Mr. Lebrun is back at Cleveland. A few years ago he worked here, and then transferred to another elementary school. He’s back, and he has brought his performing talents to all of our classes. His teaching assignment is to teach performing arts (music, drama and dance) to all 20 divisions in our school. When I hired Mr. Lebrun, I spoke about teaching music. He wanted to do so munch more, and for that, I am thankful.
A couple of weeks ago I watched a group of grade 6/7 tudents during their class with Mr. Lebrun. The class played a few games, and were having a lot of fun. They were playing Thunderome when I came in, a game involving quick fire words on a topic picked by their teacher or their classmates. If you are not quick enough, you’re out.
The students were comfortable being silly in front of one another, and wanted to participate in a number of games. I think the hardest part was being the audience, and sitting back and letting the actors create the scenes. Be patient. You will get your turn.
The next game was Bus Stop. Mr. Lebrun introduced this game, and a number of students enthusiastically shouted out “Yes!” They had obviously played this before, and were all quick to volunteer for the various roles. One student asked, “Can I be the annoying one?” He got the part, and he played it well.
The lessons taught by Mr. Lebrun help foster creativity in our students, as well as helping students feel more at ease taking risks in front of their classmates. It is important that a safe learning environment be created for students, if we want them to explore their creativity, and take risks. These students were creative, and were comfortable making mistakes. It was a pleasure to watch.
Today, Mr. Lebrun had organized the Vancouver Improv Theatre League to come to Cleveland and perform for (and with) the students in grades 4 – 7. It was quite a treat. We have very talented and enthusiastic students here. The actors invited several students on stage, and they even got one teacher to help with the performance. Well done everyone.
Thanks to PAC for providing us with the financial support for this show.
The arts are well represented here at Cleveland. We look forward to more performances over the year, and hearing from all our dancers, artists and actors about things they do outside of school time.
Today we celebrated creativity. Let’s do that every day.
Take care.
