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Teaching: A Generational Impact

Name: Madeline Dawn Grimes
From: Lancaster, Pannsylvania
Votes: 0

Madeline
Grimes

3/31/18

DMV Scholarship

Essay

Teaching Dance and Movement to the Next Generation

From the beginning, my love of dance and movement has presented me with
amazing opportunities the best one has been the chance to teach
children how to dance. In 7
th grade, I was approached by the leader of an organization titled
Solful asking if I would teach a small dance class. The leader
explained how Solful provided free summer school for students from
low income neighborhoods. The parents of these children had nowhere
to leave them while they went to work, so Solful stepped up and
created an environment in which students are watched over while also
learning and growing. I agreed to teach a group of 7 kids but by next
summer I found myself teaching up to 85 kids every week. Over time, I
grew close to these kids because I spent upwards to 50 hours
fellowshipping with them and preparing routines for them to learn.


In all honesty, the students weren’t the only ones to learn every
lesson. For me, my biggest responsibility was trying to watch 80 kids
as well as keep them engaged. The hardest challenge turned out to be
getting them to pay attention and behave, especially in such a large
group setting but the thing I learned most from this experience was
actually the simple idea of patience. It isn’t reasonable to expect
80 children to be able to behave themselves for half an hour straight
and flexibility works wonders here. I’ve played many games of
freeze dance and dance-offs. In the end, what made me the happiest
was to see these kids enjoying themselves while learning as well.
Once, I saw a girl jumping up and down in front of her mom, begging
her to watch her do the new move she learned. Another girl asked her
mom to play the piano for her at home so she could dance. Seeing my
impact on their lives has been the best gift of all.

Teaching these students brought me to my calling: teaching. I realized that
being able to affect students lives for the better is one of the best
thing one can do for society. Not only are you preparing them to lead
a strong life, but you also prepare them for the future. As a
teacher, you’re always looking forward to what’s ahead and, for
me, this means preparing 
your students to look ahead and want the best in themselves. I seek to
help shape students to be the best version of themselves and teaching
provides an outlet for me to do that. What I find to be the biggest
joy of teaching is that it has a lasting impact on those that it
touches. I thank my mom every day for teaching me how to be kind and
I thank my teachers every day for providing me with a strong
foundation in learning. A student with a strong mentor is one that
can conquer the world and I want to be the person that helps make
that happen.