Friday, October 8, 2010

A Dance Class In The Classroom

In Grade 6 I am known as the dancing English teacher. When I get excited I bust a move or two in the classroom. My kids get a kick out of it. I'm not sure how or when I started doing it - but I guess it stems from my mother who has this fantastic way of gliding and dancing in front of people (particularly when they are watching TV at home). It's quite comical if you've ever seen her do it. I guess I am my mother's daughter.

Anyway, for weeks I've been doing alternative Zumba online. It's one of the funnest workouts I've ever been involved in (and since then have lost over 25 pounds since being here). Some of my students caught wind of this and have been on my case about showing them my newly learned dance moves.

After days and weeks of avoiding it, today I finally gave in. I posted on facebook that there would be a dance party/class during lunch break. Since most of my Grade 6 students are my friends on facebook, word burned around the classroom like a wildfire. At lunch break I had 15 students in my classroom ready to learn Miss Marie's famous dancing. Ha!

I reviewed the steps and started with a simple dance. Within minutes they got it down pat and all of us were dancing in sync to Selena Gomez's "Naturally." It wasn't just girls either - there were a lot of boys as well.

Before I knew it the office boys were looking in our classroom watching this madness. This got my Grade 3 girls interested and they too joined in. By the end I had over 25 students learning alternative Zumba moves.

I can only imagine what was going through Budi's mind as he sat at his desk laughing and watching with a smirk on his face.

Apparently this was the highlight of many students' recess and they scheduled Zumba dance classes every Monday, Tuesday, and Friday lunch break. Haha! However the more I thought about it, the more I really enjoyed my time doing this with them. It's like there is a new level of connection between my students and I. I'm so blessed to be able to not only teach but interact with them on a personal level.

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