Totally agree. And when you live in as small a town as we do, it’s even more important to remain diplomatic and supportive.
Living in such a rural area, getting any sort of training or experience performing can be a huge challenge. There are few shows or programs to choose from. That’s why the high school program sounded so great. D is blessed to have fabulous voice & guitar teachers.
Excellent discussion, thx. I’m learning as I go!
^^Agreed. Similar experience with my kids growing up in a rural town.
One thing to not lose sight of is you get one chance to be in high school, to go to the homecoming football game, to go to prom, to have that first boy friend or girl friend. In the mad rush for kids to try and find a spot in an MT program, or try to pad their resumes even while young, I would encourage everyone to let their kids still be kids and have other experiences than merely auditioning for programs all the time.
Yes, this is all some kids do, but in my experience sometimes that is driven by the kids themselves, and sometimes more by the parents.
Absolutely true. D has found lasting friendships in programs outside of our small town, while maintaining friendships at school that she’s had since pre-K. A win-win. Exploring outside opportunities can be very enriching.
If you can do it, I’d encourage you to participate at both school and in outside of school opportunities at some point during your high school years. You will gain valuable things from both experiences. You will make connections. You will learn how to work in different environments and under different types of directors. You will see where your talent stacks up to different groups of people. and you will be enriched by new and different experiences. I know everyone’s plate is already full, but I do think having the opportunity to work with different people and directors is very worthwhile.
I fully agree with this.
It shouldn’t, but it still amazes me that teachers in the U.S. get paid for extracurriculars.
Not at my public school they don’t. I have never seen a dime for any extracurricular I have done or any of my colleagues.
Wow…
At our high school, however, some of the ECs are not coached/run/directed by faculty members, but by outside people who are contracted to do these jobs. They’ve had soccer coaches for the school team and a director for the plays and musicals who are not on the regular school faculty. In some ECs, they have had faculty run the activity but I’m almost certain they are paid (ex., ski team, tennis team). Not all faculty are involved in EC activities after school and weekends and so it does seem that those who do these things should be paid more than those who are not involved. It would be different, however, if part of the job description and requirement were that all faculty sponsor an activity.
toowonderful, if that “wow” was directed at me, I’ll explain my comment. My daughter is a teacher. This is the second year that she and her teaching partner have done a musical at their school with kids in grades 4-8. Prior to the holidays, they held auditions for a week (180 kids auditioned), casting decisions took three further meetings, and they had an organizational meeting with the kids who were cast, and an initial read-through. When they returned to school in January, rehearsals began that first week, three mornings a week, one after school day, and one break during the day. This will go on until the production week in May.
These two young teachers, and several others who will be involved in various aspects of the show, are doing this all on their own time, with no extra compensation. Just the desire to provide a wonderful, enriching experience to the students and a love of kids. No teachers here are paid for extracurriculars, but the vast majority do it year after year anyway.
Alwaysamom- like your daughter, I started a program for a “middle school musical” at my district. (MTI puts together some great options in their “jr” collection as a place to start) the first year not only was I unpaid, I funded the show (total budget $750- and that included $500 for showkit from MTI) I (and 3 other staff members) did it unpaid for 3 years until it had built enough cash to be self funded. l get doing things for the love of the kids, art and learning. I still do that show 10 years later. Kudos to your daughter. And yet- wow…
Bringing this down to the elementary school level in my neck of the woods, back when my kids attended, I no longer was a teacher there, but had been before they were born. When they attended, there was a musical for grades 4 to 6 and originally one of the grade 5/6 teachers directed it. As a parent, I volunteered for 3 years to direct an after school musical for grades 1-4 (I used to be a multi-age grade 1/2/3 teacher at this school before that point). This became very successful. My husband was on the school board and pushed to have the then part-time music teacher (this was small rural public K-6 school) become a full time position and that person would also direct a primary grade and an upper grade musical. So, then it became part of a paid job description.
