How to Become the Dance Teacher Every Student Remembers

Hello friends, I'm Amanda Barr and I'm Rebecca Lou Brennan, and welcome to Dance Principals United, the podcast.

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Well, hello friends, it's Beck here from the Dance Principals United podcast. I am joined by my daughter today, actually something a little bit different. This is Bee Bee.

Hey everyone!

Super excited to be here, and I did a, um, talk at Expo and Bee Bee came and helped me with the talk because she and I teach together a lot. Yes. And, um, I thought we could talk about some of the stuff that we talked about at Expo today and all things teaching. Are you cool with that?

Yeah, I would love to. Let's get into it.

All right, amazing. So first thing I want to say to you and tell me what you think about this, is that kids actually do like a disciplined class. Thoughts on this?

Yes, I agree, but I, I have like a discipline class. No, no, I think kids like a discipline class, but they don't like an angry teacher, right? And I think that that's the difference. You can still have a discipline class while still letting kids have fun and be kids but you don't need to just be angry. And I find that with my style of teaching, I do that a lot. Like, I definitely keep my kids in line so it's not like a feral crazy class, but I also find that if I'm ever too angry with them, they don't want to be there. Like, they're kids. Like, in their mind, everything is rainbows and unicorns, so keep it that way. Don't like annoy their lifestyle of happiness, right?

And so one of the things we teach at PAUSE and in our staff training with Studio Growth Club and TRIBE is we teach like have a non-negotiable. So my non-negotiable is always don't talk while I'm talking. I think that's the easiest one. Is that what you do?

That's— I just stole your one.

And so like don't talk while I'm talking. So we sit the class down and we say the non-negotiable is don't talk while I'm talking. Now you might be teaching the most epic thing ever and then someone talks straight away, you've got to go, oh sorry, someone spoke while I was speaking. And then you've got to have the consequence. Now my consequence for 8 and unders as you know, Bibi, is for everyone to sit down for a minute in silence.

Yeah.

And if you're unsure about this, get your teachers in your staff training to actually sit down for a minute inside. It's actually a long time.

It feels so long. You like sit there and you're like— sometimes when I'm teaching like a minute of silence, I'm like, what's happening? I'm like, oh.

I actually made the people in Expo do this. Do you remember?

Yeah, I made them sit for a minute in silence and everyone was like—

it was so awkward. One, and it felt like forever, so long. And then at the end of the minute in silence, we say to them, guys, we're here to be the best we can be, we want to have fun with you today, let's not talk. Now it only takes 4 or 5 times for that to happen and they really get the point, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I definitely find that we're not doing it as much now as we were at the start of the year. Like, they're more— they know the rules now. They know that when you talk, it's a minute of silence, and they really don't like it. Like, they sit there and they just don't know what to do with yourself. I don't even know what to do with myself.

Yes, it's pretty awkward. Now you've got to make sure that your consequences are age-appropriate. That's the first thing.

100%.

You also don't want to make a consequence that's not achievable. And so, little backstory, years and years and years ago, very long time ago, when I first started teaching— and I was a pretty bad teacher then, not bad teacher, I was always good at technique and stuff, but I just think I was a bit too strict, like you're saying.

Yeah.

Um, so anyway, back in the day, the seniors, there was a class of 40 seniors that were being really rowdy and naughty, and I said the next person to talk has to do 50 push-ups. Now, the person that spoke was Jared, and Jared had the twiggiest arms in the history of arms, and I made this poor kid do 50 push-ups and he was crying, and it was such a bad teacher moment. But the thing with consequences is you have to see through with it because if you don't, they'll walk all over you.

100%.

So just think about your consequences and what that consequence is going to be. And now for seniors, I do burpees. Do you like burpees, baby?

No, especially when they're chest-to-floor burpees. She's like, 20. I'm like, no, no thank you, I'm out.

