Teacher Team Training

Talk less, teach more, and watch instructors AND students excel! The Smoothstyle Teacher TEAM Training program is a uniquely designed pedagogy for WCS instructor partnerships and teams.

The program is:

  • Systematic. Learn a foundational pedagogy that is simple, repeatable, and easy to build on to support your culture, style, and syllabus.
  • Empowering. Help elevate instructors of all experience levels, boost instructor confidence, and achieve great results in students.
  • Proven. Get students dancing sooner and instructors working together more efficiently.

The program is not:

  • A theory of West Coast Swing. Instead, the program provides a foundation for how to teach well, not what to teach.
  • Prescriptive. Instead, the program supports instructors and teams to teach their preferred style of the dance.
  • Rigid. Instead, the program teaches a pedagogical system that supports the diverse and evolving nature of West Coast Swing.

Program outcomes

Teaching excellence

  • Talk less and teach more
  • Develop strong instructor partnerships and teams
  • Create consistency among instructors while leaving room for individual personalities to shine
  • Provide equal attention and quality of information to both Lead and Follow roles
  • Equip instructors of varying levels of experience to work well together

Scalabality

  • Provide consistency in WCS instruction across levels and as the dance evolves
  • Develop dancers with strong foundations and an inspiring path forward
  • Minimize class-to-social-dance confusion and overwhelm for beginners
  • Foster a dynamic team where lead-follow teaching pairs can easily mix and match

collaborative teamwork

  • Use a common language to prepare and teach West Coast Swing lessons
  • Create a “safe space” to fail, build confidence, and become stronger as instructors
  • Use exercises that enable teaching partners and teams to work effectively and efficiently together

Program design

The program is delivered in person by master instructor Maria Ford:

  • 3 modules of 4 hours each (more for teams larger than 4 instructors)
  • The modules must be completed in sequence but there is no obligation to do them all
  • The modules should be separated by 6-12 months, during which the team practices the system and skills before moving on
  • The program does not provide a specific syllabus; syllabus consultation and guidance can be provided as required
  • Participants receive handbooks capturing key take-aways and space for notes

Fees

For prerequisites, current fees, schedule, and logistics, please contact Maria.

Recognition

Smoothstyle recognizes the program graduates and their schools with certificates of completion, and via our online Wall of Achievement.

“
I wanted to take this opportunity to say Thank You for an exceptional year of dance instruction from you and your entire team. I feel extremely privileged to be able to learn from each and every member … Your capacity for teaching is exceptional. You have a complete way of breaking down the moves you want us to execute.”
JoanneStudent

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