Creating Classroom Connections - Even with those students who don't "fit in"

Using movement and music to learn life skills taught in DBT

Sessions 4 & 5: Grades K-6

This class will teach how using movement and music can build cohesion and make connections between all students, even those with emotional challenges and those students from different cultural and economic backgrounds. We will share how by dancing and making music together, your students will gain abilities in each of the four skill categories of Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) which are: mindfulness, emotional regulation, distress tolerance, and interpersonal effectiveness. As you help each student in your class gain these skills, your class will not only have a lot of fun, but they will also be more connected and able to handle change or conflicts that arise in the daily classroom, which in turn will create a better learning environment for everyone. You will be given transition activities, as well as longer lesson plans to help develop these skills that are fun and will help unify any group of students.

Heather Turner Wilson

Heather has loved teaching dance to children and adults for over thirty years both in the public schools and private studios. She has a BFA in Dance from New York University Tisch School of the Arts, and a MFA in Dance Education from the University of Utah. She has taught at the University of Utah, Children’s Dance Theater, and at Pacific University in Oregon. She currently serves as director of her own children’s dance program, Discovery DanceWorks, as well as The Cynthia Center For Fine Arts, a community based fine arts center in Roosevelt, Utah. Heather loves dance and music and is excited to share this information and class with you.

Taylor Nebeker Wilson

Taylor is a music therapy intern at the University of Utah’s Neuropsychiatric Institute. (which she will graduate from, in March 2019) Taylor obtained her Bachelor’s of Music Therapy from Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 2017. She also taught music at Discovery Ranch for Girls in Cedar City Utah. At the Neuropsychiatric Institute, Taylor uses music intervention and activities to help adult, youth and child patients accomplish specific treatment goals within the context of mental health.