Duke it out

reader: i am so fascinated by your life right now. oh please please explicate on what it is that you do in your fancy, souped up life on the east coast.

me: oh alright. calm down.


so, i have been here in DC for a few weeks now with the intention of teaching at this great private school for the performing arts. they have a handful of alumni that they claim, one being dave chapelle (who was seen by a friend of mine recently at the mac store... good to know he's on the good side) and they really are a great school. byu tried to freak us out by repeatedly telling us all of the horrible inner-city students' issues that we will see and how hard and different it would be from what we knew in our little "sheltered land" of p-town, utah, u.s.a, but i have to tell you... there isn't much here that is a whole lot different from anywhere else. shocker.

the school is different, the kids are different. but definitely not inner-city. many of the kids come from out of the city and they pay tuition to go to school here, the rest are covered by the city and those are the ones that might be considered "inner-city"... if you squint.

the kids are here to study either dance, vocal music, instrumental music, theatre, technical theatre, literary media, visual arts, or museum studies and they auditioned or applied for the program they are in. they treat the school very much like a university in that each of the students are basically labeled and identified by their "major" or "program" to which they belong so it very much feels like a mini-HFAC dropped in a much cooler place. they have all their academic classes in the morning, and then the afternoon is dedicated to their art. this means that yes, technically, my day doesn't really start until about 2pm, but my mentor teacher teaches a class on the "academic" side called "art & culture" that has absolutely no curriculum or real purpose as far as i can see, but it sure is fun so i go to that some mornings. the past few weeks we have been designing/talking about tattoos. and yes, one girl went and got hers last weekend. good thing she is 18, cause if/when her parents find out.... hell.

i am going to be teaching theatre history I and II, as well as help team-teach theatre styles which is a class that focuses on learning trends in contemporary theatre based on what the students find interesting to discuss and learn about. (another class that miss tia doesn't have to prepare for-- they basically create the syllabus as they go.) oh. that's the other thing. most of the teachers go by miss (insert first name here), so i am usually "miss meg" which honestly sounds better that miss moffat, which ends up being "miss muffin", "miss moffin", or "miss mo-phat" (which could be a term of endearment if used correctly... but often isn't.) i know, i should get married and fast before it is too late and my name sticks to me forever...

and then i will help teach the other teacher's movement for actors class. she teaches a handful of random things that the students don't exactly know why they learn yet, but i am sure they help them focus and things. i am going to start teaching yoga in that class, which will be so fun. i am planning on getting certified this next semester anyway to teach yoga, so that will be good practice.

i have a large report-type product i must complete within the next few weeks that analyzes the teaching and the students' performance based on a mini-unit i teach within one of the classes. it will not be terribly difficult, but is definitely a time-suck. other than that, i am looking at a few jobs i might apply for because i plan to stay here, but i am antsy that one will be harder to find than i wish...

i will say i love what i do now and i love that i am here and i love the people i am meeting/camping/dancing/going to concerts/chatting/eating crepes with... i am seriouslysoblessed.com to be here. sersly.

oh- and i fully taught for 3 hours straight today... and yes, i was awesome.

post script: updates and pictures on above mentioned events are soon to follow. chill, reader. ya know, sometimes you nag too much...