New Life as a Pirate

On February 13 I did my first lesson since my discussion with my dance professor and I'd say it was a good start to a new me. A pirate me.

Okay fine, me teaching a pirate book. 

I figured to start off fresh I would teach a book through dance.


For this lesson I used the book Pirate Pete's Talk Like a Pirate by Kim Kennedy.

I arranged chairs around the room which we would use later as our "ships". Dressed like a Pirate, I started the lesson with a pirate accent and welcomed the kids to the Pirate crew. 

Through dance we learned about life on a ship and Pirate Pete's experience with wanting to find a new crew mate, and unfortunately what happened to those that didn't make the cut ;) 

                         

 

By the end of the lesson, the kids were tired and happy; I felt like a champ! It was a great, fun lesson! I'm excited to keep integrating curriculum into dance because I think it provides a lot of purpose to dance. It was a great new start! Be sure to check out the lesson plan for it :)

Back Tracks

I have been teaching the BYU Kindergarten for over a month now - but as you can see the blog is still new. Here is just a little recap of the lessons I did previously (but won't do a separate post about). And of course lesson plans are under the Lesson Plans tab :)

January 30 ~ Introducing Folk Dance
    Today I decided to teach the students a simple folk dance, Zemer Atik, from Israel. The structure of the dance, walking in a circle with patterned claps, was a really good starting dance for folk dance. The students did great traveling around the circle and catching on to the syncopated pattern of the claps. If I were to go back and change this, I would have taught another dance too or challenged them more. They caught on to it really quickly and I think they got bored of it after a few rounds.



February 6 ~ Introducing Creative Dance and Necessary Chastisement
    We started off by reviewing Zemer Atik and then I quickly taught them La Raspa, or the Mexican Hat Dance. This didn't take too much time because the dances are very straightforward. I could tell they were getting restless so we transitioned into exploring elements of dance. We turned on some music and covered topic to topic; first elements of time, then elements of space etc. While I was able to cover all the material clearly and efficiently, I don't feel like my lesson was engaging and meaningful for them. At the end of class, my dance professor walked out of the observation booth .... :-/ Apparently she had been observing me the whole time! :-/ Afterwards we had a talk about getting the kids active in dance and keeping lessons engaging. It was a little tough to swallow because I didn't realize how ... boring my lessons were becoming. But I am grateful for her insight and honest advice. When I got home from work that day I sat down and got serious about my plan and objectives for this semester of teaching. I've since pulled myself together and I think I have the confidence and enthusiasm I need to teach these students well and have fun. Here goes nothing.

Start with Your Roots

I want to flashback to my first day teaching at the BYU Kindergarten. My Arts Academy Leader, Shavon, encouraged me to come up with a simple routine that we would do each time I came, to help the kids transition into and prepare for dance time. I had a hard time coming up with with something good so I decided to go back to my roots for help. My Japanese roots. Okay, fine, my grafted Japanese roots.

I started class by teaching the kids "Atama, Kata, Hisa, Ashi", which is more commonly known as "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes". Yes, this is an over-used classic, but they really enjoyed it! I told them how I had lived in Japan for a year and a half; I taught them some Japanese words and then we used this dance to stretch out our bodies and get warmed up for dancing. Hopefully we memorize it so that we can just hash it out then jump right into dance :) Let's start with self-introductions.

I took the kids on a journey through my life.

We started out dancing on a low level using small ranges of space and sustained movement. We talked about me as a baby, and how we lived in a warm, happy town by the Mexico-California border. Drumming rhythms led to skipping, leaping, and jumping; we experienced growing up and playing, attending school and leaving home. Their favorite part was using dance to learn about my adventures in Japan. We raced around the room with the speed ferocity of a fiery dragon, jab and kicks of a ninja, and of course we sushi "rolled" around the floor. It was neat sharing parts of my life with the children my finding ways to use dance to represent those experiences, feelings and memories. We lived a lot.

Of course the children had to introduce themselves too! In a circle, the students thought of a simple dance move that they liked or felt was a representation of them. As a class we watched each other share and then tried out the moves ourselves. We went through the circle one or two times to remember and appreciate the individuality of each of my little dancers. Now, if this was an older class, I would probably play a concluding game where you pass the dance move from person to person in the circle. I did that my first day teaching dance at Provo Peaks Elementary and it gave my students a mini-performance opportunity. They had to remember and dance someone's movement while everyone was watching them. I feel like it's a good way to get over that initial stage fright or awkwardness of having people watch you dance... which none of my kindergarteners really had haha. They are quick little learners and aren't shy about expressing themselves through dance - I think we'll have a downright good time!

First Things

How did I end up writing this blog post? Or better yet, how did I end up needing a blog in the first place? Ah yes - first things. Introduction things. Me things.

My mom says I was born dancing. Those dancing feet carried us from California to Washington, firmly planting my family of eight onto the fertile ground of a family farm. I danced my way through public school and classes at the Melody Lane Academy for the Performing Arts. 

Ballet. 

Tap. 

Jazz. 

Nothing. 

Ballet.

Opportunities opened up for me to attend a community college and receive my Associates in Arts degree in the place of regular high school attendance and graduation. I kept myself busy with piano lessons, musical rehearsals, church callings and my job as a dental assistant. Then at the eager age of eighteen, dance shoes and all, I transferred to Brigham Young University to pursue my major, Elementary Education. Then at the even more eager age of nineteen, I put academics on hold to serve as a full-time missionary in the Japan Fukuoka Mission. I have recently returned and life has wasted no time in providing me with opportunities to learn and grow... and dance.

Ballroom.

Ballet.

Contemporary.

Folk.

Country.

Dance Teacher.

So there's my life in a pointe shoe, or a a Character shoe, or no shoe at all. I'm a dance enthusiast living the best of both worlds - dancing and teaching. Half the time I don't know what I'm doing and all the time I don't know what I'm thinking but somehow it all comes together - and we are a class of fancy, dandy, dancy pants.