Teaching dance combinations and choreography were some of the skills dance teacher Cara Lavallee set out to teach in her summer course, the Daily Dance Challenge.
"Another skill was how to be an effective 'online' student," explained Mrs. Lavallee. "I tried to be super clear in my communication to parents and students about how to be successful in the course. This included what to focus their efforts on (dancing, not video editing), how to set up a distraction-free area at home for the Zoom sessions, and how to manage their time off of Zoom."
Students met via Zoom for 35-minutes with a new dance combination introduced each day. "The focus was on picking up choreography quickly and creativity," said Mrs. Lavallee. Students then recorded their short dance combination and curated their video submissions focusing on costumes, locations, and at times guest appearances.
"To build excitement, I gave out daily awards for their video submissions. Each day I also gave each student a compliment about their dance video. Trying to build that student-teacher relationship online is a challenge, but this was how I let each student know I was rooting for them and noticing their hard work!"
Mrs. Lavallee taught two sections of the class, one for Lower School and another for Middle School students. "I had fun creating and carrying out this course. It had a true 'summer camp' feel in that it was fun, exciting and energetic," observed Mrs. Lavallee. "The spirit of online learning means some time with me, the teacher, on Zoom, but also some time working independently without me and doing things like decision-making, problem-solving and independent practice by themselves."
The summer class took place June 22-25.
