Happy 10th Birthday!

10 years ago I began a journey of reflection called The Drama Teacher. It started as a humble little blog profiling my daily life as a high school drama educator. I had hoped that my small blog would help me analyse aspects of my teaching in order to improve my practice in the classroom for my students and myself. In the beginning I was literally publishing posts to a dozen people somewhere out there on the Internet. The early days were a lonely experience. I had no idea that the personal musings of a drama teacher would prove interesting reading for others. Gradually I added resource articles on numerous topics that I hoped would prove useful for teachers in their own classrooms.

Well, the 2006 academic school year has begun with a frenzy and Justin decided he will celebrate this by starting a Drama blog. Of course, I have absolutely no idea whether anyone is interested in the life of a Drama teacher, but I guess I will soon find out! – February 4, 2006.

As each year passed, The Drama Teacher attracted more and more visitors and the commenting system of this website, an inherent feature of all blogs, proved a worthwhile way to interactive with regular users and occasional visitors, alike. In Internet speak, The Drama Teacher has increased its audience organically, so that today it receives thousands of page views every day. In recent years The Drama Teacher‘s appeal has expanded to drama and theatre high school and university students across the globe, not just Victorian or Australian Drama educators. Articles published here are used for student research, quoted in university theses, printed in the high school theatre classroom, and even linked to in theatre reviews on The New York Times.

In amongst this steady growth, several things have remained the same. Many of The Drama Teacher‘s visitors do not know this website is actually my hobby – a time-consuming yet thoroughly enjoyable one! During the day I still teach drama full-time at a Catholic girls’ school in Melbourne, Australia. These days I have three children at home under the age of four and a half, so time spent writing posts on The Drama Teacher is even more valuable to me than ever before. At its heart, it is still a personal and academic resource for drama and theatre teachers no matter where in the world they teach, or at what year level. I love the fact that Drama teachers and students happily co-exist side by side using The Drama Teacher for their teaching and studies.

Over the years I have listened to feedback from website users, such as the poll in 2015, in my attempt to audit exactly what visitors of The Drama Teacher would like to see more of on this website, or content in new and exciting areas of drama education not previously addressed. I have compiled the data from last year’s poll so that I can publish future articles in specific areas of user interest and continue to make The Drama Teacher as relevant as possible.

A decade is a long time, so I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all readers of The Drama Teacher over the past ten years for your continued support of this website. You have undoubtedly helped shape what The Drama Teacher is today and will no doubt heavily influence its direction in the decade to come. I ain’t goin’ nowhere anytime soon!

Justin Cash
The Drama Teacher