Thread: Dilemma: Teacher Training

I will have been learning bellydance for 7 years this February. I have wanted to teach the dance for quite a long time but have always wanted to make sure that if and when I did this, the time was right. My teacher has been suggesting for some time now that I take the JWAAD foundation course (which she is involved with) and has expressed a high level of confidence in my ability to do this. I have recently been doing a little bit of teacher assistant work in her class.

The next course running in our area starts in Feb 2009. I don't necessarily have to do it then but the opportunities are not that frequent and I think that my teacher feels that she would like me to do is asap, if I am going to continue in any kind of teaching assistant/sub role.

However, aside from significant and basic doubts about being up the the job I have these worries.

1) A cynical part of me is uncertain about whether I would be doing this for the right reasons.

2) Although the foundation course is not extravagantly expensive, I have sincere concerns about being able to pay for it. If I do manage to scrape the funds together, I worry about not being able to afford/attend many workshops next year

3) I'm really concerned about the impact on my own dance development. I have made some significant improvements in the last year and I would like to keep up the momentum.

4) Lack of family support. I have discussed the whole thing several times with my Mum, with whom I am close and whose advice I respect, but this has already led to extreme conflict with my Dad who is very unsupportive of me anyway (I committed the gross crime of not being cut of for A Career in the City many years ago and have never been forgiven ..c::). Apparently, wanting to teach dance at all is just the latest example of my stupidity, my irresponsibility and the fact that I am wasting my life on Unimportant Things. ..cr.:

5) Although doing the course doesn't automatically mean that you have to teach, or teach straightaway, I am concerned about the logistics and time commitment involved in teaching. I have a full time job which I enjoy, and another part-time one (which I don't enjoy) right now to make ends meet. As I am the sort of person who likes to do things properly or not at all, I would like to be able to put time and effort into marketing and developing a business base. I am also concerned about the impact of the economy on the demand for dance teachers/dance classes.

Other than that, I'd really love to do the course, and if I don't do it now, I certainly plan to do it in the future.

What does Bhuz think?

You know my involvement in the Foundation Course, so you can judge for yourself how far to take what I say with a pinch of salt!

1) Is the cynical "am I doing it for the right reasons?" about the wanting to teach, or about doing the training?

2) This is a legitimate concern. You need to decide whether the teacher training is more important to you, in the next 6 months, say, than doing personal dance training. Otherwise, you maybe need to consider the timing for the next available Foundation Course, which may not be for another 6 months after that (I don't *know* what the anticipated timing might be, that was just a guess). It's about whether you make this a 6 month plan, a 12 month plan, a 2 year plan, whatever.

3) This may be the big factor that impacts on item 2), and turns teacher training into a 2 year plan rather than a 6 month plan.

4) However much I love my family, dancing is always something that I've done for myself, because I love it, and I neither expect nor demand that they have an opinion on it. I don't have a husband/partner that I'm depriving of my company, I don't have children that need looking after. I figure I can do what I like with my time. You've mentioned parents but not a partner or children, and I get the impression you're old enough to be able to make decisions about your free time without needing your parents' approval. Of course, if part of the equation is that they'd be helping to finance the training, or to look after your children on the weekends you're away, that's a different issue.

5) This goes back to item 1), I suspect. It's good that you're thinking about teaching very realistically, and you're approaching it in a planned and positive way. (Damn, that's exactly the kind of teachers we need in this country!). Again, it goes back to timing, and whether you want to be in a position to go ahead with teaching once you make the time commitment to it, or whether you want to wait 6-12 months to assess your own views more clearly.

In writing all of this out, it seems to be boiling down to timing. It sounds like you're maybe feeling pressured (either within yourself, or from your own teacher) to join the Feb 09 course, when you're not sure yet whether that's what you really want to do, or if you do, whether it's maybe a bit early for you.

Your teacher may hate me for saying this, but I kind of feel you can afford to leave it a little while, and take more time to make your decision. There will be other Foundation Courses. I'm sure she would understand if you explain you want to focus on your personal dance skills for now, and that the finances aren't strong enough to cover both dance training and teacher training. By giving yourself another 6-12 months you can put money aside for the Foundation Course, and give yourself more thinking/planning time.

