As most of you know since moving out to Phoenix I've started teaching and actually being a part of the whole "behind the scenes" business that has to happen to make the dances, lessons, etc. work. It has been an amazing experience! I have learned some pretty interesting things as a result and am still learning!
Not everyone will understand what you are saying... Therefore I need to be able to explain things in a bunch of different ways. I haven't always been the best at this. In the past few years after being put into different teaching situations I have learned how to explain things differently.
I pay attention to detail more while I'm dancing. I want to be able to explain every little detail I feel/see/know when I'm teaching something. And I'm most likely going to teach something I already do it actually helps to pay attention to every single dance I have... even the dances with the newbies... probably even more so with the newbies.
I have learned how not to teach... well partly how not to teach. I still need work on that one. I have gone to beginning/intermediate lessons and watched those and participated because I want to see different teaching styles and I want to make a well rounded decision on what works and what doesn't. I think that's a pretty good route to go.
I do still need a ton of improvement as a teacher. If any teachers out there... whether you a teacher of dancing or not... if you have any wise old wisdom to impart on a grasshopper I will gladly accept!
2 comments:
You're doing the right thing, watching other beginning classes to see what works and what doesn't. There are lots of very commonly taught things that are pretty detrimental, in my opinion at least. Don't have time to get into it now, but send me a line if you're curious.
This afternoon, I'll be training a bunch of instructors the way I do things.
Basic advice for teachers in general:
While some students are content with a visual demonstration, it's important to use clear language. Students should also be encouraged to learn actively in two ways: doing and questioning. If you can get a student to ask you a question, you have so much less work to do in terms of figuring out what you need to share with them.
Teach to the average student, rather than to the most or least skilled students, but make sure to offer some information that will be valuable to each.
Sometimes a student needs to be put off-balance, even if just to figure out how to regain their balance.
I had really better run, but I hope these tidbits are helpful.
Generally, people learn using one of a couple of different methods: visual, auditory, or tactile. When teaching, it's important to try and satisfy the first two equally, and offer the third via extensive practice. A lot of teachers explain the technique in detail, or demonstrate with exaggerated movements or freezing after every step -- ideally, you should do both together, that way both visual and auditory learners can work with their partner at the same level of knowledge. For example, if you're teaching a swingout variation, explain the details of the technique as you are demonstrating it, making the auditory cues match up with the visual ones.
The other thing I would put out there, especially for teaching beginner and intermediate classes, is that less is more. While advanced dancers have the vocabulary and control to understand minute technique adjustments, beginners don't. So extensive explanation is mostly going to go over their heads. This is something that I constantly struggle with when teaching martial art or acrobatics techniques. Beginners have be exposed to the info via explanation and demonstration, but it doesn't mean anything really to them until they can connect that with experience. A minute of practice is much more useful than ten minutes of explanation. There is a point in every discipline (whether it's dancing or acro or martial art or, for that matter, programming) when that's no longer the case and you can learn just as much from discussion as from practice, but that is generally reserved for advanced practitioners.
Incidentally, I gave a talk on a kind of similar subject at last years BIL conference. Remind me sometime and I'll see if I can dig up the presentation and my lecture notes.
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