This Thursday I taught again in Mrs. Rossiter's class. We are able to have the gym for most of the time I am there so the plan is that we will do a 5 minute warm up and introduction of the lesson concepts in the class room, then quickly move down to the gym and dance, then return to the classroom for the last five minutes to cool down and analyze what we learned. Mrs. Rossiter's students are eager to learn and participate in dance class. The lesson this time was about sharing and cooperating while exploring self space and general space. The image of a bubble around their bodies for self space was effective and it actually helped them when Mrs. Rossiter asked them to line up to go down to the gym and to stay within their own bubble even though they were close to each other. This concept of self space is crucial for these young students to understand and dance is a great way to learn it. As Mrs. Rossiter continues to suggest that I work with the students on learning how to control their bodies, I am beginning to see this as a very important skill for them to develop that will be helpful all throughout their life.

I felt like this lesson had a bit too much going on and as I have observed some master teaches I am realizing that it is okay to slow down and go more into depth with fewer concepts. Also, I think that I give the students too much to process when we create and perform because it seems like they can't quite remember what they are supposed to do. I also want to work on really seeing the students and giving meaningful feedback. It is hard when I want to keep the class moving, but feedback is essential.

A difficult thing with this class is getting the students into partnerships quickly and not having the same people left out each time. I need to work on a more effective way to do that.

New Class

The last few weeks have been a little crazy because I got assigned to a different class for Arts Bridge. I am now working with 2nd graders at Spring Creek. Last Thursday I taught them for the first time. Their creativity and energy was inspiring and made for an excellent class. The lesson was about the 5 basic locomotor steps: walk, run, leap, hop, and jump. They did well exploring as a whole class, but I think some were intimidated when it came time to go across the floor in groups of 2 exploring different ways to do the locomotor steps. Next time when I do this activity I think I need to build up to it in a better way. It also took a lot of time to get them across the floor 2 at a time. I worked with them on sequencing the steps into phrases such as 5 walks, 2 hops, 1 leap, 3 jumps, and 4 runs. For the create/perform part of the lesson they worked with a partner to create a dance using a beginning shape, followed by a locomotor sequence, and ending with a shape. Their dances were simple and some were very similar to others, but I was impressed by some of the creative things that came out.

From my experience today I think it will be important to build on the things I taught them this time so that they can revisit and refine their skills. My cooperating teacher Mrs. Rossiter made the observation that they need to learn more about how to control their bodies in relationship to other people. I think this will be a good lesson to teach next.