A dance parent unenrolled her child after our instructor read a book in dance class. How can I best educate my dance families on the importance of incorporating books with dance class? Special Guest Once Upon a Dance Once Upon a Dance offers movement, breath, joy, connection, and imagination through stories. Their catalog of 25 interactive dance books highlights positive messages and role models throughout four main series: Dance-It-Out! stories combine whimsical tales with move...

My students will only dance if they hold my hand, it's causing disruptions in class. How can I best structure a shorter 6-8 week dance session so all my students can feel challenged and nurtured. Special Guest Maria Hanely A passionate advocate for early childhood dance education, Maria Hanley specializes in teaching ages 0 months to 6 years. She has left NYC to teach dancers in the greater Cleveland area. Currently, Maria is teaching early childhood classes at The Mandel JCC, Hudson ...

How can you teach class without a theme? Should you teach dance without a theme? How do you prioritize your class flow to ensure nothing important is missed? How can you structure a large class to ensure no child is missed? Special Guest Corey Lozier Corey Lozier is a dance teacher, studio owner, and dance education resource creator who specializes in tap dance for early childhood. Corey pulls from her hands-on experience with her students in the classroom and from her time in the professi...

Should students be in charge of preschool dance classes? I will cover this topic and more with special guest Erin Burd as we answer some problems, struggles and questions from dance teachers and studio owners! Special Guest Erin Burd: Erin Burd, is a Dance Studio Strategist, Author and Speaker. She started Birdy’s Kids In Motion in 2009 and grew her mobile dance company to serve 3 counties in California. Erin is passionate about paying it forward and launched Erin Burd Coaching, and now Da...

Welcome to Season 6 of the Dance to Learn Podcast - The Preschool Dance Teacher’s Podcast! I’m your Host Jessica Strong! I am so excited for this season, because I’m introducing a new format! This season is all about YOU! I am answering your questions, providing help and guidance with your biggest struggles in the studio setting and I’m inviting Industry Leaders as guests to discuss your biggest challenges and provide you with guidance, support and resources to help you in your journey as a D...

In today's Podcast Episode, I wanted to talk about one of the key takeaways from last week's podcast interview with Allison Mell from Tots and Target. Did you know that the CDC recently removed crawling as a developmental milestone? As a dance teacher, this is really concerning! Crawling provides so many benefits to young children, not just in the physical sense but also for their brain and sensory development! What can we do as dance teachers to help students who may have skipped the crawlin...

In today's Podcast Episode, I have the privilege of interviewing Allison Mell with Tots on Target, a Physical Therapist who works side by side with Mary Deutsch, a Licensed Occupational Therapist to help parents understand how their children grow and develop. I recently completed their Babies on the Move course which was BRILLIANT (it's linked below) and I was captivated about the section on red flags and crawling. So it had me wondering, how can some of these "red flags" present themse...

Hello Dance Teacher Friends! Happy Wednesday and welcome to another episode of the Dance to Learn® Podcast! I’m your host Jessica Strong and today I wanted to talk about limiting distractions inside the dance studio. I started my teaching career teaching in both a studio setting as well as inside schools such as private preschools and public elementary schools. Teaching in a school setting taught me a lot on how unnecessary some “essential” tools inside the dance studio are really not necessa...

Hello Dance Teacher Friends! Happy Wednesday and welcome to another episode of the Dance to Learn Podcast, I’m your host, Jessica Strong - I’m excited to be here with another episode of the podcast. Today I’m going to be talking about how we can be more assertive in the classroom and how changing what we say and how we say it can have a major impact on Classroom Management. To be a Guest on the Podcast or for Advertising Inquiries, please email info@dancetolearn.co The Dance to ...

Good Morning! Welcome to the Dance to Learn® Podcast with your host Jessica Strong! The Dance to Learn Podcast is the place for dance educators and studio owners to get the best dance teacher resources, tips and advice to help you dance, learn and grow right along with your students. Let’s get into today’s episode. In today's Podcast episode, I will be discussing Separation Anxiety, What it is, what it isn't, some of the symptoms and how our brain develops to help children regulate sep...

