TEACHING PHILOSOPHY
As a dance educator, I aspire to guide students to accessing their creative capabilities and provide students an outlet where they feel supported and comfortable exploring, creating, and moving. Through cooperative learning and my constructivist classroom approach, students are the facilitators of their own meaning making as they develop their 21st century skill sets of collaboration, creativity, critical thinking, and problem solving, which will serve them well beyond the walls of the classroom. Through fostering artistry in students, I will produce self-motivated individuals who work through problems in original ways and use their skills to communicate ideas and collaborate with others.
I wish to look at every class as a research opportunity for personal growth as an educator. By focusing on factors that can improve the quality of my teaching and being open to revising my own methodologies, I am ultimately benefiting my current and future students as they strive to reach their goals. The ideal experience might blur the distinction between teacher and student and be more of an immersive learning experience for both parties. As I challenge my students in the classroom, I also challenge myself to continuously look for new approaches to enrich my teaching skills and investigate my students interests and needs as we work towards reaching our goals in the classroom. I develop my lessons by addressing the four cornerstones of the National Core Arts Standards (NCAS) for Dance: create, perform, respond, and connect to ensure my students receive an effective and balanced education.
I cultivate an environment that is conducive for learning for all skill levels and abilities.To do so, I embrace the diverse perspectives that each student brings to the classroom and embrace each student as an asset to the learning community. In a dance classroom, creating a space where students feel they have equal opportunity to be heard is paramount to their success and focus levels. When a safe environment is produced, the dancer is more inclined to take risks and reach a higher level of self-expression. Striving to develop lessons where students are engaged physically, mentally, and emotionally will contribute to the larger aims of dance education in developing confident, self-aware, and intrinsically motivated individuals through conscious experiencing. Dance challenges a student’s intellect through higher order thinking skills while also providing students an opportunity for authentic self discovery as they continuously step out of their comfort zones. These experiences are vital to a student’s growth and crucial when developing a well-rounded person. As an educator, I am dedicated to aiding all of my students in reaching their fullest potential as artists and scholars through movement experiences and aim to be a teacher my students found truly cared for them as individuals and members of society.
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I’M CREATIVE, INNOVATIVE, DETERMINED & INTERESTED