Teacher Sessions
Teacher Sessions are time periods allotted to teachers based on the number of students who participated from their school in the previous year.
CTU requests teachers to do the following within their respective Teacher Sessions:
- Maximize the quality of the overall performance in line with your session’s theme — if applicable
- Identify the students (preferably groups) who will perform in your session
- Distribute the allotted time across the selected students as you deem fit
- Ensure that the given Teacher Session is completed within the allotted time
Note:
- Teachers must be physically present on stage with their students during their respective Teacher Sessions.
- A Teacher Session may only include performances by students of the given Teacher. This may include performances by members of the teacher’s family. However, please note that when determining the number of students per teacher to allocate time, CTU does not include members of the teacher’s family learning from the teacher.
- All Teacher Sessions will be scheduled on Saturday, the first day of the Utsavam.
- CTU will enforce the time limit for the overall duration of the Teacher Session.
- CTU will not enforce the time limit for the duration of the performances within a Teacher Session.
- Students who do not get a chance to perform within the allotted time for a Teacher Session may get an opportunity to perform later subject to the availability of time after all the scheduled Teacher Sessions, Group and Individual Performances have been accommodated.
- When allocating times for Teacher Sessions in future years, CTU will factor in the actual number of students from a Teacher’s school who performed in the respective Teacher Session this year.
Students who cannot be accommodated within the Teacher Sessions at the time of registration may consider working with their teachers to register themselves as Individual Performances.
Teacher Sessions may be conducted by Local Teachers or External Teachers.
Local Teacher Sessions
Local Teacher Sessions are Teacher Sessions conducted by a Local Teacher. All the guidelines provided for Teacher Sessions apply to the Local Teacher Sessions as well.
A Local Teacher is a teacher who is a permanent resident of the Chicago metropolitan and suburban area.
Time Allocation
- Teachers who had four or less students perform as part of their Teacher Session in the previous year will be allotted the same time as Individual Performances — four minutes. This is the time allotted to the whole Teacher Session. The total time for this Teacher Session cannot exceed four minutes.
- Teachers with five or more performing students in the previous year have already been informed about their respective time periods.
- When determining the number of students per teacher, CTU does not include members of the teacher’s family learning from the teacher.
- New teachers will be informed about their respective time slots after all their registrations have been received.
External Teacher Sessions
External Teacher Sessions are Teacher Sessions conducted by an External Teacher. All the guidelines provided for Teacher Sessions apply to the External Teacher Sessions as well.
An External Teacher is a teacher who is not a resident of the Chicago Metropolitan and Suburban area.
External Teacher Sessions (like the Local Teacher Sessions) will be scheduled on the first day of the Utsavam.
In order to be allocated time for their sessions during the Utsavam, External Teachers must ensure that:
- They bring 5 or more students (not including members of their family)
- They make a commitment to participate in the Homage to Tyagaraja sessions by making the payment required for themselves and their students to attend the first day of the festival by Apr 30.
- CTU will determine the time allocated to External Teachers on a case-by-case basis depending on the following:
- Number of committed students who are part of the External Teacher’s session
- The remaining time available after scheduling the Local Teacher Sessions, group sessions and individual sessions
- CTU will do its best to make arrangements to host the External Teachers and their respective students’ families once they have made the commitment to attend the first day of the festival by Apr 30.
- Please note that CTU can only accommodate a limited number of External Teacher Sessions this year.
Out-of-state participants who are not part of an external teacher’s session may perform as part of the Group or Individual performances. Please note that CTU may not be able to accommodate all Individual Performances on the first day of the festival.
Questions: Please review the responses to Frequently Asked Questions before sending an e-mail to ctu {dot} info {at} ChicagoTyagarajaUtsavam {dot} org.