January 11, 2013 My First Day on the Job...

Today was my first day teaching! I was a little nervous. I prepared well though. I did all that I could with preparing a lesson plan for my students that was interesting and engaging. I guess I should clarify who my students are. I have been assigned to to teach Mrs. Marianne Lunt's 6th grade class at Legacy Elementary school. I will tell you that the thought of teaching 6th graders kind of terrified me at first. Especially teaching DANCE to 6th grade BOYS. But I was pleasantly surprised. They all participated and seemed to have a really enjoyable time. There was quite a bit of talking, but I think that's kind of expected in a classroom full of 6th graders who are given the opportunity to run around and dance for 45 minutes. So I have to try and learn how to manage the speaking level a little bit better. I will say this though, and it kind of took me by surprise when this happened too, but there was a point in the lesson where I noticed I had to yell pretty loud to compete with all the student's voices. So when I realized that I couldn't do that for much longer and I needed them to be a little bit more quite,in desperation and quite unexpectedly I decided to do a clapping pattern. Apparently this was something that they were used to doing already, which I didn't know, because they all responded by clapping back and quieting down. Haha...I was a little taken back at first that it actually worked. But I was quite happy with myself that I found a new way to quiet them down when I needed them to. We meet in the media center of the elementary school. This is actually a perfect space! At first Marianne and I were kind of unsure how this was going to work out, but it's great! It's large enough (after we move the tables and chairs out of the way), there is carpet which actually works out nicely for the student, and there's a sound system. Marianne and I both decided that the media center worked out a little better than the gym even. I've decided that since most of these students have never had dance before (there's about 33 students and maybe 8-10 girls have done some dance before) that I would start off teaching dance concepts from the BEST Elements of Dance worksheet before I took them into their own curriculum. Afterall, that is the ultimate goal with this arts bridge program, to incorporate their curriculum into the art form. I just wanted them to have a little bit more of a knowledge of the basics of dance before they hopped into creating on their own. This will allow those who have never danced before to feel more comfortable with it. So today I taught about BODY. I think the first four lessons of this experience I'll go over just straight dance concepts with them, and then the next four or so lessons after that I'll start weaving their curriculum into the lessons plans along with other dance concepts. As far as the lesson plan went for today... 1)We did a warm up -We did the name game where everyone did a body movement with one body part to their name and we went around the circle. Everyone repeated each others name with their movement as we went around 2)We had a locomotor activity -We discussed and performed 5 locomotor steps (walk, run, leap, hop, and jump) 3)We did a locomotor game -Each student had a partner -They took a locomotor movement that I called out to them through space -When I yelled out a body part, they ran back to their partner as fast as they could and they connected that body part that I yelled out with their partner in an interesting way. -The last partnership to connect with each other was out. -The game continued until there was one partnership left. -When the students got out, I had them come over and help me think of a body part to call out...they really enjoyed that and they came of with some interesting body parts. 4)The last section was a create and perform activity. But we didn't have enough time to get to that section 5)Cool down and stretch Overall, I think they really enjoyed the lesson. They were all laughing and having a good time. I hope it was a good way to introduce them to dance. Even though it was very simple, I think it helped ease them into later lesson plans where we go a little bit deeper. Ways I feel like I can improve for next time... -I think I need to establish some kind of signal to quiet them down. Next time I'll bring my drum and tell them that when I hit it three times, that means that they need to freeze in a shape. That I think will quiet them down. -I need to establish a front of the room. I was kind of all over the place today. I think this will just give the lessons a little bit more structure and routine. -I should probably split the group in half and have half the class watch while the other half dances. It got a little crowded today with 33 little bodies moving around. -I realized that I need to learn how to explain better in words the locomotor steps. I could show them, but it was hard for me to explain it. I LOVED MY FIRST DAY!!! Hopefully I can help these students have a greater appreciation for dance as I continue to teach them.