Dance Class (After School Activity)

During the second quarter I had planned to organize an after school activity to primary students, who are willing develop their dancing skills. I have chosen Ms. Faber as my advisor, because she is well experienced with primary children specifically as a Physical Education teacher. Firstly, I interviewed Ms. Faber about what I am planning to do. My basic plan was to teach any type of dances they are interested in, and also keep the children physically active as well as enjoying dancing. I personally love dancing. I have attended some ballet classes before, as well as some Latin American dances.

The first class was all about introduction to the activity and getting to know what the students want to learn. I had totally planned and initiated activities throughout this project. As I have mentioned, I had a plan at the very beginning of the activity; however that was not enough. The children wanted to learn many different things. Their ideas and wishes constantly changed throughout the activity, perhaps due to the difficulties of the current class. I had to make plans for every Wednesday (that is when the after school activity took place). I had to learn the dances myself first and then teach the children, sometimes converting them into easier versions. While planning for the next class, I had to ask the students what exactly they wish to learn and also teachers if they are able to do them or not. In most cases, I asked students from High School and Middle School. Those students were the ones, who were very good at dancing. I asked them the best ways to learn dances for them, so that I can utilize that method to teach the younger ones. I also had to come up with different ideas to make the children concentrated and committed to the activity. Sometimes, I had little candies as motivating tools. Sometimes, I had to organize contests and invite real judges from the school so that the children took the activity seriously.

I had total of 6 children, 2 from third grade and 4 from fourth grade. I had chosen this age group because I thought it might be a little easier to work with kids of age 8 to 9 so that we can communicate easily. However working with kids is never as easy as it might look. It was extremely hard working with little children. Their attention period is so short that after 5 minutes, they just were not concentrated and probably doing something completely different. Therefore, I worked collaboratively with the little children. Although their young and perhaps immature, I had to work with them as collaboratively as possible. One of the methods I have used is motivating tools like candies and cakes. But I also used comments and languages, which inspired the students to dance even more and stay on task. Therefore, I have learnt skills of working with little children. Also now I know for fact that I will never become a teacher.