Schools today, both Primary and Secondary, are facing a whole range of challenges:
Many of my Dance Workshops are based around a specific theme. For example, I have recently run workshops on the themes of "Friends" and "Healthy Eating". Every workshop that I undertake is individually tailored to suit the needs of the school and is based around the particular issues and challenges that affect them.
In addition, of course, children who participate in the workshops are learning a new, fun way of exercising.
Over the years I have been running my Dance Workshops, I have received many testimonials to the value of the work I have done and the effect it has had on the children I have worked with, some of which can be viewed on my other site here.
Apart from the fun that the children will have and the learning they will assimilate (without realising they are "learning"!), I think that the message they go away with is slightly different, depending on whether it is a mainstream or a special school.
Many young people have little or no experience of meeting and working with disabled people. To be taught by someone with a quite severe disability who uses an electric wheelchair and an electronic communication device challenges their preconceptions of what "disabled people" are capable of achieving and breaks down long-standing barriers.
Many children who attend Special Schools have no contact with disabled adults. They, too, often have developed their own set of misconceptions about what the future holds for them and have very low expectations of their capabilities. For example, I have met children who use an electronic communication aid that have assumed that they will be able to "speak" when they grow up, simply because they have never seen an adult using a similar device!
Having me as their "teacher" gives them a role model to raise their expectations of themselves in a realistic way and so enables them to reach their maximum potential.
To discuss the possibility of me running a Dance Workshop at your school, please email me or fill in an Enquiry Form here, and I will get back to you as soon as possible.
©Alan Martin 2008
Page Updated 25th January 2008
