Ballerina Tantrums

Last week, I taught a ballet class in substitution for a friend who had a business meeting. This was a class of mostly 8-10 year olds in an International school. Everything went fine until I started teaching Jetes. It was a this point that a cute little girl began showing a long face because she couldn't do it. I made some adjustments which seemed to have appeased our little ballerina. When stretch time came, I asked them to take their legs off the barre and keep them in the air. It was then that little ballerina went to a corner and sulked. It tried to get her up to no avail. So I decided to ignore her. As the class went on, she kept having a sluggish carriage of her body. Deep inside I was boiling as it was irritating as a leaky faucet though I had to be courteous all the time. By God's grace, I got through the class without incident.

This event got me thinking about how I would deal with kids like this. So when I taught the same class today, I tried an experiment. I told the girls that they would either get a very hard or very slow class if I heard a whine or saw a tantrum. It worked, I didn't see any horrid behavior today though little ballerina would not look me in the eye during Reverance. Its really about letting the kids know who the teacher is. As a professor once said, "The Teacher is the Master of the Classroom".

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Teaching kids

Today was another day teaching ballet. I taught kids with the average age of 6. Little tots as they are, you face the challenge of getting their attention and getting them to follow your instruction. This day was no different from the usual, so I told them about 3 animals I don't like to have in my class. First are the cheetahs who run around a lot. Next are the monkeys who hang on to the barres. Last the sloths who want to lie or sit down not doing anything. I then asked them if they are anyone of the 3 or if they are humans. This got their attention. I say to myself, that I am NOT a zookeeper and that they can not be what causes hair loss!

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Teaching Children

Working with children is quite fascinating and challenging. It involves a lot of psychology like most health care jobs. In a dance class setting, factors such as floor space assignment is crucial. If you put to talkative pupils together then that would be disaster. You would also want to put the best friend of a scared student beside her. Somehow, its more of an art than a science. A balance of "fear" and encouragement. It truly takes patience and diligence to teach children but the benefit of reaching the next generation is rewarding enough.

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