But same thing, right? People get— they get the point pretty quickly with that. Yeah. So just think about your consequences there, guys. And I think as well, always put it back on them. Like, why are you making them sit in silence? Why are you doing this? You know, making sure that they know that it's for their own good and that they're going to then become better dancers. Because that's what we talk about a lot at Paws, is like making them the best they can be, right? Even with the little ones.

Yeah, 100%. Even with the little ones, we're always telling them, because I mean, a lot of the little ones love to be there for dance. A lot of those little ones, they want it, like they're hungry for it. So if they start getting distracted in the back of class, you just remind them why they're here and they're immediately like back to their soldier little self.

Now, what happens if you have that one kid in class? Now, don't say their name, but I'm sure we can think of the one kid in every class that we teach that you're just like, ugh, they're just like so difficult, or they interrupt the rest of the class. That's really hard to deal with, right?

It is really hard to deal with. Like, a lot of the time that kid, they don't do it to be naughty. A lot of the time it's just that kid's personality, and I find that I really struggled with this this year with one of my kids, but I've now think I found a way to kind of get around it. You have to play at their level, if that makes sense. Like I had this one kid and she was super sassy and I loved her and she was really sassy though sometimes to the point where it was like, you need to tone it back a little bit. But I found that if you gave her sass back sometimes she would be like, whoa, like what's happening? So I find different, all kids are different and you just gotta find your niche with that kid together. Get them to do what you need them to do.

Great. And I love what you're saying about that because I often— I don't think there's any naughty kids. I think they're acting up for some sort of a reason. So you've got to, one, take enough care to probably talk to them, obviously discipline them in the class as needed. Then at the end of class, I would suggest bringing them over and having a chat to them individually, especially if they're an older child.

Yeah.

And see where their head's at. Sometimes you even have to talk to the parents.

Yeah.

Um, I'm going to tell our Clara story because Clara was in mixes, and every single time someone got a special part, she would cry. Now when I'm talking cry, I'm talking like ugly, like, oh, like really ugly cry, right?

Yeah.

And so as a team, we were just like, what a little bitch, how dare she? Yeah, you know, how dare she cry? That's so rude to the other kids who are getting the part. Anyway, after a few weeks of this, I went out to Mum and said, look, we're really having some trouble with Clara. She's crying every time she doesn't get a part. Um, you know, is this happening anywhere else? Uh, Clara has autism. That's the first thing she told me, which we had no idea of. You would think the parent would tell us that, but no. Um, and also, um, Clara is, you know, we're working on it at school, and here's the strategies and blah blah blah. Great. So now as a team, we understand how to deal with Clara. Yep. And so it went from Clara bawling her eyes out to Clara going Good job, baby! Good job, baby! And then it went to Clara is now everyone's biggest cheerleader. And you know this for— yeah, she's now in 8. In 8, she's the one kid that'll like— she's the first kid to clap every child when they get something. And he's very happy and beautiful, talented, gorgeous little thing.

She's so clever.

So it's just taking the time to actually care enough about that child. It's very easy for us to go, oh, they're just a naughty kid. Yeah, but I don't know, I find 9 times out of 10 they're not just a naughty kid.

Yeah, I agree, I agree. All right, now using your voice in class, this is a big one, so important. Yeah, I'm actually doing, um, teacher training with one of our junior teachers at the moment, and I'm finding it like a lot with the little ones that I'm starting to like, you know, train. It's scary, like I get it, it's scary. You're teaching this little kid who's probably insane, you know, like leg behind their head, crazy flexible. And also it's scary because I think they're in front of me, and so they're like, you want to do good for Miss Bibi and all of that stuff. But using your voice is so important because, I mean, kids are loud, we know. So if you're going to be quiet, how are they even going to hear you? Like, start with that. And also, if you're like— if you're speaking like this and you're teaching, they're not engaged, they're bored, they don't want to be there. Their friend— what their friend's having for dinner is a much more interesting conversation. But if you're loud and crazy and use sometimes annoying, but a really high-pitched voice and you keep changing how your voice sounds, they like lock in and they hone in on it and they find it really interesting.

