Aaron Coates and Dani Driusso have been working together as teaching artists for a decade. Both with a unique skill set and background in Theatre, they sat down to discuss their recent experience of an impactful week with Arts Commons Education.
AARON: Hey Dani! So I thought it would be fun to chat about the week we’ve just had. It was a tough one! Ultimately successful, but challenging. What did you find was the most difficult part of the week?
DANI: That’s such a great question! Many classes often have their challenges, and some are more common than we might think. Some of the specific struggles we faced this week really might resonate with a lot of educators, artists and students out there! A major hurdle was communication. The struggle for students to know when to listen and when to respond. I found it was really fascinating watching students really grapple with when to take pause and when to speak or lead while struggling to create space for others to shine. What do you think?
AARON: There’s often a dynamic in a class where some students talk a lot and are bold with their ideas and opinions, and others are more reserved. Sometimes that’s an introvert/extrovert thing, but other times it’s about helping students realize how they function in group dynamics. You led a great exercise in leadership styles.
DANI: Oh yes! That was really interesting to see how responsive they were to the specific behaviours we highlighted. Outside of my work as a facilitator here, I often lead workshops with individuals of all ages on these leadership styles. From corporate to small teams, to non-profit boards and more! Sharing it with the kids was really cool. There are often a lot of similarities between how kids share space with their peers and how adults do because they often learn those dynamics first in spaces growing up, like the classroom! I always tell people they are a leader whether they like it or not because their energy affects the space they are in. How we relate to the people around us, dictates the energy and success of a space.
The leadership styles we noticed and talked about with the kids were:
After we discussed the different roles we play, we had the students reflect on how they showed up in the group projects, and how they desired to show up in the future. It was really cool to see students identify aspects of all roles in themselves,or build their own off of what they noticed. They also began to reflect on how they identified in the classroom or see where maybe they were leading others without collaboration, or sitting on the sidelines when they actually wanted to be a part of the action but didn’t know how to participate or include themselves.
AARON: At the end of the week, in a survey, one of the students said that she realized how important it was for her to use her voice and that not using it was holding her back. Obviously, the week had a big effect on her in that way, and for methat’s one of the most important things. Student voice. And what I find fascinating about this was that the exercise wasn’teven on our schedule! We just had a quick moment and said, “Let’s try this!” Sometimes you have to modify or even let go of a plan entirely to better suit the students. And we did that a number of times that week. We found that this class embraced structure. We wanted to challenge them, but it helped to give them some structure to help them take the leap.
DANI: Yes! Exactly! I think it’s so important to remember that kids are fluid, just like us as educators and artists. They have whole lives they are living outside the classroom, with emotions and life things happening that can affect their presence. So just like how we might have to be flexible with our own capacity any given day when things come up, if we notice students responding to things in certain ways, it’s okay to change up the plans to better suit the growth of the student overall. I always love sneaking in life lessons in unique ways for them, like one of the exercises we did that reallystuck with me was the one where we counted all together. I think it really changed the dynamic of the week!
AARON: That’s a classic theatre exercise! A group either sits comfortably or lies on the floor. They have to count from one to twenty without two people speaking at the same time. There’s no prescribed order. You often do it with your eyes closed. And one person can’t say two numbers in a row. If two people speak at the same time, you start over. It seems easy, but it’s not! You see some students try to bulldoze their way through it (which inevitably leads to speaking over each other), and you see some try to “game” the system like there’s a trick to it. This falls flat because it avoids the challenge instead of confronting it. The exercise gets really interesting after a LOT of failure – 10-15 minutes or more! Everyone gets frustrated. You think there’s no way this will ever work, but then out of that chaos and difficulty, the group finds its way. But you have to sit in discomfort longer than you think! As actors and directors, I think we’ve both seen this a lot.It’s too easy to give up sometimes when it gets hard, but this was a real turning point!
DANI: Oh yes! Patience and sitting in the uncomfortability of that experience I think really allowed the magic to happen.It wasn’t necessarily on our schedule to spend that time there, but we were willing to allow for more space because we knew it just might pay off in the end, which it did! I found that it was also fascinating to see who stepped forward right away and who sat back because they knew that the more ‘director style leaders’ voices would take over. At one point we started an elimination aspect which is pretty unique to do in this game, just to see who would step up when offered the chance to share their voice without the aspect of being spoken over. I think it really gave the softer voices, or more‘camouflage’ style voices a chance to be heard and to take up space. I also noticed a huge shift in those kids as we moved through the week, they really began to open up and share their personality with us more which was so exciting to witness!
AARON: One big thing I learned from the week is that difficulties can be opportunities. Rather than trying to push through my ideas about how things should go, it’s often better to be present and turn that obstacle into a creative challenge. Rather than just getting frustrated. I think that’s a trap I fall into sometimes, so it was good for me to remember how to tap into my creativity as an educator.
DANI: That's a really good reflection! I resonate with the ‘frustration as a trap’ notion. I find that when I also get frustrated, it makes me want to back away, switch the exercise or almost give up in a sense on what I’m trying to share because you almost feel at a loss when it’s not received with vigour! I found that I had to really remind myself that humans have many different parts of themselves they don’t always share, depending on the space they are in or the dynamics of the people who surround them. For me, I felt I had to learn the patience of people showing me all sides of who they are. Some of the kids who might have been very resistant and difficult in certain dynamics, softened through the week and became more engaged in the things we were doing. Some of the students who would back away completely,warmed up when we consistently invited them in and slowly began to take up more space. Even the grownups in the room, though hesitant and perhaps even resistant themselves at the start of the week, really softened. First impressions aren’t always ‘right’ and sometimes when you leave the door open for exploration, it gives permission to students and teachers to surprise even themselves. So that was really beautiful and a great lesson for me. Even the difference in the intake forms at the beginning of the week vs the end of the week were night and day. We really got to see their hearts in their final reflections.
AARON: I think that the last thing I’d say is that seeing smiles on students' faces, or seeing their joy when they discover a new art form or talent is what makes it all worth it.
DANI: Absolutely, it makes me feel very lucky to be a part of what we do!