Projector controller in hand, senior Mark Hutchins felt a sense of pride and satisfaction course through him as he taught students at West Junior High about scenic design.

Hutchins interns at Arapaho Classical Magnet Elementary School and Richardson West Junior High through the teaching internship program, teaching technical theater.

“They don’t go much in-depth into tech theater to gain any interest from the students,” Hutchins said. “I was hoping to get into that a little bit deeper because I know some people could really get interested in it.”

The teaching internship program gives students the opportunity to go to other schools and intern there. Participants observe teachers from other schools and help teach classes, and they earn college credit and real-life experience from it.

Hutchins initially wanted to be a stage manager and took the teaching internship program to learn useful skills for the job, such as leadership and interaction skills.
He continued to participate in the program after switching his focus from stage management to lights.

“By the time I started the class, I was already really interested in lights, so I just moved over to that and kept the class.”

For one lesson, Hutchins brought a common light bulb used for theater from RHS to West to introduce the concept to them.

“I tried to make them understand all the power they would have quite literally at their fingertips,” Hutchins said.

To create lesson plans with junior high school students, Hutchins thought of what he would’ve wanted to learn when he was in junior high. He said that teaching elementary school students was definitely a learning experience.

“It’s pretty much performing in front of those kids because you need to be interactive constantly to grab their attention to be exciting and out there,” Hutchins said. “It is really hard.”

Hutchins said he gained lots of knowledge while learning from his mistakes. Education and Training teacher Debbie Reese said she has seen a lot of growth in Hutchins.

“He was really quiet,” Reese said. “Now, he just is so passionate about theater arts and about theater tech that he loves, like going to elementary and junior high.”