Teacher Challenge: Taking More Time

When I first began teaching I convinced myself that if the class wasn’t dancing to music, then I wasn’t doing my job. I’m being paid to teach dance after all, right? We. Must. Keep. Moving. Do you ever feel like that?

I look back at some of my school teachers and think about how they used their class time. I recall in 6th grade my English teacher split the class up into groups and had us create songs about linking verbs. I can see that to an outsider this may have seemed like a time waster. Shouldn’t we have memorized our linking verbs at home so the teacher could use class time for endlessly drilling diagramming? Wasn’t this time where the teacher was monitoring group work instead of instructing at the board lost?

No. I can still to this day sing the linking verb song that my group created and as a result my diagramming improved. (Please do not judge my grammar teachers on my grammar today. I promise it was impeccable when I was studying it.) By giving students time and an alternative learning method for learning one small piece of knowledge (linking verbs), she increased our knowledge in a larger concept of the class (diagramming).

It can be tempting to push through barre exercises in ballet class. We. Must. Keep. Moving. But what if we took the time in class to really explore how the hip has to adjust in rond de jambe by pairing students together and have them monitor each other for dropped or doggie-on-the-fire-hydrant hips.  Would that mean there is a time where some dancers are not dancing–yes. But by altering their perspective, making them the ones looking for the corrections, you are engaging them in a new way and it might have a longer lasting impact than one more teacher demonstration or correction.

For the little ones, I am reminded of this post on Maria’s Movers about imagining 1st position arms as a basket. She could have just given the image of the arms as baskets and moved on. But instead she took the time to develop the imagery further, asking the children what was in their baskets and then pretending to pull that object out. This simple exercise in imagination reinforced both the imagery she created as well as the technique of fuller, rounded arms.

So I am challenging myself, and I hope you will join me, to find opportunities to take more time in class and engage students in a new way.

How do you take more time in class? I’d love to hear your ideas!

My Very Long Absence: Part 1

This year has been a year for change, creation, and learning about strengths I didn’t know I have.

January: I moved to a new city (I’m in State College, PA now!).

We live in a Winter Wonderland!

February: I made a return to the stage as a featured dancer in a community theater production of Annie Get Your Gun. I even got to do a little choreography. I forgot how much performing fills my heart.

Can you spot me?

March: I took over some ballet classes at local studio who lost a teacher at the last minute. I was so happy to be back teaching!

April–May: I took on a new challenge–directing and choreographing Annie Jr. at a local middle school. What a rewarding experience. So cool to see young people work so hard and take on responsibility. We had two performances and on our last the little girl playing Mrs. Hannigan was running a high fever so I had to fill in. It felt like an Actor’s Nightmare–being on stage, hoping I know the lines, and towering over the other actors by a foot or more. What a ride!

June: I got to choreography Grease for my local community theater. I adored this experience. It was so much fun creating the dances to the classic songs. I am so incredibly proud of how hard the cast worked on the choreography. “Hand Jive” and “We Go Together” are super sonic fast songs! The funniest part was trying to teach the teen boys how to do a pelvic thrust like Elvis. Not at all close =) haha.

“Shakin’ At The Highschool Hop” =)

July-August: This month brought the inaugural summer of the theatre training program that I helped to create through my community theater–State College Community Theatre Academy. It was incredible to see an idea I had in February come to being just 5 months later. I served as the Academy Director, and was delighted to have my brother on staff this year. SCCT Academy is based off the Springer Theatre Academy in Columbus, GA. It shifts the focus of the theatre training away from creating the next big stars to shaping good citizens with a love of Performing Arts. As a result of this shift in focus, the students focus on working and discovering in class and as a result become better actors, too. We had wonderful response from students and parents and now I’m excited to see this program grow next year.

Me in my Academy T-shirt!

These experiences have been wonderful! But it also means I haven’t blogged…basically all year. I also want to share another experience from my year but I will save it for another post. But I’m back! I will start blogging about activities and ideas I use to teach dance and theater again. I miss it!

I’m so sorry for my absence, dear reader. How have you been this year?

From Page to Play: Not Your Typical Dragon

This week I’m sharing a wonderful book with you called Not Your Typical Dragon a Scholastic Book written by Dan Bar-el and illustrated by Tim Bowers.

In this sweet story a little dragon tries his hardest to breath fire but instead breaths things like bubbles, beach balls, party streamers, and teddy bears. He runs away from home, fearing he has disappointed his family, and becomes unlikely friends with a knight on a quest to slay a fire-breathing dragon. The night tries to help the dragon learn to breath fire but through a series of events becomes fond of the little dragon and the little dragon eventually proves his usefulness to the rest of the dragon community. The little dragon learns that while he might not be a typical dragon he is something special.

How I used it in class:

This was a big project that was integrated into the Love Yourself Month at my studio. You could certainly choose to do only one part of what took on but it was satisfying to see it all together!

Acting:

I used the first half of the book as scenes to be acted out. I assigned parts to the students and they learned lines and blocking. We used props for the different objects the little dragon breathed out: a white scarf for whipped cream, cotton balls for marshmallows, band-aids, and red and orange scarves for the fire the other dragons breath.

