Have try-outs before school starts. This way you can think about pieces over the summer. You may want to have a small try-out later as soon as school starts in case you have new students. When students audition, make an audition sheet with samples of different categories so you can get an idea of students strengths and determine which events will be best for them. Order pieces if needed and think about possible categories for next year. Make a tentative roster to make sure that you fill all of them with strong performers. Decide on some tournaments that would be feasible for your team to do. The more tournaments you do, the better your team will be. Also, the earlier you can get them out to a tournament, the earlier they will be prepared. Tournaments are also great for building team morale. One of the best places to find speech pieces is your local library. There are many other publishing companies online that you can look through, such as Dramatist, Samuel French, or Speech Geek. Get creative. Look at Book Fairs, the school library, or think of movies. You want to look for pieces that will showcase a student’s talent and stand out in a round. The bad news is, finding pieces and cutting them does take a lot of time, unless you inherit them from previous coaches. Even when you inherit pieces, it doesn’t guarantee that they will be good. There are companies available from which you can buy pieces already cut, such as 4N6fanatics.com. Check your account to see how much money you have and determine how much you need to raise. Think about a few possible fundraisers for the year and plan them for strategic times during the year. Over the summer, choose one day to work on finding pieces. I know. It’s summer. What a drag. Trust us, though, if you do this now, it will make your year run much more smoothly. In the words of Yoda, “In summer more you do, feel like exploding the less you will.” Okay, maybe he didn’t say that, but he should have. Have a parent meeting at the beginning of school to give out practice calendars, go over tournament dates, contracts, and possible fundraisers. Our school is fortunate to have a pretty large team, however this used to make for crazy practices. I mean CRAZY. We are talking running the hallways, turning cartwheels, and doing martial arts demonstrations all the while we were saying, “You still don’t have this memorized?” Experience was definitely the best teacher. Now, we divide the team into three groups to start practice at the beginning of the year. ◦ Group A is made up of our veteran team members who don’t need a lot of support to get started. You know these kids are going to stay with you and once they get started, they can offer guidance to other team members. The first week, we give pieces out to Group A. ◦ The second week, we only see Group B, which is made up of former team members without a great deal of experience. Meanwhile, Group A is using this time at home to memorize. ◦ Group C stays for Practice the third week. This group consists of new team members who need a lot of our time and attention. While C is practicing, the other groups are memorizing. The following week, Group A should have most of their piece memorized. We set this deadline on the calendar, so they know to work toward it. We have Group A stay with another group. Each of the following weeks, there is a memorization deadline and we stick to it. Week 1: Group A Week 2: Group B Week 3: Group C (Group A-memorized) Week 4: Group A and C (Group B memorized) Week 5: Group A and B (Group C memorized) After all the memorization deadlines have passed, we split the team into two groups, one for each day of practice, that way we don’t have too many kids on one day, which keeps us from looking like this (insert funny picture). We make sign-in/sign-out sheets at the beginning of the year and copy them so we will have a new one for each week. This lets us know who is staying for practice and provides documentation if someone is not keeping practices. When students leave, they must sign-out so that way we know who is gone and who we are still responsible for. This also provides documentation for our school arts and humanities program review. We beg, plead, and harass for help with practices. Most people will argue, “I don’t know anything about speech.” It is at this point, that we bring out the requirements for helping with practice: Requirements checklist: You must have Ears Eyes A Pulse * *The undead do not make good audience members and they may have trouble going through a background check. Have volunteers who are not confident about their ability to watch speeches stay in a room with a video camera. Let the students film and watch the tape to write down feedback. Well, as a dear friend of ours (one Mr. Dustin Combs) says, “Speech is the RTI of extracurricular activities”. You have to be able to work with individuals. You have to set up speech practice like you would set up centers in the classroom. Here are some really easy ways to accomplish this: Volunteer help (previously mentioned with slight reference to the undead) Peer coaching- Pair older or more experienced students with younger ones and let them practice with each other. Voice Recorders- Before the season starts, we like to do an audio recording of pieces so students can take them home to listen to them. During practice, they can use headphones to listen to their piece or say their piece to the recorder and listen back to it. In this way, they can give their own feedback. Video cameras- Have students perform for a video camera and watch it back to critique their performance. For younger students, you may want to have them take it home with notes so parents can help. IMac Computers- Our students love to do their speech on Photobooth on the IMac computers. It’s really easy to do and they can watch it back instantly. Talk to a wall- Have students perform for a wall, especially when they’re a little shy about performing. Skype- Okay, honestly, we have never done this, but we think it sounds like a cool idea! If someone lives far away and is not available to come in person to coach, this would be a good option A few tips on fundraising: Know where you are and where you need to go. Find out early how much money you have and how much you will need for the season. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Decide on a few activities that will be minimal work for the amount of money you get out of it. Find out what works and stick with it. The early bird gets the fundraiser. Get approved early with your principal so no one else will steal your thunder. Remember, it’s a family affair. When you get parents really involved in your program, they will help take fundraising issues off of your shoulders. Each school comes with a different set of parents and kids, but it is your job to sell your program. If parents know the benefits of speech then chances are, they will help with this part of the job. My best advice when it comes to tournaments is to start getting ready early. There is a lot to do to prepare. Make hotel reservations in advance if the trip is overnight. Have a roster ready with students’ contact numbers on it. We keep a folder with a roster and permission slips. Choose places to stop and eat on the bus ride there with a map of where you are going. Get a bus request ready if you are taking a bus. Figure out how much money you will need and talk with the school secretary about getting money from your account. Make sure to register early for the tournament. Talk to your team about how important it is to be prepared and to show up at the tournament. Discuss team etiquette. Think of something special to do at each tournament. It may be a theme you have for the whole weekend. We once gave our kids a penny and had them put them in their shoes for good luck. Little things like that make a big deal. Buy cheap prizes to give out at the end of the tournament for a kid with a good attitude or for the student who does the best overall. Once you are at the hotel, make a practice schedule and have a session that night. The hotel practice can often make or break a tournament. This is one of the most helpful things we started doing for tournaments. We make cards with the students’ code numbers, room numbers, and performance times. This helps ensure they will go to the right room and will not write down the wrong code number. Hey, you’d be surprised how many times that’s happened. If there are two of you coaching, have one judge rounds and one stay around to do any kind of damage control the team may need. Make sure kids eat, warm-up events before performing, and keep energy up during the long day. Once finals are posted, have everyone stay to watch. Team members who make it need support and it also helps students learn by watching rounds with the top performers in them. Make awards a team building moment by having everyone stay and cheer. Yes, you are exhausted. The kids are exhausted. This is a good time to celebrate! You made it through the year and you’re all still alive! Whether you did well in tournaments or not, everyone involved has likely put in a great deal of work. The showcase is a time to kick back and let the kids show-off. It’s also a great time to let administration see the finished product of all that time and money. Our parents opted to make it a fundraiser, also, by doing dinner and a show. How do you make practice calendars? Why did the chicken cross the road? What is the ultimate answer to life, the universe, and everything? (Answer: 42) Bring out your questions. We’ve got answers (hopefully…if not, we’ll make one up.) Give yourself a round of applause. Being a speech coach is a hard job- especially if you are a new one. The good thing is, it is also a rewarding job. We both agree that after a tough day at school, our speech kids often cheer us up. We get to watch them grow as performers and as people. We are the ones who give them something to look forward to when school starts back. After the summer has ended, our kids are fired up to start practice and that is an awesome thing. Thanks, guys!