19 - Simple Ways to Make Every Student Feel Seen

And I wanted to share those with you today.

So here are some simple, but again, not small, ways to make every student feel seen.

So number one is to say each student's name at least once and include one piece of positive feedback not related to their body.

So that one is kind of loaded, has a couple different parts to it.

Something as simple as addressing each student by name at least once is so important and it goes a lot farther away than we realize.

This is something that I also learned from Dance End.

If you've been listening for a while, you know that I mentioned them a lot.

Look them up if you're not familiar with Dansend.

But something that they talked about in one of their trainings was the idea of writing every student's name down on a popsicle stick and placing in a cup or something.

And once you've given that student some piece of positive feedback, setting it down, and then you'll go for the next one just to make sure that every single student is addressed.

And that is such a cool way to go about this.

And maybe if you teach in a very big class, this would be something that would be useful.

But if you generally work with students in smaller settings, like maybe six to 10 dancers, and it's easier for you to kind of just go about it without the popsicle sticks, that's wonderful too.

An example of this could be, Genevieve, I love how much energy you had in your grand battement.

Or Chloe, the groundedness that you just demonstrated in that combination was so improved.

Or something like that, but something that really shows them that you see progress, you see strength in something, and it's not just related to like...

Oh, your feet are so pretty, which is nice to hear, but something that goes a little bit more into depth and is really unique to that student can make their whole day.

Number two is to offer moments for mental check-ins.

This can be something as simple as before class starts, how are you all feeling today? I talk a lot about or have talked in the past about how I like to start class with a question of the day.

And sometimes it's really silly and fun, sometimes a little bit more moody, like what color are you feeling like today? I love that question because it really makes the students think and They're like, I feel like a warm purple or whatever.

And then it kind of opens the door for a little more expansion and helps me understand the mindset of where the students are that day.

But beyond that, allows the students space and time to check in with where they are mentally and emotionally.

share that with the teacher in a way that doesn't have to be big but it allows that space to be human and I think many of us could agree that we may have been in settings in dance settings in the past where you walk in the space and you kind of feel like you have to put on this persona right and it doesn't always feel like there's space to maybe be having an off day and And allowing the students just a moment to mentally check in with themselves.

Maybe you frame it as, let's take 30 seconds, close your eyes, place your hand on your heart, and just check in with where you're at today.

And then when eyes open, we get started.