Goal setting in dance teaching

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I have written about SMART goal setting before. Here I want to say a bit more about what it is and how we can use it in dance teaching.

The SMART model of goal setting (and achievement) has been around for some time. It is used in many different areas from health education to sport to dance to business and more. Can you see how SMART goal setting  could be useful in your dance teaching practice?

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SMART Goals are:

S pecific

M easurable

A chievable

R ealistic

T imed

SMART goals are designed to help you to identify that what you want to achieve is realistic and determine a deadline to work towards. SMART goals are designed to help you so be positive when answering the questions.

Let’s consider the SMART steps in some more detail. You may want to use these for yourself in your role as a dance teacher or you may want to use it with some of your dance students to help them achieve their goals individually or as a group. However you use it the principles are the same.

What is your goal?

Do you have a goal in mind? It is useful to write down your initial goal. This is what you are aiming for overall. Then answer the questions below related to each part of the acronym.

Specific – what is it that you want to accomplish? Be specific about what it is you are aiming to do. Does your goal involve working with others? When do you want to do this? Why is this a goal?

Measurable – how are you going to measure progress? How will you know when you have successfully met your goal? This is important so that you know when you are making progress and know when you have reached your goal.

Achievable – do you have the required skills in order to achieve your goal? If not, is it possible to obtain them so that you can achieve your goal? What is your motivation for this goal? Is the effort needed worth it to reach your goal?

Realistic – why are you setting this goal at this point in time? Is your goal realistic? Is it achievable? Again another important point – you want to know that you are setting a goal that is realistic – there is little point in setting goals that are impossible to achieve.

Timed – What is the deadline for your goal? Giving yourself a realistic deadline is useful as you will have a time frame to work within to achieve your goal.

SMART goal – some leave their SMART goal as written out above and others prefer to review what has been identified above and from this information write a new goal statement. You can decide what is most useful for you in helping you to achieve your goal.

Using SMART goals with competitive dancers

Using SMART goals can be a useful method for dance teachers to use with their competitive dancers. It also involves the competitive dance students in the goal setting process so they are are part of it and can identify and set their own goals. They may have more than one goal that they are working on.

SMART teaching goals

When planning dance content and technique for the coming weeks, months, term and so on SMART goals can help you to identify progress and goals in your teaching. And isn’t it good to feel that you are making progress? Through making your teaching goals SMART goals you can consider an individual specific goal, perhaps one step. and you can also consider the bigger picture through having SMART longer term goals for a whole class or group of students.

Using SMART goals

I hope this has given you some ideas of how to use SMART goals in your dance teaching or dance practice. Once you start using SMART goals you should be able to think of lots of ways that you can make use of them and benefit from using them too.

 

Teaching Dance for Health

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It is exciting that Dance for Health is becoming more widespread and more acknowledged today. I always had an interest in the health aspects of dancers and dance. So it is not surprising that in addition to my dance and dance teaching career and qualifications I chose to also study health education and over time gained various qualifications including a Masters Degree in Health Education. This gave me a very good grounding in health education and promotion and led to me blending together aspects of my dance and health education roles to become a Dance & Health Education Consultant.

I have been teaching Dance for Health type classes for well over 25 years and as a dance teacher who started out teaching serious and elite dance students looking to follow a competitive or career minded path, learning about teaching Dance for Health came with a whole different agenda and set of teaching priorities.

If you are joining me on my brand new course Teaching Dance for Health then I look forward to sharing with you some of things I have learned from my work in both dance and health and to helping you to explore what Teaching Dance for Health has to offer.

Leaping

Teaching Dance for Health is relevant for all ages and dance genres. We will explore and focus on ways to promote the health and social benefits of learning dance within a Dance for Health environment.

Closing date for Teaching Dance for Health course is Wednesday 30 January 2019.

Download a course information sheet for any of the courses here

To book go to Book a Course

Another course running at the same time as Teaching Dance for Health is:

Dance Teaching Ethics: An introduction

You can book it too at Book a Course

And as above, you can download an information sheet about this course and all of the Short Online CPD Courses for Dance Teachers from this link

 

 

 

Social and leisure dance

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There are still a few hours left (UK time) to book your place on the Teaching Social and Leisure Dance, short online CPD course for dance teachers.

This is an ideal course if you are already teaching a form of social and leisure dance and if you currently teach structured dance classes for those looking to have a career in dance then this course will be useful to you too.

Teaching social and leisure dance is different to teaching strict technique. Social and leisure dance encourages people to learn in a fun and relaxed environment and in a safe manner. And the emphasis is on the social benefits of this type of dance class or event.

A real mix of dance teachers have taken this course previously. Ballroom, Line dance and   ballet and other teachers have already enjoyed this course. It offers an opportunity to explore teaching methods and approaches in social and leisure dance as well as a variety of other, useful aspects of teaching social and leisure dance classes.

Line dance teachers have particularly enjoyed exploring some of the areas of teaching that are new to them or just a new way of thinking about some aspect of teaching Line dancing. This previous article about Line dancing and teacher CPD might interest you.

The personal weekly tutorial emails tailor the course to suit your own dance teaching practice and teachers find this a particularly helpful aspect of these courses.

Find out more about this course and later courses. And you can book here.

Booking and email address

When you book a course please remember that the email you give when you book will be the email that you will be contacted on about the course. So please check it to make sure you don’t miss any information about your course.

You will receive an email after you book and also one near to the start of the course. Should you wish to use a different email address for your course please send this in after you have booked or when responding to one or our emails before your course starts.

BOOK NOW

 

 

 

 

Courses starting 4 January 2019 – extended closing date – book now

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To give you the opportunity to book one of the courses starting 4 January 2019 the closing date has been extended to the end of the year. So you can book until midnight on Monday, New Year’s Eve (UK time).

These short online courses are a great way to get some CPD under your belt. They offer personal feedback and in this way are tailored to your own dance teaching practice.

There are two courses available to book starting on 4 January:

Proprioception

Teaching Social and Leisure Dance

You can download an information sheet about these courses here.

You can also book other courses starting later in January and February.

Don’t forget you can sign up to follow CPD for Dance Teachers for free and get notifications when new information is added to the site. Click on the link in the sidebar.

 

 

 

Season’s Greetings

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A big thank you to all whom I worked with in 2018. Warm wishes for the festive season.

The new year is just around the corner now. If you are thinking about doing some CPD at the beginning of the year then take a look at the courses coming up. Do remember to check the closing date for course bookings so you don’t miss out on the course/s that you want to take.

Don’t forget we have two brand new courses on the January – March 2019 list.

Enjoy whatever you are doing over the holiday season and I look forward to a new year of courses in 2019. I hope you will join me on a CPD course soon.

Warmest wishes

Sho