I may be a dance specialist, but I’m no step dancer! Nonetheless, it’s been great to see my students working on precision footwork, thanks to Malke Rosenfeld’s Math in Your Feet unit, published last year in the Teaching Artist Journal (one of the sources I count as part of my Professional Learning Community). Through a […]
Entries Tagged as 'Uncategorized'
Math In Your Feet
December 27th, 2011 · 1 Comment · Uncategorized
Tags:curriculum integration·intermediate·lesson plans·management·teaching
Thanks to my Professional Learning Community: you & you & you…
December 21st, 2011 · 3 Comments · Uncategorized
Teaching as a dance specialist in a public school can be an uneasy fit. Dance isn’t your usual content area, with various curricula to choose from and years of practice in the public schools. Even in states where dance educators have a solid foothold (of which mine isn’t one), there aren’t many of us. And […]
Tags:PD·PLC·reflection
John Bohannon, Black Label Movement & big ideas
December 4th, 2011 · 2 Comments · Uncategorized
Wow. This is fabulous. If your pursuit has to do with dance, education, science, learning, humanity, a new world order, WHATEVER, then you’ll enjoy this post from TED: John Bohannon & Black Label Movement. Thanks for passing it along, Maya Soto!
“Meeting performance standards at this time, with steady progress”
November 20th, 2011 · 2 Comments · Uncategorized
It’s been 12 weeks since school started, and the dust is just beginning to settle. The term “ratchet up” came to me this last week, as associated with pressure. Such is the climate in education of late, midst educational reform, standardized testing, furlough days, and cries for teacher accountability. I’m wondering when — if — […]
Dance / Panama
August 25th, 2011 · 2 Comments · Uncategorized
It was a great summer! Among other adventures, we spent three weeks in Panama — and finally saw traditional dances on our last night in Panama City. It reminded me a bit of the dances we saw in Merida, in the Yucatan, several years ago — but quite unique as well, especially in the way […]
Tags:culture·performance
ALT/space: Teaching Artist stories from the field
August 16th, 2011 · 2 Comments · Uncategorized
ALT/space — a lovely new site for ideas & inspiration! ALT/space is a project of the Teaching Artist Journal — an arena for Teaching Artists to share stories of their students, moments of learning, questions and obstacles, reflections, and successes. I’m honored to be part of ALT/space, representing dance education in a public school setting […]
Dance survey — reflect & share!
August 12th, 2011 · Comments Off · Uncategorized
If you’re a teaching artist in theatre or dance, I recommend this survey. Like it says, it takes about 20 minutes, but it’s a great opportunity to reflect on your own work. There’s also the hope that it might support our profession by collating opinions / experiences in order to gain perspective on next steps… […]
Tags:advocacy·reflection
Dancing your own way
July 17th, 2011 · Comments Off · Uncategorized
My 5th graders want to dance their own way, which has as many meanings as I have students. As I work on expanding their interest in all kinds of music & expressing all kinds of ideas their own way, this video should help. I’m filing it here, so I can use it next year to […]
Dance is to report card criteria as…
July 9th, 2011 · 1 Comment · Uncategorized
Colors are to numbers Dreams are to budgets Flow is to schedule… Such are possible analogies to highlight how jarring the idea of grades can be to dance specialists focused on inspiration, creativity & collaboration! My district, Seattle, recently decided to revise the reporting of the arts on the elementary report card. Previously, what’s been […]
Tags:assessment·logistics·standards·teaching·thinking skills
Performance aftermath
June 5th, 2011 · Comments Off · Uncategorized
Today I made it to the exhibit Nick Cave: Meet Me At the Center of the Earth at the Seattle Art Museum — its last day here! I’ve had it on my list to go since before it even arrived, so when I realized today was it, I called a friend, grabbed breakfast & took […]