Teachers or Entertainers

[Gus]

Two of Ceroc Metro's august members, the honourable Messrs Adam and Gordy) have previously made comment on the amount of teaching v entertaining a teacher does. I have a distinct (but possibly false) memory of being repeatedly being told during my CTA indoctrination to have the enthusiasm and presentation of a cheerleader ( :confused: :sick: :what: ). Leading that aside for the moment, there is clearly a range of presentation within which a teacher can operate ... BUT ... are teachers there to teach or to entertain?

[Little Monkey]

Two of Ceroc Metro's august members, the honourable Messrs Adam and Gordy) have previously made comment on the amount of teaching v entertaining a teacher does. I have a distinct (but possibly false) memory of being repeatedly being told during my CTA indoctrination to have the enthusiasm and presentation of a cheerleader ( :confused: :sick: :what: ). Leading that aside for the moment, there is clearly a range of presentation within which a teacher can operate ... BUT ... are teachers there to teach or to entertain?

I personally enjoy a class more if the teacher is a bit of an "entertainer".. As long as the teacher actually get through the moves, and manage to communicate what he wants the class to do, then it's fine! And if I enjoy the class, I tend to remember the moves better, too. If the teacher just drones on and on, my brain seems to switch off in the end, and I remember nothing of the class...... :what:

Being the teacher can be rather demanding, though. When you have a s**t day, and really just want to go home, then have to stand up in front of a packed class and not only be an amazing dancer, but a FUNNY one at that...! Been there, done that, all my sympathy.

If you manage to not just teach a class, but make it entertaining, too... All my respect! :clap: :worthy: :worthy: :clap:
In the end, though, it's all about being good at communicating...

Little Monkey

[bigdjiver]

Never one to be happy with a poll, 90% teach, 25% entertain. The skilled teacher can do both at once.

[Gojive]

Never one to be happy with a poll, 90% teach, 25% entertain. The skilled teacher can do both at once.

But the skilled Mathematician can make it add up to 100%! :na:

[Gojive]

Actually, my last in this thread was a completely cr*p post!. Please disregard/delete as required :sick:

[TheTramp]

I think that the numbers change depending on the class that you're giving. If it's an easier class, then there's more time/chance for entertaining. If you've made it a harder class, then you'll need less entertaining, and more teaching.

Hence, since my last class was quite a hard one ( :whistle: ), I've voted for 80% teaching. I've taught classes that were more like 40% teaching in the past though!

Trampy

[baldrick]

Actually, my last in this thread was a completely cr*p post!. Please disregard/delete as required :sick:
Don't panic about it GJ, large amouts of my stuff doesn't come out quite as intended. Nobody flamed me yet. (Ducks for cover).

[drathzel]

I think that the numbers change depending on the class that you're giving. If it's an easier class, then there's more time/chance for entertaining. If you've made it a harder class, then you'll need less entertaining, and more teaching.

Hence, since my last class was quite a hard one ( :whistle: ), I've voted for 80% teaching. I've taught classes that were more like 40% teaching in the past though!

Trampy

What would you say your class at BFG was!!

[baldrick]

What would you say your class at BFG was!!
The sunday class was great entertainment,But I was just watching :clap:

[Andy McGregor]

This question, like many others, is difficult for me to answer given the options available. I'm the only one that's gone for 100% teaching.

That's because I think the teacher is there to teach - there's a very strong clue in the job title :innocent:


Never one to be happy with a poll, 90% teach, 25% entertain. The skilled teacher can do both at once.

PROOF

And I think a very effective teaching method is to be entertaining. I remember I had a jolly, personable maths teacher. His classes were entertaining, I'd always go to them and I learnt loads. I had a very boring statistics teacher who just stated the facts; you could say my statistics teacher was 100% teaching - but I didn't learn statistics as well as I learnt maths.

Q.E.D. If we were to say measure the level of teaching by the level of learning, and, if my statistics teacher was 100% teaching my maths teacher must have been 115% teaching.


N.B. They might have been entertaining along the way, but I think that's all part of being an effective teacher.

[Robin]

:
PROOF

And I think a very effective teaching method is to be entertaining. I remember I had a jolly, personable maths teacher. His classes were entertaining, I'd always go to them and I learnt loads. I had a very boring statistics teacher who just stated the facts; you could say my statistics teacher was 100% teaching - but I didn't learn statistics as well as I learnt maths.

Q.E.D. If we were to say measure the level of teaching by the level of learning, and, if my statistics teacher was 100% teaching my maths teacher must have been 115% teaching.


