Boys and Girls ClubThe best way to teach a class is by getting rid of everyone’s cool cards.
During my junior year of high school, my friend, Saul, and I co-taught an improvisation class at the Boys and Girls Club. Neither of us had taught a class before, however, we both had taken an improv class before and I had been in an improv show. Improv is, in my opinion, one of the most important skills someone can have. It helps you be creative, interact with others, and grow as people. We wanted the kids to learn to find their voice and be able to speak their ideas through improv. I designed a curriculum for an improv class. The first three days were completely structured starting with class games and then delving into smaller group, presentation games. After that, I had provided a list of every game that then would be improvised past the three days based upon the likes and dislikes of the children and applied with the Boys and Girls Club to teach a class. And they had one for us! Richard Gali, the youth voices director, was teaching a class entitled (Re)Acting all about improv and he was looking for some co-teachers. Saul and I immediately accepted the offer. We worked with him to combine our curriculum with his. The biggest change was the implementation of the starting game: cool cards. Cool cards consists of everyone reaching into their things and pulling out their cool card, a card that says they are too cool to do silly things or accept silly ideas. They were required to “turn in” their cool cards, which then we “burned.” No ideas would be shut down. No one would be teased. No one would be afraid to participate. And the kids completely reacted to it. As the weeks progressed, I ended up working a lot with two kids: Edgar and Taylek. We made improvised stories combining The Three Little Pigs, Little Red Riding Hood, and Jack and the Beanstalk, and The Little Mermaid and The Dark Knight Rises. They brought props to later classes to have more actions open to them. We played games of police, three-headed expert, one-word story, and more. Seeing how happy the kids were and how quickly they responded to new games and ideas was beyond rewarding. Every single one of us burned our cool cards and was ready to have fun while making every person happy. I knew that I had to keep doing work like this, and so, that summer, I took what I had learned and the curriculum we had made and taught a similar class at Peninsula Bridge. |
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