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Teachers 'stand up' for Shakespeare
(by Christine Bryant, Eastside Editor - January 31, 2009)
Eight Reynoldsburg teachers will be the first to participate in a leadership education program at the core of a new partnership between The Ohio State University and UK's Royal Shakespeare Company.
The three-year program that begins this summer is based on the Royal Shakespeare Company's "Stand Up for Shakespeare" program.
The program engages students with interdisciplinary investigations and explorations of the sort of universal themes contained in Shakespeare's plays.
Twelve other teachers from Metro High School and Linden-McKinley High School will participate as well. All three schools are STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) schools affiliated with the Ohio STEM Learning Network.
"This Stand Up for Shakespeare program is the first of its kind in the United States," said Leslie Kelly, assistant principal at Waggoner Road Junior High School in Reynoldsburg.
As part of the program, Reynoldsburg Schools will send eight teachers to Stratford, England, where they will work side by side with members of the Royal Shakespeare Company for a week.
"Upon their return, they will continue to work with the 12 teachers from Metro and Linden-McKinley as well as faculty at OSU," Kelly said. "Members of the Royal Shakespeare Company will also be coming to Columbus and working with our teachers and students."
More than 30 teachers from Reynoldsburg have expressed interest in the program, which Kelly says teachers will emerge from with increased knowledge and tools to help them engage all students in being active participants in learning.
"The teachers will also be equipped to work with other teachers to share what they have learned so that we can provide opportunities for all students to experience dramatic inquiry," she said.
Shakespeare will be the vehicle through which the dramatic inquiry process is delivered.
"Our students - elementary through high school - will have the opportunity to explore and experience the works of Shakespeare," Kelly said. "These activities will help our students to become better problem solvers and innovators as they discuss and examine the many facets of Shakespeare works."
The Stand Up for Shakespeare program will be at no cost to the district, she said. It is paid through grants and private donations to the Ohio State Arts Initiative. For more information about the partnership and the Royal Shakespeare Company, go to http://artsinitiative.osu.edu/rsc.
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