Our middle school, grades 7/8, puts on a musical and hires someone in the community who has a theater degree and has done a bunch of youth theater. The HS for years hired a professional actor/director (Broadway, TV) in our community to direct the musicals. He has now left and the contracted person is someone with a theater degree, but again, NOT on the faculty.
Sorta off topic, but a friend of mine was telling me last night that he was visiting a private K-8 school in MA and they have a $60,000 budget for their musical. My jaw dropped.
My budget for the middle school show this year is $9000- all earned by the program over the years (self sustaining) I do not begrudge that $3000 of that will be spent on a $1000 stipend to myself and the two other members of the production team
@toowonderful, not sure why there is still an ,“and yet - wow”. Is it that you’re surprised that teachers in Canada do not get paid for ECs? It appears that they don’t in all U.S. schools, either, given Bissou’s experience.
@alwaysamom - when teachers are hired in Canada (and I will freely admit I know very very little about how Canadian education works compared to the U.S.) is there a discussion or expectation that they will take on extra curriculars as part of their overall employment? In the US, most high school activities come with a supplemental- and are outside of the teaching contract. Middle school and elementary do or do not depending on school district. (And I believe that Bissou is an elementary teacher). Teaching is a full time job, and it takes a lot of time to do it well. If any teacher choose to go above and beyond to participate in things that bring fun/enjoyment/learning to kids outside the school day (sports, arts, name it), and most of the teachers I know do, I think they deserve compensation for doing another job on top of their job. As I said earlier- it’s a pittance compared to the time- no one takes on extracurriculars b/c the $$ is so great. (It’s not why most of us went into teaching either). But the idea that teachers don’t DESERVE additional compensation for outside work makes me say (for a 3rd time) wow. No desire to argue further- you, and anyone else are welcome to their opinion.
Many school budgets do not have funds to pay teachers for extracurricular coaching. And I do believe they should be paid additional monies for activities outside the school day. They already work many evening and weekend hours doing lesson plans, grading, holding conferences with parents, etc…However, not having school funds should not prevent schools from producing a great show with good directors. Many schools have clubs or organizations that fundraiser year round to afford everything they need to put on a show, similar to a sports team’s booster club. At our school they do student cabarets and coffee houses, wrap packages at Amazon, conduct raffles and silent auctions, sell program ads and sponsorships, charge nominal fees for participating students (scholarships available to those who can’t pay), ticket sales including school shows marketed to other schools throughout the area with special student pricing, flower sales, concessions, etc… Which all goes to pay production costs including director, music director and choreographer and sometimes Union labor and rental fees at our local performance venue if the show is too big for the school auditorium. Students work with parents to create sets and costumes. It is expensive. But with a lot of effort you can raise the funds needed.
I never said that I don’t think teachers deserve extra compensation. I’m sure that my D would love to be paid extra for the hundreds of hours she’s volunteering her time. It just doesn’t happen here, that’s all! Sorry for taking this thread off track.
@alwaysamom- I took “it amazes me that teachers…” As a negative. In fairness, you could have meant it like “hey- that’s great that they get paid at all.” Dangers of social media- no cues (or emojis ;
) I apologize for jumping off the deep end
My D is a sophomore at an arts high school. We actually moved to a neighboring area so she could attend this school as opposed to her home high school. The high school she would have attended has a theater dept but it gets no support. They only care about sports there. The shows have major issues and I just could not send her there when she has done MT since elem school. She is getting the exposure she needs to the acting classes, voice and dance that she would not have gotten there. If she would have went to that school I would have had her in out of school experiences. She had a private voice teacher anyway and we would have taken dance at a studio, etc but she would have only done shows at the school if they were major ones I would say and I would have searched for community theater shows, etc . I know that some high schools are not supported in the arts depts. a sad truth …I would say perhaps your child could do some high school shows but if you have an active theater community in your town then reach out to that more. Especially regional theater…