Now I know you're talking about Charlie, and she's jumping into some of your private lessons with your babies. Yes. How are you encouraging her to use her voice more?

So me and Charlie have been talking a lot about using her voice because she's definitely on the shyer side, but she's got such good attention to detail that I know she'll make a great teacher. So I actually make her bring in a notebook at the moment, and at the start of the lessons, like before we into the lessons, or 'cause she does Academy with me, I make her write down Academy. We do write down all the names and she has to tick off that she cheers at least once in class for each kid. And then I also get her to do a correction in class for each kid that she has to say loudly while they're dancing. And then I'll get her to after explain the correction and go through it, which is, I'm finding helpful for her 'cause it's more just her confidence. She knows what to say, she just doesn't like to say it.

Okay, I love that, I love that. And I think we need to think about that when we're training any teachers, you know, I don't believe that we train enough with our voice and how to use our voice. Like, it's so, so important. And also, you can make your voice be like the movement. So, you know, like Stephen Tannous will teach and he'll be like, um, and that's like telling you how to do the movement. Or like, we want the kids to do strong arms, we go, hiya, hiya, which is like, you know, getting them to do those really strong arms. So thinking about how you can use your voice in that That sense as well is really important. But when you're doing teacher training, and we do this a lot, you've got to get them up and actually teaching.

100%. Yeah, like I also always get Charlie to clean an 8-count, so I'll be like, 2 cans of 8, whatever it is. I'll be like, okay Charlie, go clean these 2 cans of 8. I watch her and I don't say anything. I let her go because that's important. Being a teacher, you can't just also have someone telling you what to do all the time because then when they get in and teach by themselves, they're going to be like What do I do? So I let her do an 8-count, then I'll give the kid a quick water break and make the kid run the routine again, and I'll give Charli like criticism and I'll be like, okay, I really loved how you did this, but I also— the shit sandwich method, that is my go-to with everything. I use it for Charli, I use it for when I'm teaching kids. I'll be like, okay, that was really great, love how you did this. Now we could improve on, you know, being more enthusiastic as we speak, but I really loved how you did that. And I think that that's so important with any kid that you teach or teacher training or whatever it is.

And I think like studio owners, you're not taking enough time to go into classrooms and watch. You need to go into the classroom, watch how people are teaching, exactly what B.B. is saying, give them feedback. Otherwise, how do they know what they need to improve on or where they need to do better? All right, so talking about improving, I wanted to talk about how it's so important to show the kids how they're improving.

Yes.

And, and not just elite kids, like any kids in general. And if I think about myself at the gym, if my trainer's not showing me how I'm improving, I'm probably going to get over it. Or if you're flogging your guts out at the gym and not losing weight and not gaining muscle, then you're probably not going to go back. It's the same with kids. Like, they need to see week by week, day by day, how much they're improving, and that needs to be shown to them. Now we use a platform called Band where we film stuff every single week for them. But we also get our private— at the end of our private lessons, and we have 190 privates a week at Port—

which is crazy.

Um, so anyway, at the end of every private lesson, every parent comes in and films the child. Now I love this because it's showing the child their improvement, but it's also showing the parent the child's improvement. And then we have the opportunity to talk to the parent and say, wow, they're doing so well, right? So that is really important.

I do that at the end of every single private lesson and make sure the parent knows like what we're working on that week as well. So if I'm cleaning a jazz solo, I'll be like, okay, so this week we really focused on this part to this part, doing super sharp arms. A lot of the time too, like for the younger parents, they love to work on the kids' dances at home. Like they love it, they love to run it. So another thing that I've started doing with those kids that I know are running it, this is for Capri because she is like cause I'm so focused on dance at the moment and I started doing this is I will watch Capri and I will take notes and then I send the notes to her mum and her mum can be like, okay, Miss Bibi said to make sure you point your foot here. So Capri, when you do this part, make sure you point your foot here. I think that that's a good way to also involve the parents and then they feel like they not have more control, but they can kind of help their kid out. Cause a lot of these parents aren't dance mums and don't know what they're doing.

