How to Stay Hip with Teaching HipHop!

For the past ten years, I have trained under the guidance of Rendee and Geri Parker at Desert West Dance Academy. This year, was the first time that I would be teaching my own classes! I was very excited when my teachers asked me to come and be a part of their teaching staff.


I have always worked around kids and I absolutely love every minute of it. But, when you are in charge of a classroom full of 15 little ankle biters everything changes. I remember the words of advice that my dance teachers gave me were, “You run the classroom, not them!” I comprehended what they had said though none of it made sense until the day that everyone was running wild! The kids were running around the classroom, some were playing on the gymnastics mats, and the other half were eating food. Right then I wanted to throw in the towel and say that I couldn’t do it, though I was not a quitter so I put on my mean teacher yell and got my classroom under control. Ever since that day I have not had a single problem since and my girls actually all listen to me.

Though my older girls are something else… At least with little girls their problems are with who cut who in line and name calling. With the older girls, everything is the end of the world to them. Sometimes I think that most of them come in there to socialize and not to dance. They will pick up their cell phones and text and even answer them while I am teaching! So now they must leave their phones in their bags and set them aside and are not to touch them until the end of class. Though I think that we have finally found our middle point and I understand them and they get where I’m coming from.

Our recital will be coming up on June 21, 2008. For the most part I feel confident enough that my girls will do well, in the recital but, there is still another part of me that thinks that they are not ready. Though I hope that all of my worries go away and that my girls will shine through!!


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