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Mentoring student teachers: role models who bridge the gap between concept and practice.

Article Excerpt
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Not long ago only a couple of hundred dance studios, college dance departments, and public school dance classes existed in this country. Today there are thousands. Attendant to the boom in dance popularity, it seems increasingly that anyone with chutzpah can call themselves a dance teacher. Too often novices teach without proper training in classroom management skills and age-appropriate lesson planning. Worst of all, they often work with young children, putting this most vulnerable age group at physical and emotional risk.

"This is a major problem," says Elsa Posey of the Posey School in Long Island. She studied with Doris Humphrey at the 92nd Street Y in New York City and remembers Humphrey saying, "Always look for a mentor. Don't go off on your own." Today Posey and other experienced educators assiduously serve as mentors to the next generation of teachers. They guide a select group of graduate and undergraduate students, who they call student teachers, by giving them opportunities to serve--under supervision--as instructors.

"I think it's really important to get a formal education that includes teaching methodology, child development, and psychology," says Posey, who founded the National Registry of Dance Educators. "You don't learn everything you need to know about teaching...

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