OK, so today has been my days for multiple appointments: doctors, dentist, Apple one-to-one, exercise, lecture. And in between, in the fractional hours when it’s easier to stop at a cafe than to drive home, I’ve been collecting my thoughts… Next week I’ll start my 7th month of teaching dance to 16 students with autism, […]
Entries Tagged as 'Uncategorized'
Dancing – and constantly growing — with autism
March 31st, 2010 · 10 Comments · Autism, Uncategorized
Preparation…
March 31st, 2010 · 3 Comments · Uncategorized
Next Monday, the day after spring vacation, we’ll start choreographing & rehearsing pieces for the End-of-Year Performance. So by then, I’ll need a pretty good idea of what everyone’s going to do! The kids rehearse in two-class groups (~50 kids onstage) because attendance at the evening performance for parents is variable (parents have second jobs […]
Tags:performance
The uncomfortable truths of assessment
March 30th, 2010 · Comments Off · Uncategorized
Assessment time again. Just finished scoring the dance assessments required for 5th graders in Washington State, and it’s not all good news: 6 out of 44 students didn’t choreograph locomotor (traveling) movements into their dance, despite the instructions. Did they not understand, or were they cowed by being videotaped? 21 out of 44 students (!) […]
Tags:assessment
Recuperation…
March 29th, 2010 · 2 Comments · Uncategorized
to recover from exhaustion. Ah, spring vacation. Many plans, but a week to recover myself!
Tags:
Tap Dance in the public schools
March 7th, 2010 · Comments Off · Uncategorized
… is hard to do. No tap dance shoes. Even if I did have shoes for the kids, no way am I going to let the floor get scuffed up. Nonetheless, we just finished some tap dancing, and it was successful, thanks to the instructional DVD Rhythm Kidz — Tap Dance in Tennis Shoes with […]
Thoughts on sick leave…
February 28th, 2010 · Comments Off · Uncategorized
It’s a good thing to have it! In all my years as a private dance educator, contracting to teach dance in preschools, I never had it, so I usually worked through the bad days… no work, no pay. In 7 years, the days I canceled were rare to none. It’s great to have a day […]
Tags:obstacles
Mark likes dance…
February 7th, 2010 · 2 Comments · Autism, Uncategorized
…which is not readily apparent when he’s in dance class. Mark is a kindergartener with autism, in a class of eight non-verbal 5- and 6-year-olds who are also not very responsive to visual cues yet. He rarely follows my lead in dance. When coaxed one-on-one by an instructional assistant, he’ll occasionally try a facsimile of […]
Tags:autism
Dancing metaphorically…
January 27th, 2010 · 1 Comment · Uncategorized
Here’s a lovely reflection by a teacher about dancing metaphorically in the classroom.
Tags:management·teaching
In winter, the kids are sunshine…
January 25th, 2010 · 4 Comments · Uncategorized
Among 185 kids per day, there’s a lot of sunlight. There’s… Yusuf, 4th grade. When his teacher was teaching the class a song and having them do it as a round, he said, “This is just like the canon we did in dance!” Anisah, 5th grade. She was with us from kindergarten through 3rd grade, […]
Teaching Portfolios
January 13th, 2010 · 3 Comments · Uncategorized
Well, this is interesting! …the why’s, how’s, and where-to’s of making a teaching portfolio from Chicago Artists Resource, via 4dancers — which is also a good resource for useful items of import. So I’m going to stash this information right here on my blog where I can find it again, just in case I ever […]