Teaching Etiquette

[lcdancesport]

Alright I started teaching earlier this year, both group classes and private. Now I have a natural habit of giggling and being positive in class, whether it be cracking a joke or reacting to something a student says. I just started teaching a new student over the weekend and whenever he couldn't get something, he'd just say "oh wait, let me start over" and I'd smile and giggle and say "no problem, we'll get this" and he said something along the lines of bearing with him because I laughed, not in a scolding way, but more in a way of him possibly thinking I could be laughing at him.

Ok anyways, from then on I think I'm going to try my hardest to stop laughing during lessons, even though it's just a natural thing for me to smile and laugh to keep things positive in class, but I'm afraid my students may feel I'm laughing at them rather than with them.

Anyone else run into teaching habits they need to change or have changed?

[saludas]

Time to tell your student to lighten up!

If he/she is uncomfortable with your teaching 'attitude' perhaps they need a new teacher. remember that laughter and a smile are GOOD things, not things to change...

[samina]

it's all well & good to be pleasant & fun, but IMO don't let that get in the way of your feeling free to critique... that's what they're paying you for. some instructors can be schmoozy & non-confrontational, like cruise directors. others are full of laughter but very off-the-cuff candid without worrying much about hurting feelings. personally, i love the latter. :)

[NielsenE]

though there's laughter and laughter.... and its hard to tell from OP.... If the giggling is very frequent (and it sounds like it might be) then that might get slightly in the way and could undermine your "authority". If you can channel the giggling impulse into a smile, in the "not really funny, just an ingrained reaction" types of situations, but feeling free to giggle/laugh in the jokes/amusing word choice/amusing situations of dance, that would probably be good.

Laughter (of almost any sort) is a very welcome thing, IMO, at a dance studio (though the donkey braying laugh can get a little intrusive)

Though if my teacher giggled after everything I said, I think I'd have to wonder a bit about her mental state...

[samina]

Though if my teacher giggled after everything I said, I think I'd have to wonder a bit about her mental state...

lol, true... and it's hard to take someone serious when they're giggling all the time. do you feel uncomfortable being in a role of authority with your class, LC? you might naturally giggle less as you settle more confidently into "the seat of the teacher", as they call it in yoga.

[etp777]

With some of lessons (like last one), I'm jjust happy if pro isn't rolling on ground laughinga, bit of giggling would be welcome. :)

[lcdancesport]

Thanks for the replies :) I definitely don't laugh all the time, in fact I'll tell it like it is if one of my students are doing something wrong, but professionally.

I think it's just the "first" lesson I have with someone new, because I want them to feel comfortable and not overwhelmed, that and I'm trying to get a feel of their personality, since everyone is different.

Of course later on after a few lessons it's much easier to just be yourself and kind of adapt to how they learn and act around you.

The giggle thing I'm sure is just a nervous habit that only rears itself when I'm getting to know someone.

[yippee1999]

It's funny that this thread was started, because I myself was thinking of starting a thread where people could make general suggestions of things they'd like done differently in their dance classes. My only "complaints" would be:

1) one school in particular that I've gone to for group salsa class...they have the music up so loud that you can't hear the instructions from the teacher on what moves you are supposed to do in your next turn pattern or shine routine..

2) also in salsa, when we are doing partnerwork, there have been teachers who rotate the couples too quickly. In other words, when it is time to practice a turn pattern with your next partner, just as you are starting to "get" your partner and figure out how to respond to his lead, the teacher yells "rotate!" I prefer (like most salsa teachers DO have you do) to try a turn pattern 2-3 times with the same partner, in PARTICULAR if the pattern is very short or is just one component of a longer turn pattern. Otherwise you are just constantly rotating partners and never making a "connection" with any one of them in the class.

[reb]

Alright I started teaching earlier this year, both group classes and private. Now I have a natural habit of giggling and being positive in class, whether it be cracking a joke or reacting to something a student says. I just started teaching a new student over the weekend and whenever he couldn't get something, he'd just say "oh wait, let me start over" and I'd smile and giggle and say "no problem, we'll get this" and he said something along the lines of bearing with him because I laughed, not in a scolding way, but more in a way of him possibly thinking I could be laughing at him.

Ok anyways, from then on I think I'm going to try my hardest to stop laughing during lessons, even though it's just a natural thing for me to smile and laugh to keep things positive in class, but I'm afraid my students may feel I'm laughing at them rather than with them.

Anyone else run into teaching habits they need to change or have changed?
I think we're similar, and I would have not given something like that a second thought except along the way years ago (professionally, non-dance) I was overheard giving a little laugh which I came to learn can be misinterpreted / not appreciated by some - which helped my understanding that communicating isn't about me . . . it's about the intended recipient. And that to improve effectiveness, read them and address them according to the method which maximizes their grasp.

So I wouldn't stop - be you! Just incorporate your attributes into their comm needs - the study of human nature and learning about people - probably a lifetime endeavor! You're wise to ask for inputs.

[SPratt74]

I think we're similar, and I would have not given something like that a second thought except along the way years ago (professionally, non-dance) I was overheard giving a little laugh which I came to learn can be misinterpreted / not appreciated by some - which helped my understanding that communicating isn't about me . . . it's about the intended recipient. And that to improve effectiveness, read them and address them according to the method which maximizes their grasp.

I'm with you on this one. I learned it is who is listening that can take things the wrong way (and it's not always the recipient, it's also other people around you). And to me that is so silly. For example, I love my place of work, because we laugh all of the time. We get along that well. But yet, we do have to watch it, because we have one person that seems to want to spoil it all. So, yeah you have to be careful, but some people just have to lighten up, and appreciate laughter for what it is and not make it into something that it's not.

[meow]

I agree with the above - just be yourself. I do that - some people like you, some don't. But, in the end, all you can do is be true to who you are. I get nervous meeting people but I tend to not speak much instead of giggle, which can be taken incorrectly.

[bordertangoman]

I use a little humour when I teach because I think people learn better when they are relaxed and smiling but I never criticise people in a way that can be construed as making fun. Actually that's not true: sometimes I do but its with the intention of getting the person to relax rather than being mean. I sometimes exaggerate a mistake with my teaching partner in a clowning way.

[lcdancesport]

Last night I had another lesson with my new student and practiced smiling more versus laughing and he ended up cracking more jokes and laughing himself, so I guess it all works out in the end. :lol: