Teachers’ Resources

Last Updated: 18/02/2026

This page is intended to summarise critical information required by teachers each term and provide links to other resources they might find helpful. It is not a replacement for any Letter of Agreement which states the contractual obligations to Only The Human for a given term.

Teaching Term Paid Commitments

While most courses require only a single teacher, the Rediscover Play course is facilitated by two teachers. The allocation of a second teacher to Rediscover Play will prioritise places to new teachers training with Only The Human. Where a training position is unfilled, one of our regular teachers will be allocated as per provided teaching availabilities.

The teaching term requires commitments as follows:

  1. Facilitation of the Free Improv Taster classes run approx. 7-10 days prior to the beginning of the term proper (shared among all available teachers).

  2. Teaching a structured, outcome-focussed course over eight consecutive weeks (Tue or Thu evenings, 6:00-8:00pm) and any required administrative tasks (inclusive of, but not limited to) managing venue accessibility, student attendance, and providing ongoing feedback to students in support of course outcomes.

  3. Producing/MCing the end of term Student Showcase performance for your courses cohort.

Invoicing & Reimbursement

As contractors, teachers are required to provide an invoice for their services at the conclusion of their teaching term. An invoice template is available here should it be required. Teachers are asked to itemise activities as per this Payment Schedule (as at 18/02/2026). Payment of invoices will be made by OTH within 30 days of receipt. Payment should be requested from:

Aden Date
T/A Only The Human
aden@onlythehuman.com
0423 835 226

Out-of-Class Administrative Duties

Lead teachers can expect to be remunerated for their administrative duties, outside of class time, each term (see Payment Schedule). This includes:

  • Participating in debriefing conversations during and following the teaching term, in the interests of continuous improvement.

  • Reading and replying to occasional emails and texts from OTH staff, including coaching feedback and class instructions.

  • Disseminating information from OTH to students in class, as required. We will provide assistance in this with documentation and reminders.

  • Facilitating the completion of end-of-term student feedback surveys during the final class of the teaching term.

  • Providing individualised recommendations to students in support of their improv skills progression.

Note that course preparation is included in the per-class fee, not the administrative fee. For new courses or workshops, we may occasionally offer an additional amount for curriculum design.

Teachers are not expected to befriend students or engage them outside of classes as part of their role. We encourage boundaries be set that allow the separatation of the role of teacher from that of a community member.

Applied Improvisation

In 2025, we began a shift to an Applied Improv approach. Put simply, this means three things:

  • Remembering that most of our students come to us seeking changes in their lives outside the theatre and designing our courses and classes to help them make those changes.

  • Clearly framing the purpose of each day and, where relevant, each exercise.

  • Providing an opportunity for debriefs after exercises that connect the exercise to that purpose.

This is particularly important for the Rediscover Play and Make a Scene courses. More on why we made these changes is available here.

Support Teaching and Teacher Training [Updated Feb 2026]

Rediscover Play is facilitated by two teachers. Partly to provide students with more focused attention in order to embed fundamental skills and develop good improv ‘habits’, and partly as a facility to provide training to new teachers being contracted by OTH. Priority allocation of a second teacher will be given to trainees over established, contracted teachers.

Generally speaking, a Support Teacher should follow the lead of the main teacher, and may be asked to run exercises or cover modules from time-to-time—for example, to run the back-half of a class or introduce new warm-ups (the broad theme and design should be run by the Lead Teacher). The Support Teacher is not expected to engage in any significant out-of-class duties, and are not offered reimbursements for adminstrative duties (see Out-of-Class Administrative Duties above).

Support Teachers are considered of equal standing to the main teacher, and we highly encourage courses with two teachers to cross-pollinate and share ideas within the class as well as to learn through modelling.

Challenging Students and Pastoral Care

Teachers are not mental health professionals and aren’t expected to provide individualised support for students. We ask that you text a student in the event they miss a class without notifying you of their absence; but, there is no expectation to provide any additional support beyond that.

If you feel a student is experiencing difficulties that significantly impact their participation, result in their not upholding our core behaviours (Be Playful, Support Growth, Respect Boundaries), or violate our Anti-Discrimination and Harassment Policy, please involve Aden as early as possible.

Recommendations and the Student Showcase

At the end of each term, we will ask you to provide individualised recommendations for student progression to the students. We provide recommendations for future courses rather than evaluations (or graduation status) because we are not experts in the students’ experience. We establish that students need to use discernment in judging whether or not they are ready to proceed.

It’s important that teachers normalise repetition of courses and establishing fundamental skills before moving on. Teachers should normalise this as early as Week 2. We want students to feel there is value in repetition and mastery rather than just pursuing more advanced courses, and we want to manage expectations around linear progression.

To support teachers making recommendations we have criteria as to what teachers should look for here (for Rediscover Play) and here (for Make a Scene).

Students should only be prevented from taking a more advanced course if their participation is likely to put their needs for safety, belonging, and dignity at risk or be significantly disruptive to the teacher and other students.

All students of a course may participate in the showcase performance at the discretion of the course teacher. Students should generally have attended at least six of eight classes in order to perform in the showcase, but teachers are free to make exceptions to this at their discretion, using similar criteria regarding safety, belonging, dignity, and disruption.

Course Design and Curriculum [Updated Feb 2026]

The Rediscover Play and Make a Scene curricula are intended to support teachers in designing individual classes. More experienced teachers are welcome to adapt the specified learning outcomes, themes, and skills developments to suit their teaching style. Less experienced teachers are encouraged to make use of the sample lesson plans provided.

Throughout 2026, OTH plans to provide a standard suite of advanced courses based heavily on course designs provided by our more long-serving teachers. The intended course suite consists of: ‘Character’, ‘Pace & Space’, ‘Pattern & Game’, ‘Scenius’, and ‘Self to Stage’. Codified curricula will be available for all courses included in the suite as time permits (generally shortly prior to the term in which the course is being offered).

Note that these courses will only be included with the consent of the teachers involved in their development. If you have any concerns about the way a course is being utilised, please get in touch with Aden or Don.

Teachers Taking OTH Courses [Updated Feb 2026]

OTH endeavours to keep the quality of its courses and teachers at a very high level and teachers of OTH courses are strongly encouraged to refresh their own skills from time to time. To help facilitate that, OTH offers a 50% discount on any of our term-courses or workshops to anyone actively providing regular or recent teaching services.

‘Active’ teachers (see note below) are welcome to use the discount code FACULTY to apply the 50% discount at the checkout. There is no limit on the number of courses or workshops to which the discount may be applied, though it is limited to one use per person, per course, and non-transferrable.

NOTE: Teachers are considered ‘active’ when they have taught a term-course with OTH in at least one of the last four terms, or are contracted to teach a term-course in the next upcoming term.

Helpful Documents

  • The OTH Courses in 2025/2026 provides more detail on all the above principles and includes our two main curriculums.

  • The Conditions of Participation outlines the main expectations for students.

  • The Facilitation Guide provides some handy frameworks for how to think about teaching, coaching, and promoting safety.

  • The Teaching Pyramid is our approach to coaching teachers.

  • The Basic Scene, developed by Jay, helped inform our updated approach to developing fundamental improv skills in new students.

  • Contractor Payment Schedule (coming soon) for invoicing.