Right now I am in the process of writing my next book which will be all about how to put together a great preschool curriculum. This book will not only include what to teach your preschoolers and how to teach the material, but it will also talk about the need to evaluate your class after it is completed. This will ensure you are giving your students the best class possible.
Today one of my Wish Upon a Ballet™ sessions ended and we had a little performance at the school where I have the class. Parents and grandparents came and the students were so excited! After the class was over I felt a great sense of satisfaction. I just felt good. When I think about what I am meant to do with my life I feel preschool ballet is it. I teach many other classes such as tap, jazz and musical theater, and I feel I am good at teaching all of them, however I feel my preschool ballet classes are something special.
After we have taught a class how do we know our class was successful? I know I had a great class but how exactly do I know? There were several signs. Right now I am just going to talk about the success of the performance itself.
The Wish Upon a Ballet™ performance is always during the last 15 minutes of the last class of each session. After we warm-up and review a bit we then ask the families to join us in the dance room. Today, when we finished, I knew our performance was successful because of these points.
During the performance the students stayed on their spots and they paid attention to me the whole 15 minutes.
They performed their steps with concentration and tried their best.
There were plenty of smiles on their faces!
We all had lots of fun!
The families were very thankful after the show and mentioned they would see me again next week for our new session of classes.
Everyone was very impressed with what we had accomplished in our seven week class. We also had a great time and the show was super cute!
In my new book I am going to talk about the fact that with a preschool class the performance is not always the best way to evaluate your students. Preschoolers can be unpredictable. Sometimes they are not ready to perform in front of an audience. It may be too much for them at that age. All of a sudden everyone is watching them and they just want to go hug their parents! It can be overwhelming.
Preschoolers also are very easily distracted. This is especially true if they are in a dance recital on a stage. The people, the lights, their costumes and the big space are all distractions. You may not be able to effectively judge yourself or your class at a recital.
However sometimes you can! Sometimes your preschool students perform amazingly well. They pay attention, they dance with enthusiasm and they have the best time! Today was one of those days for me.
That doesn’t mean that if the students were shy or distracted during their show that your class was not a success. Sometimes when preschoolers are distracted during a show it is hilarious. I have pretty much seen it all on stage and it is all precious.
Evaluating your class is an important part of your class as a whole. We all need to evaluate ourselves as teachers as well as evaluate our students. Are our students progressing? Are they having a great time? Are you having a great time? Question yourself and if you feel there are areas that need improvement seek the knowledge you need to succeed! It feels amazing when your students and their families can’t wait to come back to your class again for more learning and fun!
How to Teach Preschool Ballet: A Guidebook for Teachers
“This is a must-have book for anyone who works with preschoolers in any capacity”
Available on Amazon