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In this episode of The Michael & Evita Show, Michael and Evita discuss their experience teaching and how they prepare for classes. Listen to their stories of mistakes, how they survived, and how to fix random scenarios in the moment. Ultimately Michael and Evita apply the same principles to the dance for when they teach a class.
Hey guys, hope you’re both well.
Thanks for all that Amazing information. Just started teaching, planning ahead is the key.
I’ve found myself spending a few hours the day before on what we’re going to teach. Breaking each move down as much as possible..
Music play list, has taken a few weeks to get it right, but I feel we’ On track.
So we’re on the right track.
Thanks again, hope see you guys down under soon.
Also what I forgot to mention, is I have a student with a Artificial leg. He lost it four years ago. He inspires me so much, so when preparing class I have to rethink my class. He tries so hard and keeps telling how much he loves it.
Any tips would be appreciated.
Random thoughts that come to mind while listening to this:
“How will I know when I’m ready to teach?” “Don’t worry, you’ll be teaching long before then.”
In addition to notebooks, whiteboards are a wonderful planning tool. Then you and your partner can both see the plan/notes from across the room.
Something I learned in a teacher training years ago, and have observed in practice, is that newer teachers often want to show all the things *not* to do. In general I don’t think this is very helpful – there are an infinite number of ways to do things “wrong”, so this can take up a lot of time, and doesn’t get newer students to doing what you want them to do. However, as part of preparing a lesson you do want to find as many ways as possible that something can go wrong, so if a particular trouble does come up in class you’re ready to discuss it. Switching who’s leading and following, and practicing moves on the “dark side” are great tools you can use while class planning to find new ways to make moves not work!
I love the idea of leading and following each other as teachers in the classroom. I tend to think of this as who’s taking the air time, and trying to balance that out, but your version is more nuanced. And meta. 🙂
I love this resource, if you’ll forgive me sharing links to other dance teachers: https://socialdance.stanford.edu/Syllabi/teaching_tips.htm It’s huge and long and every time I read it I find new ideas that I am now ready to apply, or needed to be reminded of.
Hi Jesse,
Thanks for the great message, and no need to apologize for including links to others’ work. Richard Powers (I believe is the source) is a wonderful resource for social dance history, and I’ve taken several of his lectures. Take care 😉
I’ve been assisting in teaching a four class series. The day before a recent class, the teacher got sick and let me know that she could not be there so I would have to teach the class. I had just finished this podcast when I found out. Having these topics fresh on my mind helped out.
Another new teacher had already planned to come to the class to shadow the original teacher and learn from her methods. So, it was fortunate that I had a good follow to help demonstrate moves. And, I had already helped teach this class once. I made an outline from that. The class was a success.