Alumni Spotlight: How Destinations Career Academy Transformed My Dance Teaching Career

The views and experiences shared in this blog post are personal to the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Destinations Career Academy.

Introduction 

My name is Emma Sharp, and I am a dance teacher and choreographer. I started dancing when I was five, and from a very early age, I knew I wanted to teach dance. As a homeschooler, I didn’t have many options for classes to gain the skills I needed to pursue a career in education. Destinations Career Academy helped me in so many ways. Taking Intro to Teaching, Child Development, and Early Childhood Education classes with Mrs. Vasquez gave me the knowledge I needed to get my first teaching job in Massachusetts in 2021, about a year after completing my education classes. 

Early Career and Current Work 

I taught at that dance studio for two years before moving back to Colorado and diving into the dance and teaching community in Steamboat Springs. Last year, I performed in a community dance production, Steamboat Dance Theatre, and now I have the great pleasure of co-choreographing a dance for this year’s production with a friend of mine. 

I also began working at a local dance studio, creating and running a summer camp this past summer, teaching several classes, training one of their newer dance teachers, choreographing for their holiday production, and doing some behind-the-scenes work such as running their social media. Through Steamboat Dance Theatre, I was also able to start an adult ballet class that I have been running for a few months now. It is so fun to be able to share ballet with adults in the community! 

Opportunities and Growth 

This year, I have taken on so many things that I never thought I could do, and more opportunities than I could have imagined have been presented to me. Because of what the teachers I’ve worked with (in dance classes and at Destinations) have taught me, I know how to present myself as a dancer and teacher, get to know other educators, present my ideas to them, and be successful in the dance teaching projects that I’ve gotten. I’m so grateful that I get to do what I love the most as my full-time job (or actually more like seven jobs, haha), and I owe so much of my abilities and confidence to Destinations. 

The Impact of Destinations Career Academy 

Destinations’ Education pathway provided me not just the information and skills I needed to begin teaching, but also the confidence to seek out teaching jobs, get to know other dancers and teachers, and be able to actually stand up in front of people and teach! (An underrated terror of being a new teacher). 

What It Means to Be a Teacher 

Being a teacher is not just head knowledge, or even subject knowledge. It’s about understanding people, understanding children, and how their brains and bodies learn and function at certain ages. It’s about learning to open your mind to new thoughts or ideas presented by peers, mentors, employers, or even students. It’s about making conscious decisions for your class, knowing that you can and should be able to back up your decisions with solid reasoning that is beneficial to your students and what they are learning. It’s about connecting with people, whether students, parents of students, fellow teachers, employers, and possible employers. It’s about knowing how to create a class plan, and then being able to think on your feet and change your class plan in an instant when needed. It’s about being organized, knowledgeable, kind, understanding, creative, curious, motivated, and so much more. 

Conclusion 

The classes I took at Destinations instilled in me how important it is to connect with people, to be deliberate and organized in my lesson planning, to be prepared and yet willing to change tactics to meet my students’ needs, and that is what makes an excellent teacher. You can’t do it on knowledge alone, and I’m very grateful to have had the opportunity to learn in an environment that makes education about knowing and understanding people rather than just knowing the facts of a subject. 

Ready to take the next step in your career? Discover how Destinations Career Academy can provide you with the skills, knowledge, and confidence to succeed. Learn more about our career-focused classes and find your passion today!