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.

Body Parts

This week I taught my 1st graders about body parts using the format and methods of Anne Green Gilbert. I gave an introduction asking the students what painters use to create their art, what writers use to create their work, and what musicians use to create their music. Then I connected it to what dancers use--their bodies! The students actually had a difficult time coming up with this connection. They responded with things like dancing and movement, but it took some additional hinting from me for one boy to finally say body.

The students were very unfocused today and it was hard to keep them all together. The room is not set up in a very good way for dance class because there is an open area in the front and one in the back but it is hard to use both without having the students going crazy all over the place.

During the exploration portion of the lesson the students did a great job with the "Add-a-Part" activity. For example, I had them begin by poking their arm and then had wiggling hips.

I think the best part of the lesson, which was the part where the students were most focused and most of them were participating, was our developing skills part. I had them all in a line behind me and we were practicing locomotor skills while accenting special body parts. For example, we would jump and make an accent with our elbows. As I gave them additional instructions I continued to lead them walking around the room and I think that was helpful in keeping them engaged.

Connecting body parts with partners and moving together did not work well for this class. I think it would have helped for me to model it while explaining before I let them try it. Also, even though we did shadowing last week, it was not very good this week. It seems hard for them to decide what to do as the leader and hard to understand how to be a shadow. I think that we might need to do some more practice mirroring with me as the leader and the whole class as followers for them to really understand how to lead and follow.

I learned a lesson myself by making a mistake today. I was trying so hard to remember names but there was this one girl who kept choosing not to participate. At the end of class when students were leaving for the day I asked her to remind me of her name. She told me and I said I would be sure to remember it for next time. Then without really thinking I said thanks for working hard today. As soon as I said it I knew it was the wrong thing because it wasn't true. She had not worked hard and she knew it. She responded by saying "I didn't do anything" and walked away. I need to be clearer about knowing explicitly what my expectations are, letting the students know, and motivating the students to meet these expectations. I don't want the students to think that doing nothing will still get them the praise that others get for actually working hard. I think it came out because I had said it to another student earlier who really did work hard, but I can't let things like that happen again. I need to be truthful.

Overall, I think this class needs more structured exploration and clearer instructions from me. I need to constantly remind myself to worry more about teaching the students than teaching dance.

Introduction to B.E.S.T

I taught again in Mrs. Marvel's class this week. First, we reviewed the brain dance as a warm up and the students remembered it quite well. They were enthusiastic and focused. Next, I introduced the students to the elements of dance which are Body, Energy, Space, and Time. We only spent a few minutes on each element to give them a brief idea of what each was about, but I plan to go into depth on each element in future lessons. Under the category of body we talked about different body parts and explored isolating them. With Energy we explored the difference between Sustained and Percussive. To introduce them to Space concepts we explored personal space, general space, and the amount of space we can take up. For an introduction to Time we explored walking and clapping simple rhythms and played with speed. I think this introduction was a bit quick for them to retain it all, but it worked for giving them a taste of what is to come.

I wanted the students to have some knowledge of the elements of dance in order for them to be able to do the mirroring and shadowing activities later in the lesson. Mrs. Marvel informed me that they were learning about shadows this week so I thought it would be great to reinforce this with shadowing in dance. The mirroring activity was supposed to be a good preparation for shadowing. The transition between mirroring and shadowing didn't work as well as I thought it would but I think that was mostly because of my instructions being somewhat unclear. Although we didn't get to explore shadowing as much as I would have liked, we got a good start. Some of the students were very, but some were a bit inhibited. I found it helpful to use the terms that we had just discussed in the introduction to the elements of dance to give the students ideas of how to move when they were the leader. I think for the level they are at, which is very little dance experience, they are doing well. It was hard to get the students to really sustain their movement so that their partner could follow. Walking while shadowing seemed to make it easier for the students to lead and follow.

Before we did the shadowing I asked them to tell me some things they were learning about shadows. They talked about things such as shadows appear when there is light, and shadows do exactly what we do. I'm hoping in the future to continue working on shadowing with them. I want to explore different types of shadows that would be cast when the light is in different places and see if the students can figure out how to represent it using elements of dance.

I'm excited to keep working with these 1st graders. It seems like they just need more practice learning how to control their bodies, which is exactly what we will be doing all semester.

The Brain Dance

Friday December 2, 2011 was my first day teaching Mrs. Marvel's 1st graders at Spring Creek Elementary School. I taught them Anne Green Gilbert's Brain Dance which includes 8 movement patterns that are fundamental to human development. The patterns are Breath, Tactile, Head-Tail, Core-Distal, Upper-Lower, Body-Side, Cross-Lateral, and Vestibular.
The students seemed eager to learn and excited to move their bodies. I led them through an exploration of all the patterns separately and then did the whole dance. I found it helpful to have the students close their eyes when as they explored the breath pattern. The image of a potato bug curling up into a little ball, and a dog chasing its tail helped the students understand the head-tail pattern. The Body-Side and Cross-Lateral patterns were the most difficult for these 1st graders. They understood moving one side of their body and holding the other side still but they didn't get the image of folding in half like a book or "eye-tracking" as they folded one side onto the other. The students got a little bit crazy with the vestibular pattern. I think that I could have done better with specific images to help them understand what that pattern is about.
When we finished learning the patterns I asked the students what they thought were the reasons for doing the brain dance. The students mostly thought it was for exercise. I explained that the brain dance does the following: organizes important nerve pathways, increases blood and oxygen flow to your brain and lungs, warms up your body and prepares it for proper dance technique, helps you focus and stay focused.
This was their first experience with dance in Mrs. Marvel's classroom and I'm hoping that she will continue to do the brain dance with them. I'm looking forward to working with them again when school resumes in January.