Lindsey Ervi
TETA K-12 Committee
Elementary School Interest Chair
k12.eleminterest@tetatx.com
This January at TheatreFest, we had the largest turnout of Elementary Theatre teachers that I can remember! As you may know, it is extremely rare to find a school district in Texas that has an Elementary Theatre Specialist. The K-5 Theatre TEKS must be taught, but they do not have to be taught by a Specialist. If there is not a Specialist, the General Classroom Teacher must teach them. And I bet we can all agree that the General Classroom Teacher is hard pressed to find time to teach all the Language Arts, Math, Science, and Social Studies TEKS. To ask them to also teach Fine Arts TEKS seems like a bit of a joke. That means that most Elementary students are not getting to experience Theatre, which is a shame.
My school district has always been one to promote the Fine Arts, and we have had an Elementary Theatre Specialist in each of our Elementary schools as far back as I know, as well as a Music Specialist and an Art Specialist. But as of next year, the Music and Theatre classes will be combined into a Performing Arts class due to State funding. On each campus, either the Music or Theatre Specialist will teach the Performing Arts class, while the other will be placed somewhere else. So no one is losing a job, but in a sense, none of us are getting to teach the class we want to teach. I appreciate my school district’s effort to preserve the Fine Arts Specialists as much as possible, but it just won’t be the same.
I recently went to TMEA in order to prep myself for this transition. Over the years, I have heard several members of TETA try to compare TMEA and TETA, but having attended both conferences now, I can state very clearly that comparing them is like comparing apples and hamburgers. Yes, they are both food, but… The number of attendees to TETA TheatreFest vs TMEA Convention is drastically different: approximately 1,500 to 20,000 respectively. The city of San Antonio gives TMEA the Gonzalez Convention Center for free because the city makes enough money off the bed taxes from all the attendees staying in hotels all over the city. It took me an hour to walk through (not stopping at anything) just one of the two exhibit halls full of vendors, selling everything from musical instruments to jewelry to t-shirts to classroom supplies. I could go on and on about the differences, but my point is that to compare the two organizations is unfair.
I love TETA and have been a member and have been attending TheatreFest since college and began attending SummerFest a couple years into teaching. Our organization has a lot of work ahead of it and needs our support and willingness to serve in whatever capacity we can. I encourage you to not only attend SummerFest or TheatreFest, but to present a workshop as well. TMEA is able to pay clinicians to present sessions, but TETA cannot. If you don’t present a workshop, who will? If everyone that attended just submitted one workshop proposal, even if all were not accepted, imagine the conference we would be able to put on. Another big thing you can do to support the organization is to attend the business meetings. They may not be as fun as workshops, but your voice will be heard and your questions will be answered. We need members to speak up and out and to understand the goings on of the organization.
A special thank you goes out to the Elementary Theatre Teachers who attended TheatreFest. I hope to see many, if not all of you, at SummerFest!