I had them all pretend to be the knight when he is introduced in the book. I found a song called Dragon Hunt by Rolie Polie Guacamole that follows the same format as the Bear Hunt song. We came up with some repeated choreography for the chorus part of the song and I encouraged them to use their best acting with performing the tasks in the song like climbing a tree, crossing a stinky pond, and traversing a rickety bridge. I only used about half the song.

Craft/Love Yourself Activity:

I had the idea to make shields the kids could carry when they played the knight. To tie into our Love Yourself theme, we decorated them with “All About Me Coats of Arms.” I cut a shield shape out of foam board and used a marker to draw four quadrants onto each shield. The kids drew in each quadrant: their family, something they loved to do, something they felt they were good at, and what they wanted to be when they grew up. I used strips of sticky backed foam, pealing off the protective layer only on the ends to create the straps on the back of the shield for their arms to go through.

Inspired by the shield, one of the students made me these awesome arm protectors.

Creative Movement/Dance:

For the second half of the book we used creative dance to tell our story. We used this as a chance to explore energy and space. I would narrate and they would dance the objects that the little dragon breathed out. I found music that went along with the objects and we talked about how the different objects would move. For example bubbles (light, sustained, indirect), beach balls (light, quick, direct for bouncing and light, sustained, direct for rolling), and teddy bears (heavy, sustained, indirect).

Of course we concluded our story with a dance party. Because those are the rules =)

This book has such a wonderful message and there are so many creative ways you can explore it!

Have you ever used this book in class? What are other books you love that have the message of self-acceptance?

Dancing With Emotions: Exploring Emotion in the Early Childhood Dance Classroom

Do you use Facial Emotion Flashcards in your classroom? You should! They are really a wonderful tool that can be integrated into many activities that you are already doing or to create new ones.

They help kids in identifying not only their own emotions, but also to identify emotions of those around them. I find most of my students have a firm grasp on happy and sad, but benefit from talking about and exploring feelings like confused, embarrassed, and guilty that can feel like more than one emotion happening at the same time. Its also a great way to get them to think about how emotions effect the rest of their bodies: How does your face look when you are sad? How does your body look when you are sad?

I found two free printables available here, and here so you can make your own. After printing, I took mine to a copy shop and had them turn them into laminated cards. I would recommend making two identical sets.

I’ve also always wanted to make a set using pictures of the students. Wouldn’t that be fun? If I were a perfect preschool Pinterest mom (FYI, I’m am not any kind of mom) I would take pictures of the kids in my child’s class making the different emotions and turn it into a memory game to gift to every kid in the class. Oh the things I accomplish in my imaginary life!  And I’ve gotten way off topic…

Now that you can make your own Facial Emotion Flashcards, I’m going to share a few of the ways I use them in my classroom.

1) During Warm-ups: Have the kids take turns drawing an emotion before each part of your warm-up. You could end up with Scared butterfly stretches, brave straddle stretches, Nervous point and flex feet, or surprised passés!

2) Emotion Jack-the-Box: Either individually or in pairs, assign a card to the player. Have the player hide inside her box by making a small ball shape on the floor. As a group sing, “Jack-In-The-Box, Sits so still. Won’t you come out?”, and then the player responds “Yes, I will!” At that time she can pop out of the box as the emotion she was assigned. Then the class tries to guess which emotion the player is feeling.

3) Emotion Freeze Dance: Spread your emotion cards around the room. Turn on some instrumental music and ask the kids to pick a card and dance with that emotion. When the music stops, they must put down the card they are holding and pick up a new card. When they music turns back on they will begin dancing with the new emotion.

4) Find Your Emotion Partner Dance: This will work with better with older students. With your matching sets of emotion cards, pass out the cards in pairs so that everyone in the room has a partner with the same emotion. It is a secret which card they have. Turn on music and have students dance freely using the emotion they were assigned. When they believe they have found their emotion partner (which shouldn’t require words!) they may begin a partner dance that expresses that emotion. Continue until everyone finds their match.

5) Group Emotion Choreography Project: This would also work best with older students. Give your students a short bit of open choreography. Something like: Walk 4, Jump, Jump, Spin, Hold 2, Gallop 4. Then split them into small groups. Assign each group one emotion card. They will take the open choreography and add more details to it using their emotion. For instance, are the walks tall and proud? Hunched and nervous? Off-balance and sleepy? You may wish to pick music out that would support the emotion they will performing or find some neutral music to use for all the groups. It would even be neat for them to see how adding “moody” music could enhance the emotion they are already putting in by letting them dance to a neutral song and then the paired song. What happens if the song contrasts in emotion to the one they are performing? How does that change the performance?

How have you used Facial Emotional Flash Cards in your classroom? What other ways do you integrate emotions into your dance classroom? 

My New Favorite Day to Day Accessory

What goes with every outfit, helps keep you hydrated, and also says “You may not realize this, but I’m a dance teacher.”?

My new favorite accessory:

Aren’t they cute?! I got them as gifts over Christmas and I don’t leave home without one. I love them so much!!

Interested in getting one of your own? There are lots of cute Etsy shops that can make personalized tumblers for all kinds, not just for dance teachers. A quick search came up with this store and this one but there are plenty out there to choose from. Just search “personalized acrylic tumbler.”

What is one of your favorite teacher gifts? Would you use a tumbler for your water bottle?