It just goes to show you!!

I am accustomed to giving students three days or at least two and a half days to complete this project on Native American Dances.  If you are interested in seeing what it entails, there is a post about it from last year.  This year, we had one class on Monday and then ended up having two days of snow days on Tuesday and Wednesday.  I was worried about students being able to complete the project in one day, and I cut one of the dances that I normally teach them.  I give them usually four dances to incorporate into their Native American modern dance and then they add as much as they want along with those four dances.

This year we only had one day to teach the traditional dances, and then one day to create their own version of these dances in a modern song with electric guitar and other more modern instruments.  I am amazed at what they all created from practically whole cloth.  I have also taught them the twist and the pony, during another class the week before.  They were able to remember all their moves, they were able to incorporate all the dances into a more modern version of a dance, and some of them told stories through their movements.  It was really incredible.  I was worried for nothing.

But it goes to show you, as I have always believed.  No matter how much time you give a class to get a project completed, that is how long it will actually take.  If you give them too much time, they just waste it anyway, knowing they have time to do that.  Because there was a very limited amount of time to get the job done, they knew that and they took advantage of every minute they had to get the job done.