Yep, absolutely. And Capri's 7. So she probably needs a little bit of support and help at home. And also it empowers mum to be able to help her at home because that would be very frustrating. I know, like, I always talk about Phoenix, but I wouldn't have a clue how to help him with his soccer. No, you know, I don't know how to kick the ball. I don't know which way you're meant to kick. Like, I have no idea what's going on with that. So it allows them that, but it also involves them. And I talk about this a lot, like, parents are most of the time stuck in the waiting room not actually watching what the kids are doing, not a part of their journey. So it's very easy for them to opt out when they're not a part of their journey. Now you could do this not just with privates, you could do it with the classes as well. So you could say, you know, if you have a platform called Blend or something else where you're sending that routine, you could say, hey guys, we just worked on this section to this section, um, here's how we cleaned it. Make sure they have a little practice at home.

100%.

We do that as well with the 8s, right?

Like, yeah. And with the sixes, I'll do a slow video without music that's just the counts, which I'm working on, and the sharp arms, and I'll be like, "Okay, now do this really sharp," and then in the video you'll hear me go, "Okay, no, that wasn't sharp enough, let's do it again." And so I find that that's good too for the kids when they're practicing at home.

Tell us about the counts.

I am not a counter. I am a listener to music, but I'm working on it. I'm working on it really hard because It's so important for those little ones. The more I teach, the more I realize to know their counts.

Yes, and I'm really trying to mentor Bibi with this at the moment, and all of our teachers, because I just find that we're not counting enough and we're doing things on words, which doesn't really make sense. Yeah, now that you realize that. Yeah, so now I'm seeing you go 1, 2, 3, 4, like you're really—

yeah, I'm really in, and it's making a difference, right?

Yeah, it is looking a cleaner because you're doing those counts. So that's another thing that I think, you know, and we— I do a whole session on how to clean routines, but that counting is so, so important.

100%.

Yeah, so, so important. All right, I wanted to talk about positive teaching versus negative teaching, something that you and I have been working a lot on.

Yes.

So we followed this little girl in America called Darling Dash She's so good.

So crazy good. Like, insane.

So crazy good. But anyway, we're watching her and her— I think her mom's her teacher. Am I right in saying that?

I don't know. It's confusing. I think so, but I'm not sure.

Okay. Anyway, her teacher, instead of her teacher just going, stretch your foot here, do this, do that, which is how most of us teach, she was like, I love how stretched your foot is. Check out that leg, girl. And so this little kid's like, yeah, and just loving it so much.

Yeah.

And you and I watched that and we were like, we should teach more like this.

100%. Yeah, I find it makes such a difference. I started this with one little girl. She was my little, little test, test girl. Her name's Frankie, and she— cutest little kid. She was 5 when I started teaching her. Loved dance, loved to do it, and was really clever, right? And I just randomly switched my teaching from 'show me that bottom foot, stretch your bottom foot' to 'wow, look at that bottom foot.' Now it doesn't matter if her bottom foot stretched or not. If someone tells you you're doing something good, you immediately try 10 times harder at it because you're like, yes, I'm doing this good, let's keep going. Like, that's just what your brain does. Like, it's how it works. So if I tell Frankie, wow, I love that stretch foot, and she got a flex foot, you're gonna stretch her foot really hard to be like, yes, she loves my stretch foot, let's keep this stretch foot. And I find just doing that with the kids, she just loves it so much more. Like, it just makes you feel good about yourself. It's like the, the gym story that you tell where You know, if you're at the gym and your trainer's like, come on, you need to work harder, let's get it, makes you so unmotivated because you're like, I am working hard. Like, what? But if the gym trainer's like, yes, you're doing amazing, you start running faster. It's just all of that stuff.

I think it is such a difference. And, and now when I'm listening to you teach, you're everyone's biggest cheerleader in that class. And that is like, those kids are just coming leaps and bounds because of that. And I think, you know, I still have to catch myself because I'm so used to teaching the other way of going, "Point your toes," instead of, "I love how pointed your toes are." But just flipping that is insane.

