Letters From Teachers:

• Acting to learn, learning to act
• Born to teach
• Passing on a positive impact
• Why do I teach
• Learning together
• Loving the subject and the students
• Leading through our commitments
• Small victories keep me coming back
• Hands-on interaction draws me to teaching
• Awsome students inspire me
• Myriad reasons draw me to teach
• Taking pride in teaching
• Rediscovering the world through students' eyes
• Students' self-confidence is greatest gift
• Making a difference

Gail Jones :

Myriad reasons draw me to teach

I teach for many reasons; some of which are:

• A memory of the smile of accomplishment on a high school student’s face after he executed a creatively designed light cue for the end of “The Diviners.”

• Watching a young actor with multiple sclerosis successfully complete her first monologue at a festival.

• Receiving e-mails from former students about their lives and accomplishments.

• Helping a student whose goal was to attend clown college and then seeing him ringside performing with Barnum & Bailey’s circus.

• Helping an 88-year-old stage an original monologue about her lifetime in a war-torn country.

• Educating legislators about the power of theater education by inviting them to witness the prize-winning performances by youth in Sacramento.

• Keeping in touch with the new theater educator at El Dorado High School, Cal State Fullerton alumna Kathleen Gilbert Switzer, and seeing how she inspires her students.

Gail Jones
Ojai, CA

Taking pride in teaching »