My Dance Week: Teaching Full-Time in a Public Middle School (Jennifer Smith)

My name is Jennifer Smith. I am the dance teacher at Korematsu Middle School in El Cerrito, California, a city across the bay from San Francisco. I have a bachelor's degree in Exercise Science from the University of California, Berkeley, a master's degree in Kinesiology from Saint Mary's College of California, and a Physical Education K-12 Teaching Credential from San Francisco State University. California is currently working on a dance specific teaching credential. Until it becomes the standard, all teachers teaching dance in public schools need to have a Physical Education Credential.

I began my dance teaching career in a public high school. I started with one beginning dance class, one intermediate class and a small production class. To fill out my schedule, I taught the Freshman PE classes – “Fitness for Life” – for 2 periods a day. The dance program grew very quickly and after one year of teaching, I became a full-time dance teacher, teaching 5 dance classes a day.

After 10 years teaching high school, I took some time off to be home with my young daughter. When I eventually went back to teaching I was hired by my alma mater, Saint Mary's College. At SMC I created and taught the Dance Science curriculum for the undergraduate dance majors and minors. I also taught modern, ballet and pilates classes. After five years of teaching at SMC, I was hired by the director of the program to help create a new MFA degree in dance. This was a non-teaching, administrative job that I held for three years. I'm very proud of the work I did at SMC. I loved working with my colleagues and both the undergraduate and graduate students, but it became clear that I needed to get back into the studio to share my passion for teaching dance. As soon as I expressed interest in teaching again, a perfect job came my way.

I currently teach full-time at Korematsu. There are 728 seventh and eighth graders on this very diverse campus. I'm the first dance teacher for the school and have complete support from the administration to create and develop a comprehensive dance program. I teach five classes a day: three seventh grade classes (level 1) and two eighth grade classes (level 2). In order to progress into the level 2 class, the level 1 students need to do well in seventh grade (attendance, participation, effort). Both levels earn their PE credits from their dance classes.

In both levels I teach units in jazz, ballet, modern/contemporary, hip hop and choreography. Seventh graders also receive instruction in social dance, dances from other cultures, and a unit of exploring the Elements of Dance through creative movement. Having progressed from their level 1 foundations, the level 2 students are taught more advanced technique in all styles. They also learn to choreograph group dances, which are performed in the annual spring performance.

Other teaching work at school:

I rehearse the spring musical, Annie, after school on Fridays 3:30-5:30pm from January until the show in May.
Every other Tuesday I teach a “Homeroom” class. This is a group of 25 students (not necessarily dance students) who will stay together as a homeroom class for their time here at KMS. All homeroom teachers teach a curriculum created by the administration, so it’s not extra prep time for any teacher.

Performance opportunities for the students:

March: Open House. This is an informal opportunity for both level 1 & 2 to show a few of their projects.
March: District Dance Festival. All dance departments in our district will bring 2 dances to this one night event. As of now, we are the only middle school who has a dance department. There are 5 HS dance departments in our district.
May: El Cerrito High School spring performance. The high school, where most of our students will attend, has invited my level 2 class to perform a dance in their show.
May: Our annual show (level 2). Two nights.
June: Collaborative show with our school art and band departments.

My own classes, rehearsals, and self-care:

In addition to teaching, I also perform with a modern dance company, Dana Lawton Dances, a company in residence at Shawl- Anderson Dance Center in Berkeley, CA. We have a local annual season and often tour internationally. This year we will be in Thailand for 3 weeks in August.

As we all know, teaching is not the same as taking class or keeping one's own body in dancing shape. This is what my week looks like –

Mondays: After school I go to the gym for an elliptical and free weights workout
Tuesday: Lindy hop class 8-9pm
Wednesday: Another gym day – some sort of cardio and yoga/pilates
Thursdays: I try to take a 30 minute walk in my neighborhood as soon as I get home from school and before I get distracted
Friday: off
Saturday: Company class 11:15-12:45 at Shawl-Anderson Dance Center; rehearsal 2-5pm
Sunday: Either I take the day off or I take a ballet class at 11:30

Photo: M. Kertsz