Tool #3

I found YouTube to be the most useful for my content area. Since I teach dance, it is easy for me to find  videos to show my students that directly relate to my lessons. 

This video of the La Joya High School Jewelettes is a great way to showcase a sharp and fun pom routine! During the first semester in all of my dance classes, we learned a pom routine and we talked about how precise and sharp you have to be. The girls in this video are extremely fun to watch, because they use a lot of facial expression and showmanship. That was another concept we focused on while performing, because the audience is more interested in watching you when you look like you are enjoying what you're doing!

This video showcases a very clean and precise kick routine performed by the Kilgore College Rangerettes. Recently, we have been focusing on learning how to kick and the proper technique. This is a good way to show my students how the end product should look. 

When it comes to copy right laws, I already knew most of the important things discussed in the video. I know that if you ever want to upload a dance video to Facebook you have to state that you do not own the rights to the song being danced to.

I think my Dropbox would be good to present lessons about dance history. I could upload files that my students could access from home. I could also post dance pictures or clip art that could be used for projects in the future. 

Tool #2

I think that by participating in an online community, you gain new insight on how to add different and innovative ideas into your lessons. Building a community of bloggers is a great way to share thoughts that can add to the enhancement of the way we instruct in our classrooms. Personally, I have no problem with sharing my thoughts publicly. I enjoy getting feedback from people who have honest opinions, because in the end it will only help me grow as a teacher.

Two sites that I plan to visit in the future are:

http://www.theballetbag.com/2010/04/21/best-of-you/

http://dance.blogs.fox.com/

Both of these blogs are dance related. I think that by visiting them I could gain important and factual information to relay back to my students. 

Tool #1

The process of creating my blog was fairly easy. I love to customize things, so it took me a little bit longer than expected. However, getting to make my own Avatar was pretty neat! I also played around with many different formats for my blog and finally decided to stick with the dance theme, since I am a dance teacher.

I think it would be a great idea for students to use blogs in the classroom. It would be a way for them to have class discussions about certain topics and an even better way to be involved outside of class. It would work wonderfully for my dance classes, because they could post their thoughts and opinions about things like YouTube dance videos or even dance shows on TV, such as So You Think You Can Dance.