Burning CD’s for classrooms.
Last year I learned that one of the most worthwhile things I can do is burn CD’s of dance class music for all the classrooms I work with. I discovered that it has a substantial impact on the classroom community. Some of the feedback I’ve received from teachers and students is listed below:
- It gives teachers and students access to the music we use in dance class and provides an opportunity to practice the dances (which is great! especially as performances approach).
- It helps extend the reach of the arts education experience from dance class once a week to potentially every day, in the classroom. It also helps create a movement friendly space in the classroom.
- It supports teachers who want to teach Language Arts lessons through the lyrics of a particular piece of music from dance class (I was surprised to learn that quite a few teachers actually do this, in an attempt to connect curricula).
- Although it’s only a small step in this direction, I believe it sends the message that one aspect of school does carry over to another: everything doesn’t have to be so isolated. We can learn Math in the auditorium and we can dance in our classroom…
- Those CD’s have probably led to countless freeze dance sessions :)
