Apparently I've decided to become blogger who only posts once a month! Ha. Okay, I've been pretty busy...how's planning 4 classes of dance for little kids sound? Yeah, I thought so. Since July, when I voluntarily agreed to this provocation, I would completely lock down in a weird, panicky type of crabby nervousness that I had never experienced before whenever anyone mentioned that I was teaching a dance class. I would ask myself, "Why did I ever think that was a good idea?", and my family would get mad at me because I was so not pleasant. I knew I was being ridiculous, and I tried to be cheerful. However, I did not succeed in this endeavor until I actually got myself to sit down and plan my attack.
My mom made me (wow thats a lot of m's :) buy a few dance cd's - Al Gilbert tap was a great thing. I don't have to choreograph much tap for a while; He's awesome! - and then I got 3 ballet cd's. I love the two called "Memories From My Childhood". It's all these songs played only on the piano, and I've known these songs forever! There's "If You're Happy and You Know It" and "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" and "O My Darling Clementine" and "My Bonnie Lies Over The Ocean" and Oh so many others! I had forgotten all about these songs! It makes me happy. (I'm not sure the little girls really know any of these songs - at least not well enough to recognize them from a piano arrangement whilst they attempt to point their toes...)
So that gave me some really good materials to work with, since the music is one of my hardest perplexities. Oh, and I have been looking at this one ballet video that I danced to every day when I was like...7 or 8. Awesome stuff!
So then I came up with a lesson plan. For some reason I was all like "what if the kids don't like it?", which really puts a damper on creativity. I think I'll be better about that now that I've actually taught the class... I teach the same stuff to two different groups of kids in 2 towns, so I got to try it out on the first town on Monday. I made some tweaks between then and the next class, which was today. I must say I think today went a lot better, although I had thought Monday went really well, also. I guess that means there's still a lot of space for improvement no matter how good we get!
So, here's a recap of some random thoughts of mine during these classes:
Monday: K-1 -
"Aaah! There are children coming in! Run!".
"Interesting outfit choice..." (lots of random dance clothes)
"What, there's a little boy?" (was not expecting that..brave child.)
"Of course I'll help you tie your shoe...no, don't pull on the knot!"
"1st graders are really exasperating." (especially a team of 3)
(after they leave) "Whew. I am glad that's over. Oh-3 more classes today. Yay! (not)"
2-4 -
"I'm pretty sure these kids know their right and left foot already".
"Hmmm. These kids are kinda fun"
"I'm so proud! They LOVE my combination!" (it totally made my day - when asked if they wanted to do the little combo again, there was a really loud 'YES'! I'm taking that as a big "we love your dance class, Grace". ;) )
Preschool -
"Oh, they're so cute and little!" (there were only 4 of them)
"This might be my favorite class"
"5-7 - "Um, only one showed up. Awkward."
"I feel bad for this girl..I don't know if she's even having fun!"
"YAY WE MADE IT THROUGH THE FIRST DAY OF CLASSES!!!"
So, today I went to my 2nd town for my 2nd try at teaching. I had made a few alterations to my plan, and was ready to knock 'em dead. Figuratively speaking, of course. ;)
*walking in* "okay, there's no wall or anything to use for a barre...everything is now center floor!"
*kids start coming in..there's still 20 minutes before class starts. Oh, sure. Everyone loves screaming 6-year-olds playing freeze-tag.
*Um, wait. The parents are sitting down inside and planning to watch the class? We're gonna have to think about this arrangement.
*Those blue gym floors are weird to dance on - almost sticky...ew.
*Okay, 20 kids is a big class!
*Honey, you can still dance even though your dance clothes aren't here yet - oh, wait. This isn't a crying matter! Is it? Oh. I guess it is.
*Oh, great. Another class of 19! (actually, bigger classes are more fun..)
*10 preschoolers, eh? Okay...but seriously, every mother sitting in?
*I.do.not.like.5th.graders..nuff.said. (nothing personal)
*WE DID IT AGAIN!!! SUCCESS!!!
Anyway...there's my very long post about my dance teaching experience. Of course, I still have 7 months to go, but I think half the journey was in this first week. Now I am starting to believe that yes, I actually can do this.
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