The Finale!

 

Week 5

    As we approach our final weeks of the course, it was interesting to see our growth in understanding how dance can be integrated throughout the curricula. Our final assignment for the class required our groups to develop our own lesson that integrates two subjects. Thus far, I have witness dance and health and dance and science being combined within each other through the past two presentations. It was interesting to participate in these lessons because they provided me with an experience of how my students would interact if I were to design a similar lesson. During these presentations, I have realized the movement needs to come from within to encompass an abstract feeling. As our instructor mentioned, movement is not miming a song's words but taking the words and expressing the emotion they create from within. This comment resonated with me because my go-to moves that many students and teachers encompass follow the song's lyrics and represent an element of miming.  

    For the first lesson, the group focused on the solar system, which allowed all the participants to work with their peers to demonstrate different movement pieces associated with planets. The group provided us with characteristics related to each planet, which contributed to creating the movement piece. It was evident that the power of choice that was provided to the participants assisted in their creative process to develop these movement sequences. When moving on to the second lesson, the group allowed its participants to explore mental health through movement. My initial reaction was a bit unsure since it can be a challenging topic to discuss with students. I was amazed at how well the participants could interpret each individual scenario and incorporate different movements to create a movement sequence outlining the different movement strategies suggested by the presenters. During this presentation, I remember my group members and I stating that this was an exciting way to discuss and raise awareness of mental health within the classroom. 

    To conclude the day, our instructor reinforced the idea of using dance to aid in discussions of mental health within the classroom. She provided us with a ten-minute video that had students discuss their experience with dance education while examining the impact it has had on their own mental well-being. I was moved by the different responses and how they felt that dance education provided a safe space for them to express their learning. Overall, dance has been an unforgettable journey focusing on how it can be integrated within various subject areas. As a future educator, I plan to incorporate dance within many subject areas to allow students to have a movement break while furthering their learning abilities through movement.