Inside the Classroom: Emily Trinque - Chisholm Trail Middle
Inside the Classroom: Emily Trinque - Chisholm Trail Middle
Inside the Classroom is a series that visits Northwest ISD campuses throughout the year and highlights the magical moments that happen between teachers and students each and every day across the entire 234 square miles of NISD.
“Two minutes to places!”
“Thank you, places!”
That’s the standard call and response from a director and their cast as a theatre crew soaks in the last two minutes before a show. On this Tuesday, however, those words aren’t coming ahead of a big production, they are coming to signal the beginning of class.
Inside the Classroom returns this week as we take you on stage at Chisholm Trail Middle School where Emily Trinque is getting her students ready for their spring musical performance.
We visited Ms. Trinque during her Theatre II class, a course for seventh grade students who are exploring their passion for theatre. As students filed in from lunch, Ms. Trinique gave the typical theatre two-minute warning. Students grabbed their scripts from an organized cabinet and found their seats.
Every aspect of the class is designed to teach students what it’s like to be part of a theatre production. From the way they warm up to the physical space — a black box theater — students are always exposed to the elements of a theatre production.
Once students were in their places, Ms. Trinque, in her ninth year at Chisholm Trail, led them through various warm up exercises that ranged from reciting lines with proper facial expressions to lion and lemon faces to a full dance with a penguin company. The energy was high throughout with plenty of smiles across the room.
The class doesn’t only teach students how to act and perform, it also exposes them to the behind-the-scenes aspects of a performance. Students will have a chance to manage costumes, set design, audio, lighting and much more in the school’s upcoming musical. During this visit, Ms. Trinque let the class vote on which technical part of the show they wanted to work on as a class.
After the vote was completed, it was time to begin learning some new songs for that upcoming musical, Seussical JR., which is scheduled to debut for the Chisholm Trail community in early April.
When introducing a song, Ms. Trinque would first play it from her computer as students followed along on their script. Then, she would have students volunteer to sing the lyrics along with the music. Each new song was played a few times as a basic introduction.
When she introduced “Oh, the Thinks You Can Think!,” Ms. Trinque divided the class into two sections representing the two voices of the song, allowing every student a chance to collectively act out the lyrics.
After introducing a few new songs, she instructed the class back to the first page of their script to review songs they had previously learned.
Throughout the entire class, Jamie McKenna is right by Ms. Trinque’s side. Jamie is a senior at Eaton High School and is interning with her former teacher as part of the district’s teaching and training program of study. In addition to empowering her current students, Ms. Trinque has also placed a lot of trust in Jamie who is choreographing the show.
As students reviewed songs they had previously learned, they also acted out the choreography that Jamie had already installed while Jamie modeled it from the front of the class.
During one of the final songs of the day, “Biggest Blame Fool,” Ms. Trinque’s laptop connection is lost and the background music is lost. The veteran teacher didn’t waiver and continued to lead the song. Her students didn’t falter either, as they continued to sing aloud and follow her lead.
The 45-minute class seemed to fly by in the blink of an eye. For Ms. Trinque, the four months between now and Seussical JR.’s debut may also be a blur, but for her students and Jamie, Ms. Trinque’s guidance and positive nature will certainly lead to a must-see show.
Check back regularly all year as we continue to visit students and teachers throughout Northwest ISD and offer a rarely seen look Inside the Classroom.