Making a crazy difference.

Crazy.

And the kids also work hard at home because they want to be there. I find that that's happening a lot too. Like, yes, they would be forced to, you know, go over their dances by their parents at home. But now I find that they're like, the parents are like, I don't know, they just keep wanting to practice their dances. And it's just because it makes them feel so good about themselves.

Yes. And at the end of the day, not, you know, not everyone's going to become a professional dancer. And some of you listening don't even go to that level. You just do rec, which is amazing. So what are we giving those kids? We need to give them a positive outlook for life. We need to give them confidence. Like, that's what we should be all aiming for.

100%.

It's interesting at Expo, and I do this a lot when I do teacher training, I asked everyone to think of the worst thing that a teacher's ever said to them, because that always resonates with us. Everyone has a story. It might be a schoolteacher, it might be a dance teacher. I don't know who it is, but the worst thing that a teacher has ever, ever said to you, and everyone knows it, and you don't want to be that child's worst thing.

Yeah.

You know, and I know back in the day I was lots of kids' worst things because I was, I was, I was so, I was so focused on the win and not focused enough on the kids and their actual journey. Yeah, you know, and making their journey special. So have a little think about that if you're listening now. Like, what is the worst thing a teacher's ever said to you? And then try not to be that for anyone.

Yeah, you know, 100%.

I think the last thing I want to say about teaching and inspiring kids is that you really have to think every single day when you finish teaching, was I the best teacher I could be today? You know, was I standing up and being present in the class or was I sitting down in the front of the class? Was I using my voice and, and really giving it my all? Or was I cranky today? Like, you know, as teachers and as studio owners, I think we've gotta walk into that building. I always say this, don't I, baby?

Yes.

You leave your car, you take your, I've had a bad day hat off. You walk into the building and you are the happiest, most amazing person ever. You have to play that game, and then you can— what does Abby say?

Cry on your pillow when you get home. But I also think that's so important when you walk into the building is make relationships with your kids. Like, I find that so many, you know, teachers, they go and they hide in the back somewhere in the office, and then, you know, they'll go out when they teach, and they're great teacher when they're teaching, but then they just go and hide. But that's not building relationships with your kids. If your kid doesn't like you They're like, why would I work hard for you? And you might be like, oh, they don't think like that. But like, everyone thinks like that. Like, if you have a teacher you genuinely don't like, you're not going to work hard for them. So if you're out there talking to those kids, how was your day at school? I love your hair. Like, wow, I love this, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Immediately the kids like you more. And I think that that's so important. And it sounds easy for me, I know, because I'm younger, so I, you know, talk to them more and we can relate on things a little bit more. But I think everyone can do it. It's just absolutely talking. It's literally just walking and making someone's day and giving them compliments, and the kids love it. They like love it.

Yep. And I do that when I walk. Yeah, I always chat to every— or I try and chat to every child. Even do a walkthrough and be like, hey Maxwell, hey blah blah, you know. You've got to say hi to them all and have that personality. I, you know, I hate it when teachers walk in and go, um, someone's like, how was your day? Oh, I'm so tired. Yeah, like, yay, can't wait to do class with her. Like, you know, like, you've got to think about that. Whereas if you're going, yep, I'm great, you know, I have hard days, and then I, I don't want to say I'm great, I want to say I'm tired and I've had the worst day, but I can't because the kids I'm about to teach are standing right there.

You're like, great, Miss Bec's gonna be in a great mood today, can't wait for that.

Yeah, let's go. You know, so that, that is really important as well. Everywhere you are in the studio you need to be on 100% of the time.

Yeah, I agree. 100% agree.

All right guys, well I hope you enjoyed that. We love doing staff training, um, we do a lot of staff training with Studio Growth Club. Obviously I do a lot of staff training in my own studio, um, but we also do it with TRIBE. So if that's something you're interested in checking out, um, drop us a DM and we can chat to you more. Thanks so much guys, bye!

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