Our Discovery AfterSchool Instructors share stories from their classes in this guest blog series Discovery AfterSchool Stories. For more information on our AfterSchool Program, please visit – http://wesleyan.edu/greenstreet/youth/afterschool.html. Spring registration is open!
by Kamilah O’Connor
This semester at Green Street, I taught a class called “Beginning Step Dance” for 3-5th graders. My interest in teaching this class stemmed from my desire to share what I had learned from being on the step team at Wesleyan with the kids at Green Street. On the first day of class, I learned that none of the kids knew what step dance was so I spent part of the class explaining it to them using key words such as rhythm, synchronization, and beat. Each class I taught the kids one step, a combination of different stomps and claps to a specific rhythm, and reviewed the step from the previous class.
A highlight from the semester was the day I challenged the kids to work in groups and create their own step. This turned out to be a great experience because the kids were excited to explore their creativity and share with the rest of the class. I was impressed with the variety of steps that emerged from the groups as some kids reworked rhythms they had heard before while others made up something completely original.
Over the course of the semester the kids would come up to me and show me different steps that they practiced outside of class at home which revealed to me they were learning and understanding what I was trying to teach them. I really enjoyed teaching this class!
If Step Dance Class sounds fun, we have lots of dance classes this spring. Hip Hop, Ballet, African Dance, and Tap!