The silence resounding on this blog since the last entry reflects in reverse the noisy mantra that took over my brain and all spare moments of my life the past few weeks, accelerating toward and recovering from performance. Like the shrill chant of “lions & tigers & bears” in The Wizard of Oz, the details […]
Entries Tagged as 'Uncategorized'
Performance: Kids & costumes & sound, oh my!
June 7th, 2009 · 6 Comments · Uncategorized
Tags:chaos·choreography·curriculum integration·intermediate·logistics·management·obstacles·performance·primary
Performance: Learning x 325
May 12th, 2009 · 2 Comments · Uncategorized
Busy time of year… building toward the final performance. We’ve had small performances throughout the year — one class at a time, showing something at the end of a unit. And we meant to have a performance last December, but it was stormed out. So the excitement is bubbling now. Each day, students ask me, […]
Tags:achievement gap·choreography·curriculum integration·intermediate·logistics·performance·primary·teaching
RIFed! Dance education loses.
April 29th, 2009 · 2 Comments · Uncategorized
I thought we were struggling to gain ground, but no, we’re slipping. Dance in the public schools can ill afford to lose positions, and yet we are. Yesterday a colleague — a fellow member of the DEAW Board and an award-winning teacher– received the shock of a RIF notice (reduction in force) upon arriving at […]
Poetry Out Loud: in American Sign Language
April 27th, 2009 · Comments Off · Uncategorized
At the recent Poetry Out Loud National Recitation Contest in Washington D.C. (April 26-28), Tiffany Hinano Hill, a student at Oregon School for the Deaf, represented Oregon State. As the first contestant to use sign language to express a poem, Hill challenged the judges’ concept of Poetry Out Loud, clearly demonstrating the expressive power and […]
Tags:culture·diversity·performance
Sunday in Merida
April 18th, 2009 · 3 Comments · Uncategorized
Saturday‘s sort of like every other day in Merida, in the Yucatan in Mexico… there’s dance that happens. But Sunday’s the real thing. By 10:00 am in Santa Lucia Park, people are beginning to gather and claim their seats in the audience, most dressed in their Sunday best. The band sets up and starts to […]
Classroom management: space vs. energy
April 16th, 2009 · Comments Off · Uncategorized
Spring break may still be on my mind, but it ends quickly. Immediately following spring break, we start choreographing dances for the End-of-Year Performance. The assessments I did before spring break fulfill State requirements and provide data for evaluation of my own performance. But the End-of-Year Performance is for parents, the staff, and especially the […]
Tags:behavior·chaos·choreography·curriculum integration·getting started·management·obstacles·performance·primary·students·teaching
Merida: Saturday night on Paseo de Montejo
April 12th, 2009 · 3 Comments · Uncategorized
We arrived in Merida by bus on a Saturday, in plenty of time for wandering from our hotel down to the end of Paseo de Montejo, where the music and dancing are scheduled to start at 8. Time is proximate in Mexico, so the performances didn’t start quite on cue, but the stage was up […]
Tags:culture
Domingo en Merida
March 25th, 2009 · 1 Comment · Uncategorized
Look for me in Merida in the Yucatan on Sunday. Frommers says, “Each Sunday there’s a fair called Merida en Domingo. The main plaza and a section of Calle 60 from El Centro to Parque Santa Lucia close to traffic. Parents come with their children to stroll around and take in the scene. At 11am […]
Gathering fresh ideas
March 24th, 2009 · Comments Off · Uncategorized
The ArtsTime Conference usurped all of last weekend, but it was worth it. I need all the new ideas I can get, cause I get tired of talking to myself! I’m in at least my 12th year of teaching kindergarten through 5th graders, five days a week, 8-9 months per year. Figuring conservatively, at 6 […]
Assessing dance while unleashing creative chaos
March 16th, 2009 · 1 Comment · Uncategorized
Anyone happening into my classroom this week might think, or yell, “What’s going on here?!” Get the creative juices bubbling in 28 children, and you’re gonna have some moments of chaos… Students in intermediate classes just now are completing Classroom-Based Assessments in Theatre & Dance, which call for the choreography of solos. As quiet and […]