Week 14, Dance.

Dance Workshop

This was our last class for our whole Creative Arts stream. I think I learnt the most useful teaching tips and strategies in this workshop. Working with stimuli.

Sometimes I think that myself as a teacher will constantly think about the importance of scaffolding and 'overdo it'. What I mean by this is that I will explain and describe a task within the Creative Arts lessons to an extent where the children will forget about their own, unique, creative creations and  will just follow and do what they 'think' I want them to do rather than express what they really want to do. I found that using a stimuli would be a great resource.

There were many stimuli including a photograph, a hidden object and a sculpture like model. I found that all three stimuli were an excellent springboard resource to base a sequence of lessons. However, I found that the hidden object was one I could and would definitely use in my lesson. Hidden object: Hide an object in a bag, ask students to feel the object and without having an actual visual stimulus, use the other senses, especially touch to represent the object. I feel that the students in any class would love this activity.

The structure of the lesson was the same for all groups with different stimuli. We had to

1. Create a dance routine using the stimuli as a springboard. 
2. Decide on a title, what we were representing and the music we wanted to use. 

Of course, due to the nature of our lessons, we were pushed for time and had to create movements within ten minutes, however in a real classroom, students will require more time and a flexible, creative activity like this could be extended into two lessons. 

Overall, the dance workshops have been very useful and engaging. Especially as I had no proper experience with dance, I was worried as to how I would teach it. I've learnt so much in these dance workshops and now, am quite eager to get an opportunity to 'try out' these teaching strategies!

Something Special.

During my professional experience at Homebush West Public School, I came across a little stage 2 boy who had the cheekiest smile. Students who were 'in trouble' and had to see the principal and or associated teachers would sit in the corridors near the staffroom during lunch. On my first week, I didn't know this so I thought this little boy was looking for a teacher so I asked him who he was looking for and he said he's not looking for anybody, he was just in trouble... again. He grinned like it was nothing new so I told him to try and be good. During the four weeks at HWPS, when I walked towards the staffroom for lunch, I would see the student in that corridor at least once a week. I repeated myself every time, "Try to be good, okay?". So I've never actually had this student in my class, I didn't even know his name until the last week. But during my last week, his teacher told me he had something to give me, it was this picture. His teacher told me she was surprised that he kept to himself the whole lesson and concentrated in drawing the picture during art. I was surprised that this student, out of all the people he knew, just randomly decided to draw me a picture. It's amazing how just one smile, just one nod of appreciation and just one sentence of encouragement can brighten a child's day.

Something Special.

A while ago, I quit one of my part-time jobs working as an ESL teacher at a tuition centre. Whilst I was there, I did a intensive 2-hour session with two ESL girls, one had come to Australia about two years ago and the other a bit longer. They were in year 3 and they were always so excited to learn new things. When I told them I had to leave, they thought I was leaving to teach at another place but I told them it was because I had to study to become a better teacher. The girls wrote and brought me some farewell cards in the following, last lesson.

I was very proud when I got these cards, not because I got the cards but because of how much they wrote and how hard they tried to use the correct sentence structure we had been working on! Even more, we had been doing 'shape poetry' the previous lesson and one of the girls wrote me some shape poetry in the silhouette of... well... me. Despite the spelling errors, the improvement these girls made during the year I had them was immense. As a teacher, when you can see the improvement in your students, and when you see your students truly enjoying the process of learning something new, nothing is more precious than that.