How Role Play Could Kill A Teacher...

Head of Department: Thank you, for coming in Mr Boxall. We appreciate you taking the time to sit with us. How are you?
Mr Boxall: Will this take long?
Head of Department: We hope not. It has been brought to my attention that you seem to have something on your mind at the moment and may not be as happy as you should be.
Mr Boxall: What do you mean? I've been here for 20 years. How long have you been here?
Head of Department:..

Storytelling has opened up so many opportunities for me to expand my enthusiasm for acting, this was just one of them.

The Head of Department was, in fact,  a young woman starting out on her career as a teacher and Mr Boxall, a 20-year teacher, 2 years away from retirement but sick and tired of the teaching methods of the school. Or, it was my role-playing.

It was, of course, me playing the role and, as an ex-supply teacher I had experienced in the role of a teacher to bring to the classroom.

I had also been in the situation of facing a similar situation just before I left the NHS (that's another story). So, I was quite prepared to play the role to the full which included searching through my mobile phone, looking at my watch, slinking back in the chair, sighing and no eye contact. It was the young teacher's job to make it clear to me that I was being monitored and was not performing as I should have been.

I, along with, 3 other actors played the roles of #1: Newly qualified teacher: #2: Angry parent. #3: Shopkeeper and my role. We used our wiles and acting skills to make sure the scenarios were as uncomfortable as possible, four times.

Each time we left the classroom, after giving feedback, we had to assure the young women that we weren't, in fact, anything like the characters we played and, on most occasions the women were more than slightly traumatised.

We all met together at the end of the session to close the circle of the day. It would have been interesting to have questioned the teachers on whether the experience had made them reconsider their choice of profession.

Did role play kill a teacher?

Are you interested in using role-play with your staff? Or, are you interested in performing at all?
Contact me at-ernie@erniesaid.info