Teacher Reflections   

By Melanie Franz and Kim Monterey

Working Collaboratively

• This was one of the most rewarding aspects of our experience.  From the initial creation of the dance to the point of seeing it live at an assembly, we enjoyed working as a team. 
• Creating a dance individually is certainly possible, but when there is someone to build ideas with the process can become even more successful.  The “creative movement” unit could be taught separately to each class or teachers could group their classes together (think of the possibilities of Gr.1 and Gr.5 together) and team teach.

Moving in Space

• We found that students needed almost two full lessons (30 minutes each) to successfully be able to fill up all of the space in the gym with their bodies.
• By challenging the students to fill up the space we were able to extend the activity long enough to ensure that everyone was moving safely in the entire space.

Pacing the Lessons

• After realizing that moving in space would take two full lessons to master we decided to extend our unit from four lessons to five.  We wanted to be sure everyone was confident before performing.
• Individual lessons were well paced, we changed the activities often in order to keep the students “on their toes” and excited.  Even just a simple shift in an activity can help maintain student engagement.

Introducing the “Nest”

• When we introduced the hula hoops as our “nests” the students were especially excited.  It turned out to be the first time they had used any equipment in the gym.  We managed this by allowing a minute to play with the hoops.
• Be sure that students understand that as a bird and squirrel pair they are dancing around one nest.  We had some students that suddenly decided to sneak to other nests.

Putting It All Together

• Although it is extremely important to carefully plan and pace the progression of the dance unit, one thing we have learned is that it is the music that pulls everything together.  Most students were able to perform the dance to counted beats, but once we tried it with the music the dance finally began to take shape.

Creating your own DANCE

• As we all know, dance is a prescribed component of our curriculum, unfortunately sometimes students are not given the opportunity to explore their full potential as creatively moving people.  We strongly believe that dance is important for healthy student development and can be an enjoyable part of the school day for both students and teachers alike.
• You may think that creating a dance is difficult, but really, it is doable.  All you need to do is find a good song, one that makes you want to move.  Listen to it, really listen, and you’ll find you’ll hear a story in the music.   That’s where it starts and then slowly you begin to think of movements that suit the music (this is when another teacher is an asset, “two heads are better than one”). 

The Big Day (performing)

• The day of the performance, we were a bit nervous, as were some of the students in our class. Everyone was very excited to show off their dance to their parents and schoolmates and the performance was a huge success.

• One student had a bit of a meltdown right before performance time and was too nervous to perform. We took this opportunity to remind the student and his mom that the goal of our time together was not the performance, but of the process of creating the dance and of having fun.

• Although he didn't perform in the dance he still shared in the excitement and pride in the performance afterwards.

• Although a final performance is not necessary, it can be a valuable experience for the participants. We were very lucky to have the opportunity to participate in an assembly that was all about dance, with classes from different grades performing their dances. This let the students and the audience see how dance looks at different age and ability levels, and let the students know that dance is valued and appreciated by others.