Upper SouthamptonCentennial teacher lives what she teaches
Posted: Sunday, September 23, 2012 12:00 am | Updated: 9:00 am, Sun Sep 23, 2012.
Posted on September 23, 2012
The curtains draw to a close, but the show does not end for this Centennial art teacher extraordinaire.
After spending the hot and steamy days of summer as the program director of the Kids Theatre Workshop in Skippack through the Playcrafters organization, Donna Cockenberg of Lansdale spends the school year teaching art at Willow Dale Elementary School in Warminster.
To her, life is a stage.
“Teachers are performers to begin with,” as Cockenberg puts it. Students are the audience. They are taught lessons one act at a time, both in the class and at theater camp.
She’s been running theater workshops for 20 years. She also directs some plays and performs in them. This past summer Cockenberg performed in “The Wedding Singer” and “Pippin.” And her artistic talent was revealed with paintings she created for the play, including one of the New York City skyline.
During workshops, Cockenberg teaches comedy. She also applies her love of comedy to her teaching method in the classroom. For her, it’s key to getting the point across, she said.
“I am very involved with humor,” said Cockenberg.
Said Michael Donnelly, principal at Willow Dale, “It is exciting walking down the hall to see what her art class has done. She is very artistic and involved in music and theater, which is apparent in what she brings to her classroom. She is an educator who is excited about her class and inspires her students to do well.”
Growing up in Glenside, Cockenberg graduated from Abington High School and later attended Millersville University. She eventually graduated from Penn State University.
Since she was a little girl, Cockenberg always wanted to be a teacher. She also loved the arts, both visual and performing. She has been singing and acting her whole life, but teaching art to young people really tugged at her.
To read more go go: http://www.phillyburbs.com/news/local/courier_times_news/centennial-teacher-lives-what-she-teaches/article_90b29162-889c-5a18-bd47-db0b961bd27f.html?mode=image&photo=1
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