Our “Spring Dance Reloaded“ YouTube campaign tells an inspirational story from some ordinary people working together and doing extraordinary things. This film illustrates the power of creativity in todays’ schools especially at Berlin International School and the different people, known and not-known to our school who gave their time freely and without expectations!
The Spring Dance connected students to others The Spring Dance at Berlin International School is an annual dance event organized by the 11th Grade students for the lower Grade Students. Our goal was to create a dance event, with a well-done Project-Based Learning (PBL) approach because we believe this gives students more freedom to practice other essential life skills — like teamwork, communication, problem solving, project planning, task management, organization and building pieces of larger puzzles.
Let’s make “a Spring Dance” stands for doing meaningful work,— work that tackles (but not necessarily solves) issues or problems facing our community. Therefore we invited skillful professionals with different social backgrounds for transferring professional skills to the students but also to create a setting for better understanding social economical differences and have a positive cross- class interaction. We created separate working groups consisting of people with different skillsets and different work attitudes; with challenges on tolerance, consultation, inclusitivity, assertiveness and sensitivity to other cultures and values BUT all striving for the mutual goal CREATE THE BEST DANCE EVER!
We supported the students in doing this meaningful work by giving them a method for identifying, defining or tackling these problems. We picked a creative method that has been given us by the modern age; Graffiti. It was simply a way to get great results! 20 m2 wooden panels with a graffiti-sprayed bus, an awesome Berlin skyline and excellent giant stencils. Spring Dance increased social and relationship skills The students and all additional people chose to volunteer for a variety of reasons. For some it offered the chance to give something back to the community or make a difference to the people around them. For others it provided an opportunity to develop new skills or build on existing experience and knowledge. Or even make new friends, expand their network, and boost their social skills. To share an activity together is one of the best ways to strengthen existing relationships and make new friends. Regardless of the motivation, what united them all, was that they found it both challenging and rewarding.
For that reason: Let’s get people and especially students learning subject matter by engaging them in meaningful work and using a method that will help them academically, and in college, careers and life.