Teaching Words

As a teacher I constantly have to find new ways to say the same thing. Those of you who teach the same concept with regularity will understand. I always feel like I've won a tiny part of my daily war with the kiddos when they "get" what I say. You can see it on their face, even if they don't want you to. It's this tiny gleam of recognition, fleeting though it may be. A squint of the eyes, a nod of the head, a faint smile. Most of us that teach, teach for that reason. One tiny moment that makes a difference for whatever reason. One tiny moment of connection and understanding. The two scenarios are below. Mainly for me, so that I don't forget: this week, I did my job :)

On Tuesday night, I was teaching an advanced pointe class and we are just in the beginning of the year. In my opinion, a lot of teachers don't "make" the kids work on the things they "hate" long enough to make them strong enough to do what they "want" to do. So we are working on B A S I C S. In an advanced class! Who would have thought??!! (another rant for a later time) Anyways, as you can imagine, they are in pain, they are exhausted, and they are trying not to show it, but I can see they are frustrated by the fact the basics are SOOO hard and SOOO tiring. So I stop class and we have a conversation. I say to them, "Do any of you drive?". A couple of kids raise their hands. Then I ask, "Do any of you pay for your own insurance?". None of them raise their hands. So I continue, "Do any of you get sick and have to go to the DR.?" They nod yes, wondering where the **** I'm going with this. I know the teenage mind :) Then I say again," Do any of you pay for your own insurance?" None of them say yes. So I go on to say how much it stinks to have to pay insurance into something you may or may not need. I told them that I "hate" to pay $700 four times a year "in case" I get sick, "in case" I get into an accident, "in case" I need to go to the Dr. But that it is my safety net, my security. They are following. That is what technique exercises are. You might hate them, but they are your security and your safety net. They are your INSURANCE. They will protect you when you are out there on stage and something starts to go wrong. Not only will you be able to fix it, you will be strong as an ox. Technique will "save" you on that stage. They understand and we get back to work. :)

Moment two happened last night (Wednesday). For some background, I'm constantly trying to get this generation of kids to understand that work ethic must be present every time they come into the classroom. And not just ANY work ethic. . .you MUST MUST MUST bring the very best of yourself to the table each and every time you sit down. (so to speak) That is, if you want to improve and get better. And in my mind, why on earth would you keep coming to class for it to always be hard and frustrating. Why would you keep coming to class and not try to be better?? Now keep in mind, my audience is not kids who are dancing to keep in shape, not adults who want to have "fun", not recreational dancers. These are kids who spend 15-20 hours a week in training to be dancers. But this war I'm fighting on instilling some sort of self pride and work ethic in these students is not only important to me to make a difference in their "dance" selves, but in them as people!!! I feel like some of them don't have any life skills to keep going and always try to be the best they can be. They will need that for the rest of their lives. Some of these kids have been handed everything and they don't know how to work hard, how to handle rejection, how to persevere, or how to fight for what they want (in an appropriate, positive way). That is sad to me, because they are going to be leading MY children someday. I could keep going and going and going on this, but now to my moment.

We had just finished a difficult adagio combination and they didn't give it their best. I was frustrated. So I said, "You know when little kids first learn to color? How they just scribble all over the paper and use 16 different colors, or maybe just their two favorites without regard to what the object they are coloring looks like?" They nod yes. I go on to say,"Then as they get older and better, they start to really try to stay in the lines. They start to choose which colors to use, matching them to what they want the objects to look like. Occasionally they might have an accident and get out of the lines, but they really try to make a pretty picture and mostly stay within." They nod in understanding. I say,"Don't scribble all over my exercise." Then I get that sly smile, eyes widening, THEY UNDERSTAND. I end by saying,"I don't expect you to be perfect, but I do expect progress each and every time you try the same thing. That progress might be invisible to even you, but I can see when you are trying your best."