{"id":1668,"date":"2013-10-24T17:14:40","date_gmt":"2013-10-24T21:14:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/?p=1668"},"modified":"2013-11-21T12:49:12","modified_gmt":"2013-11-21T17:49:12","slug":"parentteacher-observations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/2013\/10\/24\/parentteacher-observations\/","title":{"rendered":"Parent\/Teacher Observations"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week was parent observation week at the dance studio.\u00a0 It\u2019s kind of a strange thing for me.\u00a0 The studio where I danced growing up was part of the city arts center and has large windows where any parent (and any stranger wandering through for that matter) can watch class anytime they want.\u00a0 Most dance studios I\u2019ve taught at however do not have windows for parents to watch and so many offer parents the opportunity to sit in the studio and observe class once in a while (usually twice a year).<\/p>\n

This time I got to experience parent observation week as both a teacher and a parent and, honestly, both were a little awkward for me.\u00a0 As a teacher, any time there are observers in my class I get self-conscious.\u00a0 Not because I worry if I\u2019m doing something wrong but because non-dancers or dancers with different backgrounds may not understand my methods and teaching system.\u00a0 I had the same feelings whenever I had observers in my pre-school classrooms as well.\u00a0 I base my practices on research and what are considered \u201cbest practices\u201d and to people who don\u2019t have a current understanding of dance\/early childhood my style may seem unusual or unconventional.<\/p>\n

\"SONY<\/a>Observing Honeybun’s\u00a0class this week as a parent was also very strange.\u00a0 For one, being a teacher myself with lots of experience teaching young ones I of course naturally analyze teaching methods.\u00a0 It\u2019s also especially strange because the teacher and the teacher assistant are both my students now which makes my role a bit dual-sided and ambiguous and I\u2019m not sure where my place is in the situation.\u00a0 I\u2019m definitely not the type of mom that sits in class and directs my child, that is the teachers\u2019 job (even though I\u2019ve been teaching longer than they\u2019ve been alive\u2026).\u00a0 I do however, follow up with Honeybun\u00a0to make sure she is understanding things and doing them in a safe and age appropriate way.\u00a0 I also pointed out some deficiencies in the student\/teacher technique but did not feel comfortable critiquing their teaching as I\u2019m still new to teaching at the studio and haven\u2019t figured out my place.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m sure in time I\u2019ll find a balance between being a Dance Mom and a Dance Teacher but am still definitely struggling with the\u00a0“Battle of Mommy vs. Educator”<\/a>\u00a0in me.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week was parent observation week at the dance studio.\u00a0 It\u2019s kind of a strange thing for me.\u00a0 The studio where I danced growing up was part of the city arts center and has large windows where any parent (and any stranger wandering through for that matter) can watch class anytime they want.\u00a0 Most dance […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ballerina-mama","category-work-it-out"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1668"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1668\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1959,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1668\/revisions\/1959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}