Welcome to our Kindergarten Vogue blog!
My name is Arturo Aviña and I am a kindergarten teacher with the Los Angeles
Unified School District. Back in 2002,
I graduated from UC Berkeley and found myself at a crossroads. I was contemplating applying to graduate
school to continue my studies in psychology, or becoming a social worker. Although both paths had their appeal, the
thought of taking either one caused me a bit of anxiety. They just didn’t feel right. It wasn’t until I went to bed one night and
literally had a dream that gave me piercing clarity. In my dream, I was a teacher. As simple and as cheesy as that may sound, it
was one of those dreams that you wake from feeling elated and inspired. I knew that morning that I wanted to become a
teacher and a year later, I began my teaching career in a kindergarten
classroom at Mayberry Elementary School in Los Angeles.
While at Mayberry Elementary, I was
heavily influenced by hard-working, creative teachers who had a tradition of
ending their school year with a play.
For me, directing my students in a play became the biggest highlight of
my school year. I loved it so much that
I eventually started an afterschool drama club and had the opportunity to
produce plays with kids in kindergarten through 6th grade. These productions were some of the most
rewarding of my career.
Due to declining enrollment at Mayberry
Elementary, I was displaced and transferred to Olympic Primary Center near
Downtown Los Angeles. As if that weren’t
heartbreaking enough, I later received a pink slip from my district after 9
years of service due to budget issues.
I was demoralized by all of it and ready to leave the profession, but I
loved my group of kindergartners and was determined to end the school year on a
high note. I bought a video camera so
that I could record our final stage performance, a kindergarten interpretation
of Madonna’s “Vogue.” I posted the
performance on YouTube and what happened next was amazing. The video started to get shared and a week
later, The Huffington Post was writing about it! My pink slip was rescinded and my faith was
renewed.
I returned the next school year with
newfound motivation and since then, we’ve gone into overdrive with plays,
performances, and film. My interest in
the performing arts lead me to develop a YouTube channel that showcases the
work and talent of my students. Being an
avid pop music fan, I strive to blend pop music (Madonna being my favorite)
into our shows to create performance pieces that both children and adults can
enjoy. We hope that viewers enjoy our performances as much as we've enjoyed
creating them.
After twelve years of teaching
kindergarten, I have decided that it is time to take the next step in my
career. I am currently seeking to add subject
matter authorization in English to my multiple subject credential so that I
will be allowed to teach theater on a full time basis with LAUSD.
Coincidentally, after taking a few
online inventories on personality, and teaching/learning styles, this choice
fits well with my choice to teach theater.
I am an INFJ (introverted, intuition, feeling, judgment) personality
type. I have found that teaching
theater and planning for productions involves deep thinking and concentration
(introversion), an ability to see potential and possibilities (intuition), an
ability to value and appreciate individual talents (feeling), and the
capability to make decisions (judgment). I believe that my personality type allows me
to see the creative potential in my students and allows me to find ways to use
their strengths in productions.
After taking the teaching-and-learning
styles survey by Felder & Solomon, I found that I am pretty balanced in
three of the four domains, which makes it easier to cater to a variety of
learning styles. However, I rated
particularly high as a visual learner. Since
most people are visual learners, I am able to meet many of m students needs through
my use of visual aids, props, and demonstrations. It makes sense considering
that theater is a very visual art form, but as an instructor, I need to make a
more conscious effort to reach the students that are stronger verbal learners. Incorporating more extensive verbal and
written explanations would be useful as well as having students work in groups.
That being said, I look forward to my growth as an educator and hope to continue with creative ventures in theater. In the meantime, check out some news articles written about our kindergarten extravaganzas...
Arturo,
ReplyDeleteSo happy that you are being pulled into teaching theatre/English as you were pulled into teaching kinder. Place the classics into their original formats and have at it! I certainly appreciate the quality of your writing!