Knowing and Learning

I saw this quote on Facebook the other day: 
           
         "Everybody is a genius.  But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing it is stupid.  Albert Einstein"

I have no idea if it is a genuine quote but it made me reflect upon how far I have come in this process.  I come from a very academic family where traditional methods of academia are the norm.  In module one watching the video by Sir Ken Robinson I felt liberated as I realised that all the experience that I had from teaching dance could equate to academic value and that there was more than one way of judging academic success. 

Not everyone can dance and even if they can, not everyone has the skills to teach dance. I know from personal experience people often do not see teaching dance as a career, more of a hobby, and even the other day someone said to me that I only work two days a week as a physio so why was I tired? and then I pointed out the other 4 days I work as a dance teacher plus all the administration involved in running a dance school and the fact that I was doing this MA course!  Everyone has different skills in life and these should be acknowledged and celebrated not negated because they do not fit with some preconceived ideals of what society dictates success should be. 

Whilst listening to the Skype session on 29th September I felt myself reflecting upon how learning is a reciprocal process between teacher and student.  Within a class situation, especially nowadays as dance classes are becoming increasingly diverse, as teachers we have to encompass many different learning styles with in one class in order to ensure that each student achieves what they are capable of especially in examinations. 

As I work through module two I am now more aware of my practice and why I teach / approach things in a certain way even if it is something that I have been instinctively doing for years.  As teachers we are always learning, new syllabi, new concepts etc, but in the past I only focused upon how it impacted upon my students and it's been quite a journey so far focusing upon what I have learnt in the process.