Hey, new K-12 teacher! When you teach dance, there is a good chance that your administrators and even your instructional coaches will not understand your specialized language. They are likely to recognize markers of high-quality instruction, so keep this in mind when you’re trying to impress them. It’s likely these folks will be evaluating your…
(This entry was originally a social media post on my personal page.) One of my biggest joys this year has been teaching kids again. I’ve been teaching beginning contemporary for 10-12 year olds regularly, but yesterday I was asked to sub hip-hop for 6-8-year-olds with only about an hour to prepare. I said yes. I…
Practice is the means of inviting the perfection desired. — Martha Graham In secondary dance programs, it can be difficult to create space for everything we want to address in our curriculum. Finding adequate time to develop critical dance competencies is challenge number one, especially when the typical class format is under an hour. Tasked…
You may be wondering… Now that I’ve landed this fabulous dance teaching position, what are the expectations regarding what I teach? Must I align each lesson plan with the dance education standards from my state? Will the standards benefit my students? Will they benefit me? Educational standards benefit the dance educator in at least three…
Welcome to the new school year! Your classroom is beautifully arranged. You have plans set for the entire first quarter. On the first day, everyone in your Beginning Dance class is well-behaved. Your first week with new students is quite calm, then things start to show signs of changing. If you give ’em an inch, they’ll take a mile. Turn your…
Tap Dance and Reading Fluency Lesson Plan for Grades 6-12 Objectives Students will compare the rhythms in conversational speech to the rhythms in tap dance. They will also relate reading fluency to movement fluency. Arizona Dance Standards Strand 1: Create Concept 3: Elements of Dance Identify, demonstrate, and analyze the elements of dance (time, space,…
Dance Composition – Backwards Lesson Plan for grades 6-12 Beginning and Intermediate Dance Learning Objectives: In the language domains of listening and speaking, students will be able to communicate effectively with team members and make fair spoken contributions to the team’s creative tasks. In the language domain of reading, students will be able to utilize…