At the beginning of the school year, McClatchy’s staff was missing some familiar faces but was filled with new ones as well. One of those included Ms. Calvert, CKM’s new drama teacher.
Ms. Calvert grew up in southern California and has been in the entertainment industry since she was a young age. “My parents put me in dance lessons when I was really young, so I’ve been performing for a long time and I’m really comfortable doing it,” says Calvert on the topic. She graduated from Cal State Long Beach, where she created a still expanding theater company with college friends called the Garage Theatre.
After moving to Sacramento 15 years ago, Ms. Calvert began teaching, first at Sac High and then at Hiram Johnson. “I just found that I like teaching drama more than I like doing drama.” With passion for English as well, she found a true love for educating. She is currently working toward getting her masters in education, specifically in language and literacy, at Sac State.
During her 11 years at Johnson, Calvert worked to create a drama program, but because the process was quite difficult, she began to look for other positions. Mrs. Morrison, head of CKM’s Vapa Department, was able to help get her a job here at McClatchy. “I give her a lot of credit for making sure that I ended up here to do this work, and I’m super grateful,” says Calvert. She now teaches drama, AP Literature, and Freshman English.
Calvert holds a unique teaching philosophy: she does not believe that points have much to do with learning. “I have a labor-based grading policy in my class, which means I base your grade on the amount of work you put in.” Her approach focuses on what she calls “learning authentically”. She ultimately gives her students the option on how they want to be graded, realizing that “schools program kids in a certain way.”
Her goal for McClatchy’s drama program is to “take our high school production model and make it look closer to how a professional model might look.” Calvert is in awe of the amount of resources she now has, but is looking to improve scheduling and efficiency. Upcoming productions include, but are not limited to, the Haunted Theatre and Diary of Anne Frank.
Ms. Calvert expressed her enthusiasm and said, “I do know that with the passion and talent we have from all the kids, it’s going to be awesome.”