Noelle Gentile taught at PS 8 from 2005 through 2011 and led the school’s drama program starting in 2007. She has returned to teach a drama residency with the middle school this spring. Learn all about it below in an interview with Ms. Noelle.
What led you to teach drama?
I started at PS 8 in 2005 teaching second and third grades before starting the school’s drama program in 2007. Before getting my master’s degree in education, I worked as an actor and a teaching artist. Once in the classroom, I saw firsthand how I could use drama in my lessons and realized I had a passion for theater education. I went to Seth in 2007 to ask about adding drama as a “cluster” class; the timing was perfect and we started in 2007.
What brought you back to PS 8?
I left PS 8 in 2011 for MS 447 because I wanted to try working with middle school students – they’re really at a point where they’re discovering who they’ll be as young adults. Leaving PS 8 was hard for me because, in a way, I feel like I grew up there, and when I left, I felt like I’d left my family. I took a leave of absence from MS 447 when I had a baby last year and was thrilled when I learned I might come back to teach a residency with middle school students at PS 8 – both because I would get to work with middle school students again and because I could return to a place where I’d come of age professionally.
What are doing with the middle school students?
I’m doing a spring residency with the classes through May 16. I come to Brooklyn on Thursdays and teach each sixth grade class for two periods. The first period is more of an introduction to drama. We do community and trust building exercises, improvisation, theater games, and some conflict resolution. In the second period, we’re starting a focus on playwriting. When I started the residency, I wanted to get a sense of what would be most interesting to the kids. And it became clear to me in the first few sessions that they wanted a place to develop their own voices, to be creative with their own ideas. Playwriting can give them a space to do these things – having space to develop your own voice is important for all of us, but it’s especially important in middle school.
Is working with middle schoolers different from working with lower school students?
When I first started working with middle school students, I didn’t think it was very different; the more time I spend with them, the more different it seems. Middle school can be a hard time, and as a teacher, I try to remember my own time and foster a place where students can be who they are. As an educator, I need to help them in their quests to become aware of who they are, establish their own independence, and find their own voices. And I think the more comfortable they get with who they are, the more they’re able to help others be comfortable with themselves as well. With middle school students, it’s often best to first delve into issues of identity and then move out to larger social issues.
Why is drama important to students’ education?
Drama is something that addresses the whole student, it is a place where creativity and English Language Arts and social studies meet, it allows for kinesthetic learners to be on their feet, and it lets kids who sometimes struggle with behavior occasionally burst out. I have often found that students that struggle in other places in school have success in drama. And I’ve found that once a person has success in one area, it gives them confidence and interest in succeeding elsewhere. Theater can also be a powerful lens through which students can view and consider their world, and it is a tool that anyone can access as a means of making change happen.
Are you working on any other theater projects now?
I’ve just started working with veteran women (who were active in the military at times spanning from the Vietnam War to recent actions in Iraq and Afghanistan) and helping them to write their stories. High school students will perform the stories – this is a good example of what I encourage students to think about in terms of the transformative power of theater. Working with adults is a new professional challenge for me. I follow the same structure – first getting them to write, and then working to transform their writing into theater. But sometimes the adults need a little more encouragement than my younger students!
Photo credit to Amanda Gentile