Imagine teaching students geometry without a paper and pencil. Instead, students form the shapes with their bodies to see and feel the difference in geometric structures. Elbows form acute, right and obtuse angles. Fingers carefully align to form rectangles and parallelograms. Groups of students collaborate to form more complex polygons.

This is more than just a hypothetical teaching method; it is one that educators across Colorado have implemented in their classrooms after attending the CSU Dance Education in Motion Professional Development seminar at CSU.  Each summer, the seminar gives preK-12 educators across the state the opportunity to learn how to incorporate movement in teaching traditional classroom subjects and gain professional development credit. As the director Lisa Morgan says, the program is about “giving teachers the permission to teach through movement.”

A unique approach

According to Morgan, “The whole program is to help teachers find new ways to complement their already amazing teaching.” The seminar focuses on effectively integrating movement in traditional classroom subjects while emphasizing the development of social and emotional awareness. Through a combination of lectures, movement-based sessions, and reflection and planning periods, educators learn how they can use movement to enhance their lessons.

With the program capping its enrollment at 30, an intimate forum is created for participants to discuss the everyday classroom challenges that accompany teaching. Together, educators learn and assess creative ways to use movement as a problem-solving technique, meeting the needs of diverse learners, accommodating increasing class sizes, and allowing children to move.

Engaging educators across Colorado

Education in Motion offers the opportunity for CSU faculty to create meaningful connections with preK-12 educators across the state.  Through the sharing of innovative teaching methods, faculty and educators partner to provide a better education for Colorado’s students.

“If more teachers learned and used the strategies we learned in this class, there would be a lesser need for administrative and counseling support for individual students,” said elementary guidance counselor Gretta St. Martin. “The impact of this will undoubtedly result in a positive school climate and greater academic growth and performance.”

This three-dimensional teaching method has also proved to be instrumental in encouraging discussions relating to diversity and inclusion within the classroom.  Denver Public Schools dance teacher Colby Nelson from Green Valley Elementary said he has used activities learned in the seminar to create lessons centered around positive self-speak and awareness of others.