Intercession: Day Five, or I knew from the start that "Teamwork Supervisor" was a shitty role

So, apparently I provided the wrong things in terms of structure today. I wanted to give everyone in my group of ten a job, so I drew up a list of them (costume designer, set director, script supervisor, etc) and had the kids choose what they wanted to do (casting director was very popular) and sent them to work on today's scene (Act I, Scene I). The two other groups in the room were also working, so it was a lot of mixing, running around and feeling chaos slowly increase my anxiety. I tried to keep an eye on everybody.

Emily, who thank goodness got the job as casting director, did a nice job of giving everybody a role. The girls who wanted to work on the script were the ditziest girls imaginable, and spent most of their work time trying to get Vashawn, the class pimp's, attention. Daniel, who REALLY wanted to be in charge of everything, was practically in tears by the end of class. And Toivo, who really wanted to do something but had no desire to work with any other people on any other task, wedged himself behind a shelf and pouted. Many kids were quiet and overwhelmed and didn't really get to their jobs. We filmed four takes of a very abbreviated scene without a lot of creativity.

Molly split her kids into smaller groups to plan the scenes, which I might try tomorrow. We're doing Act II, Scene II (a pretty long scene) which I think will take place in a hospital. I might split up the kids and the scene for planning purposes, because I think there's a LOT of potential of crazy modernization and creativity with this scene. They just can't work in a group of 10--it's too big. Maybe groups of 3-4 tomorrow?

Overwhelming day. Lots of people came in to observe and I felt a little embarassed about the kids running wild. I confiscated a paper airplane. It was hard to make it fun.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that our "opening activity" was a large group relaxation exercise. I had the students sit down, close their eyes, visualize a calming scene and tense and relax different parts of their bodies. Most people did it without opening their eyes and giggling which was AMAZING. I don't know that it focused them more, but it's worth trying in conjunction with different activities. Sometimes a few deep breaths go a long way.