Sarah Letters
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Immediately after leaving ACPE I began working part time at both South Strathfield High School and The McDonald College. Both schools were extremely different and challenging in different ways.
The McDonald College is a prestigious performing arts school based in North Strathfield. At McDonald College I worked in the Performing Arts faculty teaching Classical Ballet to the primary school. The students there are very talented and committed to their art, and therefore great students to teach. This was challenging as well as fun as I had to find new and exciting methods to keep the students enthusiastic. Developing a positive fault correcting technique was particularly challenging given that the students were always improving. It was a great experience.
South Strathfield was extremely challenging in a different way. The students were very different, culturally as well as artistically. The main challenge was getting the male students motivated to dance. I became more versatile in my teaching and tried to use music and movement to which the students could relate, to inspire and motivate them to participate. It was a huge challenge however I did make progress after one term. This was seen in a dance group from year 7 (both boys and girls) performing a short dance piece in front of the school at an assembly. The whole experience was very rewarding for both myself and the students.
Most recently I began working full-time at Wyndham College in Quakers Hill. Wyndham College is a senior high school. At first I found it a little difficult settling into a school mid way through the HSC and trying to plan and teach lessons with no idea of where the students were up to in the curriculum. There is no other dance teacher at the school so it was difficult to ask for assistance because no-one knew the syllabus. My head teacher was really great and has helped me a great deal over the last 8 weeks and made it much easier for me. I have organised a dance composition night for Year 12, and my Year 11 students danced in The Sydney West Dance Festival. It has been a very rewarding two terms and I'm looking forward to the rest of the year.
Through all this I am currently studying with the Royal Academy of Dance to receive my Ballet Teaching Certificate by the end of the year. I am also currently teaching ballet at four different dance schools across Sydney (including The McDonald College). I find this as a good outlet from every day high school teaching and is equally rewarding.