You have doubts.
You can postphone taking it.
I enjoyed the course and found it useful for my dancing let alone my teaching and I enjoyed meeting other teachers,
I agree with Bea, Workshops and other eseriences before teacher training especially if you are not actually teaching. You are getting a great apprenticeship anyway!

Don't consider that you have to work on either your personal development or your teaching...I think the latter helps the former. I know we had a thread on this a while back. I really feel that my personal dancing has advanced so much by teaching - because of having to get the basics right, think through the mechanics of movement, break down my thought processes when I improvise, etc etc. Even learning anatomy helped me change how I move for the better, and my dancing is much nicer (and safer!) for it. I don't know the content of the course you're looking at, but it may actually assist your dance development, rather than hinder it.

Re the parents (esp. the father) - I hear you! My Dad still can't bring himself to watch me dance, and it hurts. Even after I've been supporting myself solely through this dance for 5 years, he still occasionally asks (whistfully) if I'm ever going to go back into a 'real' job in the corporate world. That really gets me down...but not half as down as re-joining the corporate world would! Just keep doing your thing and being successful and happy with it, and hopefully the parents will realise that this is what's really important.

PS - if your teacher is gunning for you to do the course, can you work out some arrangement where she provides some financial support? She's probably hoping you'll use your skills teaching in her studo, right? Perhaps there's some win-win arrangement for you both?

Thanks very much for your input so far everyone, its very much appreciated.

I think I'm feeling the pressure to do it now partly because my teacher is so keen and also because these uncertain times are making me think, well, I could do it in 6 months time, but what if my financial circumstances are even worse then?

My teacher says, as does Jewels, that there isn't necessarily a conflict in terms of your own development etc.

With the parents thing, Bea is right. I'm independent of any true family ties (no partner or children) so I'm not obliged to do what anyone else says (and generally I never do). However, I might have to ask for some financial assistance if I did decide to do it.

Also, I don't feel its appropriate to go into detail here, and its very complicated, but essentially my father is highly controlling and manipulative. I don't live with him but he attempts to control me by bullying my mother in my place. ,m:: Yes she is a grown adult and all, but her health is very poor at the moment and I really don't want to put her through that sort of thing if I don't have to.

I'm still thinking on it all...

Only you know whether it's the right time for you financially, and what the impact on your family will be. So I'm not going to address those points, but the dance development.

I took the full Diploma course, before the Foundation was an option. It meant spending all my spare (!) money on teacher training rather than dance workshops. As far as I was concerned that was part of my dance development. I don't know how the course is structured now, but we had plenty of classes, private and group, where we could work on our own dancing. I think everyone made significant progress and improvement in their own dance during that time, and that's how it should be. After all, you don't need to be a great dancer to be a good teacher, but you'll never be a good teacher if you're a rubbish dancer. Not that anyone was rubbish

Originally Posted by Emma

Only you know whether it's the right time for you financially, and what the impact on your family will be. So I'm not going to address those points, but the dance development.

I took the full Diploma course, before the Foundation was an option. It meant spending all my spare (!) money on teacher training rather than dance workshops. As far as I was concerned that was part of my dance development. I don't know how the course is structured now, but we had plenty of classes, private and group, where we could work on our own dancing. I think everyone made significant progress and improvement in their own dance during that time, and that's how it should be. After all, you don't need to be a great dancer to be a good teacher, but you'll never be a good teacher if you're a rubbish dancer. Not that anyone was rubbish

The Foundation Course is not really about developing the dancer's personal dance skills, more about making sure the (potential) teacher is able to lead a class safely, so the focus is much more on Anatomy, Warm Ups, Health & Safety in the Studio, Admin & Professionalism. There is a strong focus on Posture, in general terms and usually as a result of the personal Technique Assessments, but not so much on Technique. There are dance classes, but these are geared more towards making sure that the prospective teachers can execute (and therefore demonstrate to their students) Basic technique. The dance classes are not about learning high level technique.

The Foundation Course also includes a personal Technique Assessment, which gives an element of tuition and feedback as to what the individual needs to work on, to help improve her (or his, though I don't think we've yet had a male participant in the course!) dance technique.

However, the Diploma Course is much more concerned with personal dance development than the Foundation Course. Many people take the Foundation Course with no intention at all of going on to the Diploma Course, simply because they want to be sure that if they teach, they are doing so with a better understanding of their responsibilities as teachers.