management

Entries Tagged as 'management'

Math In Your Feet

December 27th, 2011 · 1 Comment · Uncategorized

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 […]

“Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah…”

January 10th, 2011 · 5 Comments · Uncategorized

Have you ever been giving instructions in class & suddenly had a flash of what the kids are actually hearing? Maybe it’s more so for me because 60% of my kids speak English as a second language, so for them it really is “blah, blah, blah…” I remember that experience from my years in Japan. […]

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Tags:goals·management·playfulness

Whispers barely heard in the current cacophony on education

November 14th, 2010 · 4 Comments · Uncategorized

Yipes. I’ve had too much on my plate of late to blog. But this is still a place to capture & share thoughts for later.. Play is a central condition for learning. There are & have always been teachers who know that play is central to learning. When I have time, perhaps I’ll elaborate on […]

Dancing metaphorically…

January 27th, 2010 · 1 Comment · Uncategorized

Here’s a lovely reflection by a teacher about dancing metaphorically in the classroom.

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Tags:management·teaching

A single clear teaching point

January 10th, 2010 · 5 Comments · Uncategorized

With my classes cut to 30 minutes this year, it’s been more important than ever to define a single clear teaching point for each class, so I’ve taken to writing on the board the kernel of learning I want the kids to grasp. I start with it, I teach to it, & I end with […]

Lesson Plan: Setting parameters to get started

October 13th, 2009 · 3 Comments · Lesson Plans

Grades: 1st-5th grades Teaching points: The dance classroom has standards: Make good decisions. Show respect. Solve problems. [These are school-wide standards.] Targets: Understand & practice the nitty gritty: standards, routines & procedures for dance class; Get moving! Context: Just now it’s no longer the first week of school, but the first week of school comes […]

New year, new challenge: learning about autism

September 17th, 2009 · 6 Comments · Autism, Uncategorized

Perhaps related to economic pressures, our student numbers jumped from 320 to 380 this September. Sixteen of our new students belong to two self-contained classrooms & are diagnosed as severely impacted by Autism Spectrum Disorders. I’m learning quickly & first-hand what that means, since I provide 30 minutes of instruction for 8 of the children […]

Performance: Kids & costumes & sound, oh my!

June 7th, 2009 · 6 Comments · Uncategorized

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 […]

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 […]

Mid-year: What have we learned, and where do we go from here?

March 8th, 2009 · 2 Comments · Uncategorized

From September through December, we danced. January was music and percussion month. This last Friday, we finished a month of theatre (2 sessions of 2 weeks each). Having played with, discussed, mastered?, explored, and pursued theatre vocabulary and skills, we’ll return to dancing tomorrow. First & second graders have now developed skills of observation, sensory […]

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