Bringing out their Best: for Dance, Drama & Music Teachers

Today’s article follows the journey of six drama teachers from Victoria, Australia who set out to include First Nations content in curriculum. Each teacher came to the project with a shared moral purpose and a lot of fear. To embark on a journey without a final destination. All made mistakes along the way but were joyfully rewarded by their work so I thought I’d share their stories with you. https://performingartspd.com/first-nations-content/Thanks for listening! Follow us on Facebo...

We are hearing more than ever about how teachers are burning out. How young teachers aren't coping with the stressors of this demanding profession. I was wondering how graduates could be better supported and came across this 2022 article which describes a year long, online mentoring program between a network of advanced and novice music teachers. Instead of a one-on-one relationship, the network sought to spread the load. Providing a breadth of experienced and support to these juni...

This week we look at a study which did a review of 21 studies measuring the effectiveness of feedback interventions on motor skills. And the good news for me in this is that we have a purpose! Apparently our feedback is important if students want to make progress.https;//performingartspd.com/feedback-finale/Thanks for listening! Follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram or check out our https://performingartspd.com

How to teach Pop when you’ve only even known Classical?There is increasing pressure on music programs to include popular music genres however arguably the biggest stumbling block to this is us. The teachers! Sadly most of us studied classical genres in our school and university life and many of us continue to pursue these genres in our leisure time. It therefore comes naturally to us to run music ensembles based on our own experiences but we are less likely to encourage and foster ensemb...

Whether we teach dance, drama or music, motor learning is an integral part in performance achievement. Aside from class, there's an expectation our students will work on their performance skills in their own time and for this, they need to be motivated. Goal setting, lies at the heart of how a student initiates, sustains and evaluates their progress. Building impetus and drive to continually do better. So today’s study is looking at the role of achievement goals for people learning ...

I remember when I first had my babies, I was astounded at how much they practiced. Without me doing anything to encourage them!When they learned to use their voice they would lie in their cot and experiment with slides and sounds. When they learned to roll they would roll at any opportunity, when learning to crawl they kept practicing, same with walking, and talking and so on. So why on earth does this change as we get older?To be honest, I haven’t got a clue but it did spark my interes...

As performing arts teachers there is an expectation that we are brimming with creative vibes! That we are able to come up with inspiring and innovative solutions to anything from lack of budget to poor commitment in our students. Sadly however, this is not always possible. As we become exhausted and run down our creativity can also become depleted. Therefore I thought I’d give your creativity a boost with some ideas of how to assess your creativity, how creativity works and so...

We work in an age where our students are more often fixed on their phones than on faces of their friends. Presentation of self is stylised and without the imperfections of everyday existence. Students whose attention is habitually split find it harder to get into flow and to remain mindful and present for classes and performances. Today's podcast is from an acting teacher who discovered strategies to create meaningful performance work for this group of students. Enjoy! https://perfo...

Do we really need to demonstrate? This 2018 dance study trials movement vs instruction. To answer “how necessary are visual demonstrations to embed performance skills”. Enjoy! Thanks for listening! Follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram or check out our https://performingartspd.com

Our students are constantly being pushed to extend their boundaries, recognise what they don't know and try to expand on that knowledge base. This for many causes considerable discomfort which can lead to poor learning outcomes. Today's 2022 article looks at how we cope with discomfort and how to assist students to confront it head on!Thanks for listening! Follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram or check out our https://performingartspd.com

What does it take to make a confident ensemble that works cohesively? This 2020 study of an amateur choir comes up with some interesting ideas. Enjoy!Thanks for listening! Follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram or check out our https://performingartspd.com

Welcome to Season 2 of Bringing out their Best. This season we are going to look at effective feedback for developing performing artists. Today's episode is about whether we should bother with feedback at all or are we wasting our breath!Thanks for listening! Follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram or check out our https://performingartspd.com

Today’s article reviewed over 3700 studies to see how the performing arts plays an integral role in improving and maintaining well-being.So let’s remind ourselves of these benefits and how we can renew our wellbeing and be rewarded too!Https://performingartspd.com/blog/post-pandemic-wellbeing/Thanks for listening! Follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram or check out our https://performingartspd.com

Be honest… have you ever thought about using drama to teach scientific concepts to a group of 10 year olds? I know I haven’t. Today's study looks at how 10 year olds research Electricity and turn it into an award winning play!Https://performingartspd.com/blog/teaching-science-with-drama/Thanks for listening! Follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram or check out our https://performingartspd.com

In recent years there’s been a shift towards recognising and empowering those in our community whom have historically been without a voice. e.g. Black Lives Matter, Me2 and LGBTQI+ movements.As teachers there has been a growing requirement for our cultural competence but can we ever learn sufficient skills to achieve competence in another culture?Https://performingartspd.com/blog/cultural-humility/Thanks for listening! Follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram or check out our https://per...

In the last few months we have examined how Actors and Musicians memorise. Today we are going to look at how Dancers memorise hours of complex movement sequences, and find out if there are any symmetries between their strategies and those of other performing artists.Https://performingartspd.com/blog/memorise-like-a-dancer/Thanks for listening! Follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram or check out our https://performingartspd.com

Are you a performing arts teacher and a perfectionist? I suspect if I asked who wasn’t I might get a more manageable response. Well, we’ve talked about perfectionism in our students and what we can do to help them but today I thought I’d talk about perfectionism in ourselves, the teachers.https://performingartspd.com/blog/perfectionist-teachers/Thanks for listening! Follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram or check out our https://performingartspd.com

Are you the kind of person who can’t stop thinking about a performance after it is done? Particularly if it didn’t go as planned? I confess I am guilty of this and as it turns out, I’m not the only one. This is actually a thing. It’s even got a name - Post-Event Rumination.So does it matter if our students’ ruminate after performances? Is it something we should be concerning ourselves with? And if so, what can we do about it?Https://performingartspd.com/blog/post-performance-rumination/Thanks...

We all know that as performing artists we are expected to perform whilst others are watching. Well our students arguably have it worse. From their perspective, they have to perform whilst others watch and assess their performance for grading, admissions, competitions and the like. Ok, professionals have it bad too but we are teachers so we have to focus on the kiddies.The thing about artistic performance is that it is qualitative and experiential, making measurement of techniques used to focu...

I don’t know about you, but I certainly have some “entitled students” come into my studio. You know the type I mean? Who feel they deserve special treatment that isn’t warranted based on their academic performance. The students who believe their minimal effort should be publicly rewarded, that you are available to them at anytime and that everyday problems should mean extensions and special consideration. Well recently, someone shared an article about academic entitlement stemming f...