Getting your students to have the right mind set will help them exceed their goals! This may seem simple enough but is not easy when a class or student has a poor attitude. Your joy, love and energy can be contagious. Another way is to set guidelines that you post in the studio, hand them out to the students and get all of your fellow faculty members on board. We want all of our students to have a positive mind set when it comes to learning. Especially for example, when they are having an issue with a step or combination. Making them understand that by working hard on something to get it right, very often ends with a positive result and is therefore, worth the effort, is important.

Sometimes students don't really believe it because they doubt that they have the capabilities. When you have a good student who starts to give you an attitude it is important to find out why. They are probably thinking that they know it all and of course, at that point, simply stop learning. We have found that by talking to them and trying to help them focus on why they started dancing in the first place we are very often able to reignite their desire to learn. A lot of the time trouble starts with these students because their parents are filling their heads with over inflated ideas. So it is a good idea to sit down and discuss what is happening with the student before the situation gets out of control. If you can instill in the students when they are young, that having the right mindset in their approach to their work is important for their success, then you have helped them tremendously.

Here are some ideas that you may want to focus on and that have worked well for us.

A. We do not allow our students to say "I can't do that" or any other phrase that starts with "I can't". They can say "I am having trouble, can you help me?" or "That step is difficult for me, what can I do to improve?"

B. A correction is a gift. After a correction, we have the students say "Thank you" as a sign of appreciation to the teacher for seeing something in them that can be improved. When we find that the student is not responding to their corrections, we have a quick talk after class just to let them know that we expect more out of them and that there are no hard feelings, we simply need for them to work harder to reach their full potential.

C. Tune in to learning. Once a student reaches a certain level they must be able to fine tune their corrections. This part of their training will be up to them. To fix those little technical flaws will take a focus and persistence that will not be easy but it will be very rewarding and empowering when finished.

D. No folded arms. This comes from the old saying, "Closed arms, closed mind." I couldn't agree more! I tell the students to stand tall, shoulders back, chin lifted and to have their arms relaxed by their sides.

E. Keep smiling! We want to see happy faces and we want them to have fun. Joyous and happy feelings create a good environment for learning. We want our students to respect us not fear us. How great is it when you teach a class and everyone is pumped and uplifted as they leave?

In closing, I want to give you a great quote by the author Zig Ziglar. We give it to our students and also have it posted on our studio wall. "It's not your aptitude that determines your altitude, It's your attitude!"