Artist

Valerie Branch

Program Type

Professional Development

Description

Where do we see adversity? In our lives… In our communities… In our world…? In different content areas within the classroom? Valerie Branch brings a vast background and knowledge of working and moving with students of varying learning abilities and ages. In Dancing Through The Curriculum, she will encourage and inspire teachers to feel comfortable with using movement-led teaching and learning within their classrooms. She will do this by breaking down the elements of dance and different movement strategies that can be incorporated into different curricular aspects within the classroom. The purpose of this workshop is to break down the elements of dance and specific movement strategies that will allow teachers to feel comfortable with using and allowing movement within their classroom. They will learn strategies that foster classroom community development and engagement, as well as learn new strategies that encourage student-led learning and participation. Teachers witness their students struggle everyday with healthy modes of conflict resolution. They will be able to use strategies in this workshop to help their students compare, contrast, and reflect on their personal experiences and how they connect to the experiences of the characters within a story. Not only will this help teachers encourage their students to dig deeper into their emotions and self-

OUTCOMES OF WORKSHOP:

Teachers will be able to:

–Use dance choreography and improvisation to compare, contrast, and reflect on personal moments of adversity.

–Use dance choreography and improvisation to compare, contrast and reflect on how the characters in a story or poem respond to adversity.

–Use strategies learned in this workshop to help students make personal connections to curricular objectives in order to enhance and encourage student interest and love of learning.

– Learn the steps to facilitate the given dance strategies to build classroom community and integrate with core curriculum / classroom-learning experiences: mirror game, flocking, name game, tableau.

–Build upon and encourage positive personal development in their students through movement.

–Learn how to use simple dance strategies as a stepping-stone to encourage and assist students as they create choreography within their classroom setting(s).

–Make arts-integrated connections to other core curriculum content.

–Explore how dance and movement can increase the level of positive communication and healthy discussion between students and teachers within the classroom.

–Use dance as a new form of non-verbal communication within their classroom setting (with the use of body shapes and movement gestures)

–Increase their confidence and level of comfort in relation to using dance/movement and music within a classroom setting discovery, but it will also help students make stronger connections to content in other subject areas.