The Scholar, the Teacher, and the Students.

The Scholar:
My name is Alli Moon! I am a Dance Education major at BYU and I am also pursuing a Math Education minor. I have fallen in love with education and the wonderful ideas and theories behind it. I have been particularly interested in dance because I feel like it is an art form that involves the whole person (Body, Mind, and Spirit) in a way that no other form can. I have been studying mostly contemporary and modern dance, but I have also found a profound interest in world dance. For the past two years I have been a member of BYU's International Folk Dance Ensemble (IFDE) and I have been able to learn about many different cultures and people through dance. With IFDE I have been able to dance and teach dance around California, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam. I love dance so much and I am passionate about sharing it, especially to students in the elementary classroom setting. I am very excited this semester to be involved as a dance scholar in the BYU arts bridge program.

The Teacher:
This semester I will be working with Ann Jackson, a 2nd grade teacher at Pony Express Elementary in Eagle Mountain, Utah. She is very excited for her students to experience dance and she knows that movement is something that they all want and need during their school experience.

The Students:
This last week I was able to do my first lesson with Mrs. Jackson's 2nd grade class, and the kids were so amazing. All of them were willing to try and explore movement together. They were so creative and brought fun perspective to our activities. For instance, we were working with dancing around the space using different energy qualities, and there was one boy who kept asking if we could dance like tornadoes! It was so fun to hear his eagerness to try something new and exciting! On the last energy quality round I told the students they could dance with any energy quality they would like, and sure enough, we had a few kids who got to dance like tornados. :) Overall, the first lesson was definitely a success.

I am excited for this opportunity and to see the kids expand their movement vocabulary.

Comments

  1. Heather DrewOctober 9, 2017 at 4:21 PM

    Sounds like you are off to a great start! I haven't been in the elementary school classroom for awhile and I love hearing this stories about how joyful and excited the students are to dance at school! Isn't it just natural for them! I love when students start to take ownership of their learning by creating qualities and images for the movement they want to explore. Excellent job fostering their own creativity!

    ReplyDelete

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