At Timpanogos High School there is a wide variety of economic backgrounds and the boundaries for the school feed from a range in neighborhood economic status. In the class I observe, Dance 1, there are many cultural differences. This is an elective class students are interested in who have some dance experience. The great thing about the dance experience these students do have, is that most of the dancing they are familiar with is from their ethnic and cultural backgrounds. These cultural backgrounds include Latin American, African American, and Caucasian students. In the dance 1 class so far they have not yet studied cultural dance and are still working on the basics. However, at Timpanogos these students are given opportunities to form clubs as long as they have a supervising teacher.
Kristi Newsome the Dance 1 teacher supervises the break dance club. Other clubs offered at THS include Latin American club, and a Multicultural Dance club. These students meet after school two to three times a week. This year there has been a big push for these clubs to participate in school performances and assemblies. Kristi mentioned to me how great the break dance club is for students who don't seem to "fit in" anywhere else. These after school clubs give students a place to be after school hours where they are learning skills to problem solve, of team work, and creative thinking.
Good start, but be sure to make obvious connections to the text.
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