Mover Monday | A Sudden Display of Vulnerability

Happy Monday, MTDubberz! This week's Mover Monday features three great PeaceMovers and their classroom experiences. Take a snapshot look into three different classrooms spread out across the east coast! Enjoy!   

PeaceMover Paula Olson has a successful Share Out with her third and fourth graders at Center City PCS, Shaw Campus! 

Before the Share Out, my students came to me very nervous to perform in front of their peers and families. A normally seemingly overconfident group, I was taken aback by their sudden display of vulnerability. My students normally take any opportunity in class to "rush their youth" by expressing actualities or opinions beyond their years. This reminded me that indeed they were all still children, going through periods in which they question their self-confidence. It also reminded me why I choose to do this, reinforcing the importance of Move This World and the need to foster this sense of self-efficacy and self-esteem in children while creating opportunities for kids to be kids.  Before the performance began, I was able to speak to my students and encourage them to be confident in themselves. They decided they were able to do their speaking parts, and they ended up performing amazingly. I was really proud of the students and ended the semester on a great note.

PeaceMover Alejandra Paucar reflects on her experiences working with seventh and eighth graders at New World Prep Charter School in New York.

The boys were really killing it today with the dances! We were going over the hub dances and after a while of running those dances, they asked if we could do some free-style dancing. When I put on a favorite song, they all got in a circle and started to take turns dancing. Some of the boys were incredible, and all boys were confident in their abilities. All of them cheered on and laughed with each other, regardless of skill level. It was a really great session. 

PeaceMover Tim Webster finds a way to make an impact on his students' everyday actions. Check out these kindergarteners and first graders of Staten Island Community Charter School applying MTW concepts beyond their MTW sessions!  

Several weeks ago I introduced a "time-out" gesture as a way for one student to stop another from talking to him or her at an inappropriate time.  It is a way of saying, "I'm not ignoring you, but let's talk later." The teacher of this class said the students were using the gesture last week during their state testing.  It's nice to hear that what we do is branching out beyond our sessions.

Thumpin' Thursday | Bella Luna

Happy Thursday, MTDubberz! Hope everyone's week is going well. Who's looking forward to the weekend!? Here's what we've been listening to to keep us going! How about you? What songs get you thumpin' in the office?

SBTRKT- Wildfire 

Jason Mraz - Bella Luna 

Thundercat - Walkin'

Justin Bieber - All Around The World

Macklemore and Ryan Lewis - Same Love 

Wham - The Edge of Heaven 

Welcome.

HEY!  Welcome to the brand spankin' new Dance 4 Peace blog.  We are SO beyond excited to be able to share with the world the ins and outs of D4P.

Here's a little about us:

Dance 4 Peace is a global peace education nonprofit that prevents violence and bullying and transforms conflict in schools and communities through dance and creative movement. Our innovative curriculum promotes empathy, mediation skills, anger management, and conflict transformation to instill social and emotional competencies for peace. Through school and community center partnerships, Dance 4 Peace connects communities in the United States in Baltimore, Newark, New York City and Washington DC and internationally in Colombia, Germany, and the Philippines to share intercultural stories of peace. Our vision is to ignite global social change through the art of movement, and as such both our curriculum and evaluation system are completely movement-based. To date, Dance 4 Peace has worked with over 5,500 youth in fifteen cities on four continents.

Or if you'd prefer a visual, you can check this out:

On this blog, we plan to share with you updates from all our hubs, stories from inside the D4P classroom, and more.  You can even expect fun surprises along the way!

Make sure to add us to your Google Reader or something similar becuase you are not going to want to miss a post.

Thanks for reading,

Team D4P

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