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Preschool Tap Class: 3 Fresh Ideas For Keeping Your Kiddos Engaged
Keep the kids engaged during tap class! Okay, so you have flaps, heel toe walks, shuffles. But as every dance teacher knows, you need something pretty powerful to grab your kids’ attention in preschool tap class. So, is is possible to keep those little ones engaged in preschool tap class while still teaching them the fundamentals? Of course! More than likely, you’ve developed a few activities of your own. However, you can never have too many options when it comes to great class ideas. But perhaps the ones that have become you’re go-tos need a break. Something can be fun and diverting to kids for a while. However, eventually the…
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Jobs for Freelance Writers: Is it a Great Idea for Ghostwriters to Use Job Boards?
Jobs for freelance writers–it’s something we talk about a lot in writer’s circles. Wanna open a can of worms during a job discussion? Bring up the topic of job boards for writers and you’ll crack open quite a can of worms. But guess what, I’m gonna do it anyway. Why am I so determined to tackle this subject, you may ask? Because without job boards there is no way that I would be a full-time freelancer right now. Finding freelance or ghostwriting gigs elsewhere is fantastic. However, I feel that, when used properly, job boards are a great resource as far as finding work goes. There are a number of…
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3 Easy Peasy Tips for Keeping Preschool Tap Class Under Control
So you have a roomful of girls dressed in pink leotards and boys in black stretchy pants ready for preschool tap class. It’s adorable. Then you put tap shoes on all of their feet. The noise escalates. It just gets louder and louder….. So what’s to keep a teacher from going mad from all the chaos that comes with pairing 4-5 year olds with tap shoes? Here are a few ideas that will help you keep your tap class attentive and under control. Quiet Mice I find the metaphor of “tiptoeing quietly like mice” especially helpful during times of transition in class. In order to keep the kiddos from thundering…
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Dance Teacher Professionalism Tips That Will Set You Apart
A few dance teacher professionalism tips that don’t cost a cent. We’ve all seen ‘em. We’ve even met ‘em. Some of us have even looked up to ‘em. You’ll see later why I say SOME of us. Yep, it’s no secret that most of the time when a dance teacher reaches a point where he can openly call himself a professional, he lets some of the great foundations one clings to as an amateur slide. Today I want to talk about a few of those foundational, amateur values that are worth holding on to even once a person crosses over to being a professional. And the good news? They don’t…
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5 Things That Instantly Make a Freelancer Appear More Professional
Writer tips that will set you apart from the rest on the job. The job of a writer houses a great deal of creative liberty–heck, it’s one of the reasons I wanted to be a freelancer in the first place! However, with this freedom comes the feeling that since it is a seemingly “unconventional” job choice, the rules of professionalism are different. They’re really not. People are people whether you are dealing with them in the writing world or not, so you have to act accordingly. It’s not that once we become professional writers we intentionally stop offering common courtesy, it’s just that when our focus shifts to what seem…
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Dance Clothes: Leggings and Pants I Love for Teaching
One of the perks of being an artist for a living is that I get to live in stretchy pants. I’m pretty sure I’ve only worn jeans a handful of times since starting my freelance writing and dance teaching career. However, the functionality required of the dance clothes I wear when I am writing in a coffee shop are quite different from those I wear when I am teaching ballet and tap classes or salsa dancing. When I choose what leggings to wear while teaching I look for them to be comfortable, durable, and stylish. Any dancer will agree that wearing comfortable clothes in class is high on the must-have…
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5 Signs of a Great Ghostwriting Client: Job Navigation
Like in any sphere, there are many different types of people to be found in the freelancing pool. When you’re a writer, it can be difficult to distinguish the good ghostwriting client from the not-so-good one. It’s a two-way street, but we’ll have to save what to look for in a good freelancer for another time. Today, let’s delve into five ways to spot a great potential client. As a ghostwriter and developmental editor, this list emerged in my brain based on personal experience. I’ve had great experiences and ones that were quite the opposite of great through the course of my career, so I’d like to take the opportunity…
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Dance Outfits: Under Armour Edition for Teachers
Today the topic of discussion is: my favorite Under Armour outfit for teaching ballet and tap classes. I generally go for neutral colors like grey and black when I am teaching or dancing. I just feel the most comfortable in them and think that they are the best fit for me. I will admit, I don’t have a whole lot of Under Armour in my closet. But my recent discovery of this outfit combo has me thinking that I’ll want to take a look at more work out clothes from here in the near future. I’m sure there are lots of teachers out there who discovered the wonder of this…
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A Few of the Most Underrated Dance Movies Around
Dancers just love watching other dancers dance. It’s inspiring and when you love something, you just can’t get enough of it. Even after I’ve taught all day and gone to rehearsal or class afterward, adding a little more dance to my day is rarely out of the question. There are many dancer movie lists out there. Still, I’d like to offer one featuring a few of my favorites. The main requirement a film had to pass in order to make it into this particular post was this: it possesses solid, great quality dancing. There are some ‘dance’ movies out there with okay-ish dancing. However, in my opinion, the dancers and…
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Choosing the Road Not Taken—the Artist’s Road
You might be wondering about the picture above. Why have I given you a picture of me trying to climb over the prohibitive sign on a lush green cliff in Maui? Here’s why: it serves as a visual demonstration of the fact that I’ve always taken the road less traveled even when it looked to everyone else that it would be “too dangerous.” I had lots of people tell me to stay on the path. But did I? No. And boy am I glad that I didn’t. I am sitting here writing this at 2:21am. Here’s why: Last night I had rehearsal from 9pm-11pm. By the time I got back…
