NextGen Digital Dance Classroom

Spring has sprung! It is officially the busy season for so many students and parents. Spring showcases, state testing, final projects, and exams all crammed into the same time period that we had during some lazier chill weeks in January. So how do we get it all done? We plan, organize, and enjoy the ride. This 6 weeks, between my 6 (different) classes we will/have been studying anatomy of bones and muscles, injuries, injury prevention, and choreography. If you were to drop in to my classes at anytime in the last few weeks, you may have found students finishing a tap unit; watching an Anatomy presentation; completing choreography exercises; interacting with a Dance Specialist Physical Therapist guest speaker; preparing a Broadway Hairspray dance for the Council of the Arts that will be meeting at Cedar Ridge this coming week; doing a ballet lyrical unit; starting student choreography projects; preparing preschool dance lessons to teach at Gattis Elementary this coming week; preparing

If you have never observed a ballet class before, you might have confused yourself that you accidentally happened upon a French classroom (wearing really weird outfits). Originating from France, ballet movements are all in French. With Jazz, Tap, and Modern coming after the “creation” of ballet, all dance forms also use these terms, along with their own vernacular. Each of my classes start with journal vocab from the unit they are studying. Since ballet classes study ballet all year, and my Academy students take ballet for multiple years (with some at the same levels and some moving up levels), deciding WHAT vocabulary I should do for each class has always been a struggle. Considering there is an entire ballet dictionary, finding vocab to use is no trouble, but the vast amount can also be overwhelming. This year, my technology has encouraged me to look at the vocabulary in a different way and I think both my students and I are reaping the benefits. Each 6 weeks I have been trying to