So far I am really enjoying teaching the 4’s, 4’s K, and Kindergarten class. Since these children are still at a young and developing age, they still have a lot to learn about self awareness and being in a classroom in general. While I thought that the main focus would be teaching the movements and simply helping them understand dance better, a lot of what I’ve ended up doing is helping them learn about spacing, working together, listening closely, staying calm/focused, and helping them stay motivated. 

Since I do have two younger sisters at home (1 and 4.5 years old), I’ve been able to understand how the children act, react, and learn. One major thing that I noticed is that the kids are a bit sensitive to little things such as which color hula hoop they get or where they can sit against the wall, so it is important to be aware of these little details so they don’t get carried away with being “upset” instead of focusing on the class. 

One other thing that I’ve noticed is that since the children don’t have so much self awareness, they aren’t shy to dance to their fullest potential and don’t care so much about how they look or appear. When doing a test run of my curriculum in the past for the third graders, many of the boys in particular felt “embarrassed” or shy to do some of the ballet movements I gave to them as ballet has often been portrayed as an activity for girls. Unfortunately, to this day this stereotype still seems to be very prevalent, but I hope that I can make a small effort to change this by teaching them and making them aware that ballet and any type of dance can be for everyone! 

I’ve also realized that the way I present myself to the class is very important as I am someone in the classroom that they look up to and want to follow. This means that I should act in ways that I would want them to act in the future; some things include being polite to the teacher, raising my hand when I want to speak, not checking my phone during class, etc. 

For the next few weeks I’ve been able to rearrange my curriculum/plan since I’ve gained a better understanding of how the children react to certain situations and activities. One thing that I will implement into my teaching is giving them things that the students can relate to and understand. For example: If I want them to flap their arms up and down, I will tell them to imagine a butterfly or a swan so they can associate dance movements with things they already familiar with. I also hope to bring in picture books about dance since the classes that I’ve taught seem to enjoy listening to them!