Author: Elana Shyong

Games are a game changer (ha! pun intended) to creating joyful and collaborative learning spaces! 🎭✨ This month, I’m running Games Month for Recess, an online platform for learning, filling every drama session with activities that get kids thinking, laughing, collaborating, and imagining together. I often hear from teachers I train, and parents too: “Games…

Still thinking about Enchanted… and my heart is, as always after, so full. This gathering at Selgars Mill has become a marker in my year. It’s continuously been a space that grounds me and sets the tone for the summer ahead. 🌿💫 Some highlights I’ll be holding close: ✨ Stargazing with Ines Castagnet, and seeing…

I used to think that being a good educator meant having to know everything.Now I am seeing the importance and value of knowing how to ask. We’re moving away from the traditional “banking model of education,” where the teacher is the keeper of all knowledge, to something muchmorepowerful:co-construction of learning. Visible thinking routines like a…

✨ Exciting news! Next month, I’ll be in Singapore as a co-facilitator and MC for the TIYA Conference 2025. This event will be held at the beautiful Tzuchi Foundation Humanistic Youth Centre and bring together passionate young people from across Asia-Pacific to take action toward the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). I’m very much looking…

At the end of last month, I joined my fellow trustees and members of ISTA – Global Learning Through the Arts for three days of in-person strategic planning meetings in The Hague. It was a full-circle moment I’m still so excited about – and proud of! As a student at Shanghai American School, I attended…

🎙️ It was such a pleasure to be interviewed for The Recess Rundown podcast last month. This podcast is run by #homeschoolers Maddie and Ella, two inspirational members of Recess, a digital platform where #kids are empowered to #design their own education. These young creators were so prepared, thoughtful, and professional, it truly felt like…

𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐭’𝐬 𝐚 𝐰𝐫𝐚𝐩! Every year I design and deliver an online drama in education programme for Ouch Theatre, an applied theatre company based in Nanjing, China. We just finished our last series on Sunday and I am feeling very proud of how much each participant has grown. Here are three top tips that I shared…

Every day I am reminded what a privilege it is to do what I love – play! Not just as performance or fun, but as a way of knowing, connecting, and engaging with the world around us. 🎭✨ From drama class in school to using it as a tool for creative self expression in university,…

After many rewarding years of running Learning Off Book drama clubs in international schools across Barcelona, I’m wrapping up this chapter… the final showcases this past week were bittersweet. So proud of the kids and missing them already! 💔🎭✨ What started as a spark of an idea with Phylly Jones and I nearly four years…

In 2025 I have been doing a monthly series of online drama in education workshops for a client based in Nanjing, China. Each month I introduce a different drama technique and how to apply it for education, and last month we explored the tool Split Stage! 🎭💻 In the photo, you can see the classic…