I was so nervous to be teaching dance in PE since I don’t have a coordinated bone in my body. But working with Jen and Ashley was so much fun, I think we created an energetic yet comfortable setting for the class today. Our goal was to create a simple and enjoyable lesson that would be a great for a dance introduction class for grade 5 students. Overall, I think the class went well. Everyone seemed to enjoy practicing the dance sequences and bringing everything together to perform a final dance routine. The class shared some great recommendations for what we can do next time and how to make the lesson even better. Firstly, we could have tweaked our instant activity a little by playing music while students completed the fitness activity instead of playing music while they ran, walked or skipped. The music would have motivated the students to complete their exercises and free style dance. Secondly, we could have incorporated a wider range of dance moves that involved bigger movements like arm reaches and bending to the ground. This would have been a great adaption that could have been incorporated if students needed a challenge. Thirdly, Steve brought up a great recommendation of introducing the class by sharing a bit of dance history. This would have been a good opportunity to access prior knowledge and motivate students for the rest of the class.

We were glad we incorporated technology into our lesson by allowing students to use iPads to record themselves while practicing the dance routine. It was helpful for students to see their routine on video since we did not have a mirror in the gym.

I really enjoyed teaching the dance class. Next time, I will use more of a ‘teachers voice’ in the gym to make sure everyone in class can hear me. I think dance will always be a fun unit to teach in PE. I look forward to teaching more fun classes in future. Can’t wait for our next class!