My friend Maria Juan told me during a conversation twenty years ago (during our graduation time) that I was going to find my “niche”. I was so looking in finding out what exactly was what she meant, and I think I did:

According to National Geographics (2022) a niche in ecology describes the role an organism plays in a community. Also, niche figuratively speaking relates to have found a position or occupation in society that is uniquely their own (scientist Cindy, 2022). If I synthesize this two descriptions, I would say that in our community is how we connect with our knowledge for an overall success.

This last week, I started my new position as a dance teacher. I have not been in the classroom setting for nine years. When I started to realized that yes… the scenario and the personalities in a dance classroom are the same, but the engagement within the community relates with this open ended question on how to challenge 2020’s 21st century generation into dance class, when they are use to seeing dance in Tik Tok app, competitions, in challenging virtual reality games and virtual learning. So, I researched about how to engage students using their own mindset to challenge themselves as intrinsic movers, instead to viewers.

Here are some tips to engage student in a face to face classroom setting.

1. Engaging dance into a face to face classroom setting motivates student engagement in understanding the concept, as the teacher becomes the facilitator of the process motivating to gather their own understanding about themselves.

2. Mental health is a priority during this time: Being their number one motivators supports their self esteem and support advantages and challenging moment for success. Students feel better if we look into the proactive approaches letting them know about their glows and then explain their need for growth. This will challenge themselves to become better into what they are doing.

3. Another priority is letting the school community to know rules and expectations at the beginning of the class. When we construct the rules of the game, student will follow the expectations. I usually informed the reminder of the expectations of the class making a niche of learning.

These three tips help at the beginning of the class. If you would like to add, please comment below what other strategies help in your niche for student success.

References:

National Geographic Society, (2022). Niche. https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/niche

Curious Cindy. Niches- Scientist Cindy. https://www.scientistcindy.com/niches.html