Imagine a perfect schedule for teaching. I have one. Every student in the school takes dance, kindergarten through 5th grade (except one, but that’s another story). I get to know them as they grow, and they accept dance (and me), almost like air. When new students come in, as they always do, they’re swept along […]
Entries Tagged as 'Uncategorized'
Time: another essential ingredient
October 21st, 2008 · Comments Off · Uncategorized
Tags:chaos·curriculum·schedule·teaching·time
Congratulations, Mary Easter!
October 19th, 2008 · Comments Off · Uncategorized
“The liberal arts virtues of problem solving and intellectual discipline and self-reflection and critical deliberation are rarely better tested or better witnessed than they are in dance.” — Robert A. Oden, Jr., President, Carleton College When I graduated from Carleton College, a student could major in music or visual art, but not dance. Dance was […]
Tags:Choreogram·Margret Dietz·Mary Easter·Mary Wigman·PE·teaching·thinking
Space — an invitation to dance
October 11th, 2008 · 1 Comment · Uncategorized
A wide expanse. A clear, clean wooden floor. Sunlight from four high windows. The space invites movement. Kids rush in, sliding and cartwheeling. When it’s time to dance, they explode in all directions, running, dodging, leaping, careening almost out of control but mostly not. A few pick their way carefully through the channels of space […]
Space — getting along without it
September 28th, 2008 · Comments Off · Uncategorized
Dance requires space. Paradoxically, in order to make dance happen at all, dance educators spend a lot of energy trying to convincing people that it can happen in almost no space. And that’s somewhat true… When I taught 6th grade, my students danced between desks and leapt down the hallway between classrooms. On Friday afternoons, […]
Tags:anthills·outcomes·portable·problems·space·standards·teaching
First week of school: managing dancers
September 7th, 2008 · Comments Off · Uncategorized
Whew! and this was only a three-day week. We started Wednesday, and by Friday, we’d covered enough logistics (fire drills, emergency drills, shoe drills, bandaid, bathroom, and tissue drills) to dance! What a relief. 5th graders — “The Hustle” went over big, providing a quick application for concepts — self and general space and direction […]
Tags:getting started·kindergarten·logistics·students·The Hustle
Heart o’ gold
August 24th, 2008 · 1 Comment · Uncategorized
I’m going to miss Jamal! He graduated, and he won’t be back this year. He was on my mind as I drove to school the other day to get ready. When he arrived in my class two years ago, he was in 4th grade and surly. New school, new classmates, new teacher… and dance?!? His […]
Blue eyes, brown eyes
August 19th, 2008 · Comments Off · Uncategorized
Yesterday was the first day back. Not students, but professional development. Professional development has become problematic for me. As a dance educator, it’s rarely for me. If kernels of wisdom and ideas for new approaches were fish, then I drag my net through a lot of water in order to catch a few I can […]