Adventures in Dance Teaching

This is for all of you who have wondered what it's like to be a dance teacher. I teach ages three to eleven, and let me tell you, it's an absolute adventure every single day!

Today, for example, we had a Christmas Skills week, since it's the last week before Christmas. I have a little girl who speaks Korean, but she knows a little bit of English. She was so excited to tell me something, but all I could understand was Teacher!...Santa....Reindeer....mouse....book! I guessed what she was saying and got excited with her. It was so cute!

A couple of weeks ago, an older girl dropped her glasses and decided not to pick them up. Another girl came hopping along, and yes, disaster happened. She hopped on the glasses. The girl who owns the glasses was devastated. A little later on, she came up to me and asked, "teacher, do I still look cute without my glasses?" Of course, my heart just melted. I told her that she looked really pretty, and I loved being able to see her beautiful green eyes.

This summer when I taught dance camps, I taught the three-year-olds. Everyone knows that three-year-olds are tons of fun, but also a lot of work. One girl decided to dig for gold, and out of the blue, I hear, "teacher, I have a booger." It was just so matter-of-fact, she wasn't even disgusted! She actually sounded kind of bored. It was gross to me, but I think it's a funny little story.

I decided to save the best for last, and yes, it's about a three-year-old. This one is classic! I was in the middle of teaching, when one of my dancers said, "teacher, I need to go potty!" I tried to tell her she could go, but she interrupted me by crying out,"I'm going, I'm going!" I felt so bad. I was very impressed that the other students were able to stay out of it while I was gone to get her taken care of and get cleaning supplies to clean up the mess. The ironic thing is that every time a three-year-old asks me to go potty, I always let him/her, to avoid such accidents.

These are just a few of my many adventures in teaching dance. Stay tuned for more, if there are any worth writing about.