Beginnings...

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And so it begins, yet the start date seemed to pass in a blink of an eye. 

That was what we were warned about by Helen and Adesola and how true it was. Distance learning is a whole new adventure. For me personally I have always gone to my place of Education and therefore this is a completely new experience for me. Yet somehow I feel more motivated than ever to get stuck in on this course. 

Having read Adesola's blog post on beginnings, I allowed myself to reflect on how this would apply to my own practice. Being an ISTD Dance teacher means that I do a lot of freelance work. I teach in various institutes and work a variety of hours teaching different styles of dance. Thinking back to when I began my teaching journey I definitely felt the "3 beginnings" that Aedsola refers to. 

Official, Energetic and Effective Beginning. 

My "Official Beginning" was the moment I was offered the job, signed a contract and was given a start date. I would find the venue, receive my registers and decide where my music system would be plugged in. These all seem quite mundane things, but they become your weekly routine. You then meet your new students and although very welcoming they are often a little hesitant to take on board your feedback. And why wouldn't they be! A stranger has taken over their class and therefore they are not ready to trust that person just yet. 

A couple of weeks then pass and the students begin to become more familiar with the fact that you are going to be teaching them every week. They begin to open up and tell you about what has been happening at school etc. This is the "Energetic Beginning". You begin to gain the students trust and in return they  listen and absorb critique. You no longer hear "My old teacher used to do it like this.." Instead they look to you for feedback. 

This is then closely followed by the "Effective Beginning" stage. This is the moment you see your students improve and notice a major change in their attitude. You have developed a mutual trust that they want to be the best possible performer and therefore you both invest the same energy to allow this to happen. 

This is very much the same with this BAPP course. The official beginning comes along so you prepare yourself and plan in order to give yourself the best chance possible. However you don't quite understand the course and therefore you feel a little hesitant to get completely involved until you feel more comfortable with it. You then begin the course, start reading the module handbooks and things start to become a little clearer. Things start to make sense so you gain momentum and motivation to work harder. This is then followed by seeing an improvement, seeing a change in your work as you allowed yourself to trust in the course.

As students we must trust that although change and beginning something new can be daunting. In time we will find our stride and once that trust between student and work is developed we will fly!


*Blog post inspired by http://adesolaa.blogspot.com/2018/09/beginnings.html

Comments

  1. Anonymous4 February 2020 at 05:55

    Hi Emma. I enjoyed reading your blog on beginnings. I also am just starting the journey of the BAPP course. Your description of the effective beginning was thought provoking. As teachers, I think this stage is extremely important. It is almost like we are building the foundation before we can put the walls or roof up. Our students need to trust that we are creating a safe space for them. Feel free to read about my reflections on "Beginning in the middle" at:

    https://jmmayor.blogspot.com/2020/02/reflections-on-beginning-in-middle.html

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Emma Dalton5 February 2020 at 01:23

      Hi Jacqueline, Thank you for taking the time to reply to my blog post. I love the imagery you used of building and creating the foundations for them. It is exactly what we do day to day! We build that safe space that they are able to go into and escape the daily on-goings. Ill check out your post now!

      Delete
  2. Alys May-James6 February 2020 at 10:16

    Hi Emma,
    This is a really interesting post. I find the different beginnings resonate with me in my teaching as well. It's fascinating to watch how the children respond to us throughout the 'beginnings' of the dance teacher/ student relationship and how building a level of trust early on is important to be able to deliver effectively as a dance teacher.
    I look forward to reading more of your posts!
    Feel free to look at my blog too!

    alysmay.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Emma Dalton10 February 2020 at 03:23

      Thanks for your comments Alys. The student/teacher relationship is so important as you say so i'm so glad this post resonates with you too!!

      Delete
  3. anushkaconway18 February 2020 at 12:27

    Hi Emma! I found this post really insightful as i am a teacher myself too and thew way you laid out the steps of the new beginnings of the BAPP course really flowed well and helped me to adder myself i was on the right track! It is so daunting at the beginning when you don't know if you are correct or not but the only way to find out is to keep going!
    Best,
    Anushka

    ReplyDelete

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