New Season, New Students, New Lesson Plans!

Do you get excited about starting a new season of classes? I DO! New students, returning students - it doesn't matter. I love them all! I enjoy gathering fresh ideas for my classes and mapping out what I want to work on for the next few months. To me, it's ALMOST as exciting as brand-new school supplies. 

I love seeing what works for my students and the challenge (at times) of what I need to change based on how it's going in class.  We've all been there. This year I am teaching lower-level classes and I am really enjoying it. Because I am in Florida, we start our classes in early August. I know many studios haven't even started back quite yet. 

I have always felt like the first few months of classes (Aug - Oct) can be some of the most productive classes for the entire year. Why do I say that? I simply feel that as the Fall season sets when Halloween hits, students get excited and let's face it, a little sugared up.=)  Homework loads and testing increase and then semester finals creep in as well. That leads us into November and December which increases the overall load on families. This is not a bad thing - don't get me wrong - just an observation that I have had for years and I notice a difference in the focus of my students.

Do you experience this with your students? And if you do, what, if anything do you do in your classes to help keep them engaged, excited, and working hard? I love to dangle 'Vocabulary Class' in front of my students and usually conduct it closer to a holiday break. It's wildly requested and I would do it more often but personally, I have a hard time letting go of technique time. 

I have some super fun ballet class vocabulary games that I have created and played with my students and they love them. But I have an idea - I would like to start either selling them or giving them out as an incentive for anyone who purchases my ballet lesson plans and provides a review. 

Would you be interested in some of my ballet vocabulary games? I'd love to get feedback! If you are one of my customers and you provide my ballet class plan with a review I would be happy to send you a game as a "thank you"! Thanks for your insights and best of luck starting a new year. If you need any new ideas or simply want an entire class lesson plan to work with - check out what I offer!