Self-Assessment

 1. What is questionable about the Roman method of memorizing and speaking publicly as a form of learning?

• It isn't appropriate to always prioritize memorization or public speaking and this is what is questionable.
• If you are just memorizing just to memorize, or speaking just to speak, and there is emphasis on this, there really isn't any room to actually process the information and fully learn what is being taught.
• This isn't useful for long term educational goals/learning. 

2.  How can Dance be an important learning experience for all kids (speakers of other languages, children with special needs, etc)?

•  Dance is an important learning experience for kids because it completely for self-expression
• It allows kids to develop their own identity and gives them an alternative learning environment to the one that is more generalized in the public/private school systems
• Also allows them to be more aware of their own bodies, communicate in another form besides talking, and allows them to process and understand emotions through dance

 3. Why are empathy maps important when developing the curriculum?  

•  Empathy maps are important when developing the curriculum because they allow the student and teacher to get a better understanding of their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors in the classroom. They also make the students feel more valued as they are geared towards the students individual thinking process, learning preferences, engagements, and backgrounds.

4. What is the importance of the Action Plan when managing behaviors in the classroom/studio ?

• The Action Plan is important because it allows you to organize and plan out all activities that situations that may arise while in the classroom or studio
• It is specifically important when students are misbehaving to have a crisis plan in case of you not being able to take hold of the situation - this can include being sent to the office, having the student take a walk, etc.

5. Based on Kenneth Robinson's speech, how can we create a safe and creative learning space for dance?

• Based on the speech, we should encourage people who may not learn well in a strict classroom setting to learn through movement
• He talks about the director of Cats and says that for so many years people just thought she had ADHD because she was always moving, her brain was always running, and nobody knew what was wrong with her and her doctor encouraged her mom to take her to a dance class and the rest was history
• This is so important because in order to create a safe learning space for dance, rather than judging someone, we should provide them with an alternative to freely express themselves creatively no matter what that form may look like
• It is important that we provide creative experiences for students so they get the chance to learn and see if they identify with more creative measures so that they feel comfortable in their learning environment.

6. Why should teachers, parents and students be familiar with the vision and mission statements of educational institutions? 

•  Teachers, parents, and students should be familiar with the vision and mission statements of the educational institutions so that they know and try to stay true to what the values of that institution are. Especially for parents, if they don't know/don't agree with the vision and mission of the institution, then maybe that place isn't the best place for their children, but again, if they don't familiarize themselves with it, they wouldn't know that. 

7. Read the quotes below and briefly explain the teaching philosophy behind the statements.

a. This teaching philosophy is focused heavily on feelings and the mind and body. If those two are not connected, based off of this philosophy, it will be nearly impossible to have an effective teaching experience.

b. This teaching philosophy seems a bit more rigid than the first. This type of teaching really emphasizes how important education is and that is the basis of everything in the world around you. It values education as super precious, but also makes it seem like, if you do not have an education that you may fail, which isn't neccessarily true. 

c. This teaching philosophy is something that I most align with. It is bascially saying that we all learn by doing and that it is so important to have experiences in order to gain more knowledge about the world. This is still true, and their classroom would be involved giving students hands on learning experiences.

 8. When designing your ideal studio, which are some of the practical considerations you must understand to make it a successful business?

• A large open space with few windows many mirrors with a hard wood floor, ballet bars, and plenty of space to move around
• Would have a multitude of different instructors based on various different levels of teaching abilities and ages
• Respectful and kind dance instructors to promote a positive/energetic environment
• I would want to lease the studio 
• Multiple rooms with a high quality sound system 
• Mirrors for dancers to watch
• High tech products in the studio (surround sound and scheduling computer system)

9. What would be an example of a macro-curriculum in dance and what would be its equivalent as a micro-curriculum in dance?

• A macro-curriculum in dance is a much broader, overarching topic which could be something like dance history
• A micro-curriculum in dance is much narrower and would be like a lesson plan; something that is micro could be teaching a specific technique or learning about a specific historian

 10. After watching the video posted in your Case Study, in terms of education, what is the purpose of The Hancock Center for Creative Arts Therapies?

• The purpose of the HCoCA is a center to provide dance movement therapy that uses creative and functional movement to work on emotions
• They try to involve individual bodies and feelings into movements to get people to express themselves
• Basically providing dance movement therapy for people who may struggle to express themselves 

11. How can VTS (Visual Thinking Strategies) be of use in the teaching of dance?

• VTS can be used in teaching dance in many ways
• For the visual part, you can allow students to observe and watch other dancers perfoming or other artworks
• Then, you can ask the people observing in the class for feedback and ask more critical thinking questions to determine what the deeper meaning is of the art piece and how they interpret it
• This gets the audiences creative gears flowing and allows them to possibly apply it when they perform/dance on their own.

12. What is the main difference between coaching, mentoring and teaching? What would be a good balance for an educator?

• Teaching is telling the class information and they are learning and processing it
• Coaching is more specific and caters to individualized learning mostly based off of different skills like a sport and also provides feedback in order for the student to get better/keep exceling
• Mentoring is more so giving advice to the student; guiding them on their path; being there when they are needed, more as a support system or someone you look up to to help guide you on in life

13. When we explored the idea of the Movement Lab in class, what did you conclude as a result of the experience?

• As a result of the experience, I concluded that it may not be so easy to teach a whole dance in such a short amount of time
• It may be hard to get all of the dancers to pay attention during the whole class
• It definitely wasn't as easy as it looks
• Music and the style of dance has a big effect on the type of class that you teach and how much you are able to get done at what level

14. The kinesthetic loop allows teachers to understand the importance of experiential learning in dance. Explain.

• Creative dancers improvise based on their emotions and feelings which teachers are able to feel and see
• Using the kinesthetic loop, teachers can provide functional and therapeutic value to the students
• Sensing and feeling movements are different feelings
• High funcitioning kinesthetics allows the individual to sense and feel the movement and states triggered by it if given the opportunity by the teacher
• This loop allows teachers to understand that a message is sent to the muscles to direct the kinesthetic movement in a controlled manner and that the body is constantly reacting to sensory inputs
• Any subject in the curriculum can be used as a source of kinesthetic arts

15. Most dance schools teach a codified set of moves as the content of dance styles such as ballet, modern dance, tap and jazz. In which way is the Creative Method a different alternative for all students?

• The Creative Method provides more of an emphasis on improvisation and learning movements outside of such a rigid class curriculum
• This allows the student to develop more creativity in their dancing capabilities, allowing them to grow more artistically as a dancer
• This also gives the dancer more freedom and less stress to learn specific movements which could be a better alternative