Director of The DEL Institute, Ann Biddle, shares reflections and gratitude for the DEL Institute Teacher Certificate Program pilot year participants:
I was deeply honored to welcome our pilot year DEL Institute Teacher Certificate Program participants, faculty and staff, and friends and family to our graduation event marking the conclusion of our year-long program.
I want to express my deepest gratitude to the DEL Institute pilot year cohort. Our 19 participants from around the country and world completed over 200 hours of coursework (both synchronously and asynchronously) following a comprehensive curriculum anchored in the DEL model.
I am so grateful for their ongoing perseverance and dedication as we launched the first year of this program in a laboratory learning environment. Our students contributed valuable feedback and helped us continue to hone the DEL Institute Teacher Certificate Program in order to best support all dance educators in diverse teaching contexts.
The culminating experience of the DEL Institute Teacher Certificate program was a teaching practicum, which included teaching an original dance unit designed by our students in the curriculum and lesson planning course. Each student was paired with a DEL Mentor during the practicum to support them in teaching the unit.
At the graduation event, DEL Institute participants shared presentations of their final projects and included big takeaways from their experience in the program. The depth and breadth of these projects was inspiring and demonstrated the diverse and innovative ways our students were able to apply the DEL model to their own teaching contexts. These projects are clear evidence of the tremendous professional growth experienced by the DEL Institute participants this year! Check out this excerpt of Andrea Homer-Macdonald’s project reflecting on learning about the history of jazz dance:
It has been a tremendously profound year of learning.
Below are some of the comments that appeared in the chat as we concluded the event with a reflection:
“I am so grateful for this community!”
“All voices and movers welcome”
“Appreciation, resilience, joy”
“Family, excitement, welcome, laughter”
“Collaboration, continual learning, connection”
“Courage, transformation, inspiration, just dance!”
P.S. We also want to celebrate the four babies who were born during this cohort year! Congratulations to Stephanie, Kaitlin, Megan and Katie! We welcome the next generation of dance educators into our community.