Being a dance teaching assistant for a week - Dance Saturday
Hello everybody and welcome back to another blog post,
Sorry for not posting on Wednesday. I was going to post this article on that day but got back fairly late in the evening from work experience so I thought I would publish this today and give you more information. I hope you enjoy!😀💜
This week was work experience week at my school and I chose to work as an assistant dance teacher for the week. As some of you already know, back in March I worked for the Inspirations School of Performing Arts for a week in order to earn some money for my Tanzania trip. When I heard that my college was carrying out work experience, I saw it as a perfect opportunity for me to go and work there for the week. It turns out that the preparation for this week was a bit stressful because I had to get my enhanced DBS check certificate before I could do my work experience. I had to get my DBS because it was a requirement of the primary schools that I would be helping to carry out acro dance lessons at. Before May half term, I went to the principal's house to sort that out and luckily, when I got back from Wales, I received my certificate through the post. I'm happy that I've got it now because I can also use it for when I work at other childcare places.
Anyway, on Monday, I had my first work experience day. I guess that I chose my work experience well and I was lucky because I didn't have many working hours at all. The school only needed me to be there on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday for 1-2 hours on each day. That was a great blessing for me because I got to have an extra long break after my exams and on Monday, I didn't have to wake up early to get there. On Monday, I went to a school in St Neots where I helped one of the dance teachers called Miss Ella. She was very nice and very supportive and I think we were able to work well together. The students hadn't done much dancing before but I found that they were able to pick up the routine that I choreographed for them. I taught them a routine that I came up with whilst I was in Wales to Happier by Marshmello and Bastille. It was one of my easier routines and the students were able to add in some of their own acrobatic elements into the choreography as well. Some of what they came up with was really creative and I was really impressed. I also did a warm up and a cool down with the class at the beginning and at the end of the lesson.
On Wednesday I was working at a nearby village where I worked alongside my other dance teacher, Miss Rebecca. By coincidence, she used to go to the same school that I am currently at now. She was taking dance classes at the secondary school and later did a vocational three year course at Bodyworks. She was really happy that I was there and we also worked really well together. From 3:15pm to 4:15pm, I worked at the after school primary club where I taught the younger children. They were nice to work with and they really tried their best, which I appreciated. From 4:45pm to 6:45pm, I worked in the village hall with slightly older students. I helped them with their acrobatics and taught them a routine. They were doing some acro moves that even I couldn't do and it was really nice to see them enjoying the class. I taught the routine that I choreographed to Don't Call Me Up by Mabel earlier this year. They found it a bit difficult to learn because we only had 25 minutes left of the lesson but it was still a fun lesson overall.
On Thursday, I was back with Miss Ella at the same village primary school that I was at on Wednesday. This time, I had a different cohort of students and they were definitely a bit more boisterous than the class I had before. Some of the girls were deliberately making excuses to try and not join in the class but luckily, I was able to speak with some level of authority and get them to listen to me in the end. I taught them the Happier routine and they added some acro into the choreography. Some of the routines were really good and you could tell that the students put in a lot of effort. However, others didn't finalise their routine because they were not putting in as much work as the others. It was a good lesson for me overall because if I'm ever to run my own dance studio in the future, I will need to learn how to deal with a variety of different students because not all of them are going to be 100% passionate about dance. Nevertheless, I still really enjoyed teaching the class and seeing all the students improve and become better dancers.
On Saturday, the day that you're reading this, I will have my final class at a village hall, from 9:00am to 11:00am. I will be teaching with Miss Rebecca again and it should be a lot of fun. I will tell you all about it later! 😊💜
Have you ever taken an acro dance class before? Have you ever taught anything before? Let me know in the comments below and I'll be sure to reply to them. I ♡ hearing from you!
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See you next time,
Bye,
XOX, Juliette
P.S. Thank you for the 1.6k views on my recent Instagram reel. I really do appreciate all the support that you show for my dancing. You guys are amazing!😍😍Hopefully I can post more dance videos in the future! 💜💜💃
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