Third graders are learning dances about clapping for their end-of-year performance now. Their first dance is d’hammerschmiedsgselln (that’s duh-ham-mair-shmeets-guh-seln, I’m told), which has a great clapping pattern for a quartet. I dragged them through learning it last week, and now that they finally have it, they love it. The second is the Virginia Reel, which […]
Entries Tagged as 'students'
Why Dance Matters: it’s a respite for body & mind
April 21st, 2010 · Comments Off · why dance matters
Why Dance Matters: it’s fun!
April 21st, 2010 · 8 Comments · why dance matters
Ely arrived mid-year, straight from the bilingual orientation center, which meant he was barely beginning to understand English. He agreed to step inside the dance classroom on two conditions: his shoes & socks would stay on his feet & he would watch from 6″ inside the door. The intervention specialist stayed with him, in case […]
Why Dance Matters: it’s for yourself alone
April 19th, 2010 · 2 Comments · why dance matters
When Rosedah and Rita started dancing in kindergarten, in their hijab, they were both lively & enthusiastic. But as time passed, they internalized the disapproval of their particular community, a fundamentalist faith which discourages music, dancing & the artistic representation of the human form. They always participated, but in a reserved way — gestural instead […]
Why Dance Matters: it nurtures our better selves
April 18th, 2010 · 4 Comments · why dance matters
David was another reluctant dancer. A fifth grader, new to the school, he was pretty hostile to both teachers and students. A loner, he swore, picked fights, and lashed out at whoever was nearby. David blossomed late in the year as a dancer — inside a full-length stretchy bag. From the safe anonymity of the […]
Why Dance Matters: it’s contagious — in a good way
April 17th, 2010 · Comments Off · why dance matters
Fifth graders at my school, who have danced since kindergarten, generally accept dance — like recess or PE or math — or the air they breathe. But when transfer students make their first trip to the dance classroom, they often look like they’ve landed on Mars without oxygen. Geo was one such 5th grader, clearly […]
Why Dance Matters: it transforms
April 15th, 2010 · 6 Comments · Uncategorized
Join the discussion about Why Dance Matters here & here. Here’s one of my thoughts… & I have almost as many more such thoughts, as I’ve had students! When Tiffany arrived in my class as a 5th grader, she often refused to take her place in class, or even take off her coat. Standing against […]
An anecdote
September 2nd, 2009 · 2 Comments · Uncategorized
Last week while learning the particulars of Writers Workshop, I had to write a “personal narrative” in order to work through the process. Personal narratives — stories of small & true moments — are foundational in the Writers Workshop method. Since the one I developed came straight from my life as a dance educator, here […]
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
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 […]
Tags:getting started·intermediate·management·primary·students·teaching
The dance cliché — tiresome? or useful?
January 29th, 2009 · 1 Comment · Uncategorized
It depends upon who’s using it. This dance is a cliché, with verbal descriptions and video examples, tickled my brain. Clearly, dance clichés aren’t any choreographer’s goal — confirmed by the number of videos in the discussion which have been disabled (presumably because it’s not a forum in which anyone would want to find their […]