Week 3, Come dance with me
Hard to believe we are already halfway through the 1st grading period. With the first couple of weeks being so heavy with “housekeeping” (lockers, syllabus, roll call, history lessons, continuous students adding/dropping), I am happy to say that all classes have had a great week of dancing and are preparing for their upcoming test coming up next week.
All classes are getting more and more comfortable with their devices. When students struggle, I am seeing more peers being able to lean over and help one another allowing class to move faster without me having to address each student individually. Every class is using Google Classroom for journals and class assignments and classes with vocab are all using StudyBlue. These tools make it easy for me to help students remain current with their journals before grading periods as well as students having access to materials to study for their test. Advanced classes are recording not only the vocab and the translation, but verbally recording pronunciation and taking a picture to be placed on their flashcards. For some of the pictures, they took pictures of each other or used Google images, however some students got extra clever and used the mirror as a selfie tool. They all had to stretch their thinking as how to capture a movement represented in still photography.
Dance & Media students explored pathway creation using awwapp.com as well as exploring their personal communities using a mind mapping app called Popplet. They also added lighting terms to their photography vocabulary and explored this concept using stage lights and the iPads.
Dance Educators have been completing assignments in Google Classroom to help engage conversations in class. This week students went on a Music Scavenger Hunt. They used the iPads to search the internet and music stores for music that will be good for warm ups, cool downs, and STEAM based dance lessons. They recorded it in a shared Google Sheet. We also watched various videos on STEAM dance lessons to get a better grasp of what we will be doing with out students. We wrapped up the week with both current and former student guest speakers from our own Cedar Ridge Instructional Practices in Education and Training class. It was great to see students sharing their expertise with other students and helping both answer questions and generate ideas. Looking forward to what my students will create out of these preparation lessons.
It was a great week and am so proud of all of my students. Need a break? Come and dance with me!
