KANGAROO Inn Area School teacher Kate Curling has brought Shakespeare to the bush after being selected to participate in a prestigious teacher development program.
Ms Curling was one of 30 teachers from regional, rural and remote Australian schools and one of two South Australian teachers selected to participate in the Bell Shakespeare Regional Teacher Mentorship.
The year-long mentorship is fully funded through the Australian Government and Teachers Mutual Bank and includes four days of professional learning at the Bell Shakespeare headquarters in Sydney.
As part of the program, teachers received specialist training in practical and innovative strategies for teaching the works of William Shakespeare and designed a unit plan focused on the English playwright’s texts.
“The mentorship looks at how to teach Shakespeare to students and how to make it more accessible and dynamic,” she said.
“It teaches methods that are a bit of a breakaway from the traditional play reading and focuses on something that is called moved synopsis, where students act out a short synopsis of the play to tell the story.
“The whole idea was the teachers had to make everything because if we couldn’t do it, we couldn’t expect the kids to do it.”
Now in its 10th year, the Bell Shakespeare program sees teachers hone their drama and English teaching skills as well as see the Australian theatre company’s production of Richard III at the Sydney Opera House.
“The whole mentorship was fantastic and really inspiring,” she said.
“For me, the opportunity to work with teachers all across Australia was great.
“It was great to work with specialised teachers in the Enlglish and drama fields.
“It completely changed the way I taught Shakespeare.”