.... to which all the ceroc teachers agree and promptly vanish in a puff of logic ! :grin:

[TheTramp]

What would you say your class at BFG was!!
It was quite a hard one.... there was a clue in there somewhere!!

Trampy

[drathzel]

It was quite a hard one.... there was a clue in there somewhere!!

Trampy


Got it......Glad you had fun... was trying out some of those moves with pretzelmiester on tues!!! :grin:

[TheTramp]

Got it......Glad you had fun... was trying out some of those moves with pretzelmiester on tues!!! :grin:
Cool. And did you manage any of them??

Trampy

[Dreadful Scathe]

I think a good teacher will also be entertaining so I put 50% each but I think Andy is right in that they are there to teach and they should give 100% to their teaching - I would see the entertaining aspect just being a by product of good teaching ability not as "a one or the other" option. A good example is DavidBs "this (metaphorical) t-shirt on the floor is my dance spot, I travel within it and I can get my partner to wash and iron it later" - even hearing that second hand teaches and entertains at the same time :D

Course ...now I have the horrible image of Gus dressed as a Cheerleader :eek: anyone get the phone number of an exorcist ? :)

[drathzel]

Cool. And did you manage any of them??

Trampy

I managed the columbian thing with the lunge.... and i did it without kneecapping him!!!! We also did the drop step over thingy!

[Petal]

I think that the numbers change depending on the class that you're giving. If it's an easier class, then there's more time/chance for entertaining.
Trampy

:yeah: If the moves are harder and some of the class are finding it difficult to conquer them, then the emphasis is on the teaching and having to go over the move or moves more, rather than entertaining.

[Gus]

Course ...now I have the horrible image of Gus dressed as a Cheerleader :eek: anyone get the phone number of an exorcist ? :)Funny .. I'd prefer to retain an image of Gus undressing a cheerleader :drool: ... ack, we can all dream cant we?

[drathzel]

Funny .. I'd prefer to retain an image of Gus undressing a cheerleader :drool: ... ack, we can all dream cant we?


Depends who the cheer leader is!!

[MartinHarper]

Thinking of standard Ceroc-style classes, I put down "40% Teach, 60% entertain". The stuff explicitly taught (no matter how clear) is fairly low priority stuff for me. Entertainment and other factors are more important, as the teacher helps set the tone of the evening.

However, when the stuff being explicitly taught is more interesting/useful, I'd go to something more like 80% Teach, 20% entertain.

[Gus]

Depends who the cheer leader is!!Look I'm single and male .... the thought is enough .. ok?

Back to thread. It would be intersting to rate ,say, an average Ceroc night v Hipsters v Ceroc Metro Master Class v Ceroc Plus etc. etc. on the above scale of Teach v Entertain.

[Dreadful Scathe]

Look I'm single and male .... the thought is enough .. ok?

I think she was offering to be the cheerleader Gus - pity you missed it ;)

[Gus]

I think she was offering to be the cheerleader Gus - pity you missed it ;)Hey ... I'm just not that kind of guy .. OK? :blush:

BACK TO THREAD .... anyone?

[ChrisA]

Back to thread. It would be intersting to rate ,say, an average Ceroc night v Hipsters v Ceroc Metro Master Class v Ceroc Plus etc. etc. on the above scale of Teach v Entertain.

Very difficult to define an "average Ceroc night".

Ceroc teachers in my experience are very variable re both teaching and entertaining... some (eg our very own BillCo and Bex, IMHO, among others) are very entertaining, as well as being good teachers; some are entertaining without being such good teachers, some the reverse and one I can think of is IMHO absolutely cringeworthy on both counts. So the variation is so wide that any average would be meaningless.

IMHO, any really poor teacher is by definition a poor entertainer as well.

Of the Hipsters teachers I've experienced to a significant extent, Nigel doesn't seem to try to entertain much, but is quite often funny, as is Amir.

But that's just my take... different people will perceive things so differently that I'm not sure there's a great deal of mileage in comparisons like this.

Chris

[Graham W]

Put 80-20..

..teaching, pls - the entertainment bit is a separate bonus - eg - Nigel & Nina

G

[Dreadful Scathe]

Thought I'd post an observation...

have just been witnessed the best Ceroc teacher I've yet seen :) Step forward PaulF :) I was at Hyde last wednesday and thought Pauls intermediate class was very clear, very well taught and bleedin hilarious...the man is funny :) He entertained as well as taught and for me thats perfect for a ceroc class. I suspect he even may have made one of the moves slightly simpler (the sway had a pause) because he judged, rightly, that not everyone was going to get it as one flowing move but would handle it better broken down.

PaulF is a teaching GOD! ;)