Welcome to the Dance to Learn® Podcast - Where I help dance teachers and studio owners dance, learn and grow right along with your students. I’m your host Jessica Strong, I’m the Creative Director and owner here at Dance to Learn. In Today’s episode I am sharing 3 of my favorite Classroom Management Tricks with you! Join the Discussion in the Preschool Dance Teacher's Forum: https://www.facebook.com/groups/preschooldanceteachersforum Check out our Dance Teacher Memberships! Try our Dance T...

Welcome to the Dance to Learn® Podcast - Where I help dance teachers and studio owners dance, learn and grow right along with your students. I’m your host Jessica Strong, I’m the Creative Director and owner here at Dance to Learn. In today's Podcast episode, I interviewed Jennifer Randall to learn 3 key Facebook Strategies every dance studio should be taking to stand out on social media! You can follow Jennifer on Social Media: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thejenniferrandall Instagra...

Welcome to the Dance to Learn® Podcast - Where I help dance teachers and studio owners dance, learn and grow right along with your students. I’m your host Jessica Strong, I’m the Creative Director and owner here at Dance to Learn. In Today’s episode I am discussing Teaching the Dance Concept of POSITIONS. Why learning different positional concepts is important for our dancers and how we can teach them in creative ways. Teaching the Dance Concepts Episode List: DTL S2 E3 - Teaching...

Welcome to Season 5 of the Dance to Learn® Podcast! I’m your host Jessica Strong, I’m the Creative Director and owner of Dance to Learn® This season, I’m excited to continue some of our most popular topics! Including episodes on Teaching the Dance Concepts Addressing your Biggest Dance Teacher Challenges Classroom Management Hacks I’ve learned from Tik Tok and Instagram! I will also be adding some new topics on Child Development, Sharing the mistakes I’ve made as a Dance Teacher...

Today I was able to sit down with Jennifer Randall and share my process for creating my lesson plans! My preschool dance lesson plans are designed to flow and tell a story almost like a choreographed dance. Learn the 4 components of a lesson plan plus what subjects can be turned into a story-based lesson plan! Download the slides for this presentation: https://dancetolearn.ck.page/8013a23eca Additional Links: Free Life Cycle of a Butterfly Lesson Plan: www.dancetolearn.co YouTube Channel...

Welcome to the Dance to Learn® Podcast - Where I help dance teachers and studio owners dance, learn and grow right along with your students. I’m your host Jessica Strong, I’m the Creative Director and owner here at Dance to Learn. In Today’s episode I am discussing Teaching the Dance Concept of POSITIONS. Why learning different positional concepts is important for our dancers and how we can teach them in creative ways. Teaching the Dance Concepts Episode List: DTL S2 E3 - Teaching...

In today's podcast, I am addressing your toughest Dance Teacher Challenges! Today I am talking about a topic that has been the most requested by you and in fact, this topic has received the highest interaction of any other post that I've ever shared on my Instagram and Social Media accounts: and that is Separation Anxiety. As Dance Teachers and studio owners Separation Anxiety is most common in our youngest dancers, but can trickle into the older age brackets as well. It's important a...

In today's episode of the Dance to Learn® Podcast I am discussing student engagement, the reasons students may lack engagement during your class and how you can address the issue! Today's podcast episode is a REPLAY from Season 3 Episode 8! Addressing your Preschool Dance Teacher Challenges! I've broken down the episode into 4 parts and will be rebroadcasting it in a 4 part mini-series over the next few episodes, since the original episode was nearly an hour! I want this to be a nice bite-si...

Today's podcast episode is a REPLAY from Season 3 Episode 8! Addressing your Preschool Dance Teacher Challenges! I've broken down the episode into 4 parts and will be rebroadcasting it in a 4 part mini-series over the next few episodes, since the original episode was nearly an hour! I want this to be a nice bite-sized audio clip for you to enjoy and hopefully help you if you are experiencing these challenges yourself! If you have a dance teacher challenge you would like me to address on an u...

Today's podcast episode is a REPLAY from Season 3 Episode 8! Addressing your Preschool Dance Teacher Challenges! I've broken down the episode into 4 parts and will be rebroadcasting it in a 4 part mini-series over the next few episodes, since the original episode was nearly an hour! I want this to be a nice bite-sized audio clip for you to enjoy and hopefully help you if you are experiencing these challenges yourself! If you have a dance teacher challenge you would like me to address on an ...