An (aspiring) Educator’s Blog

Dance first.  Think later.  It’s the natural order. – Samuel Beckett

Next time you’re mad, try dancing out your anger.  – Sweetpea Tyler

We’re fools whether we dance or not, so we might as well dance.  – Japanese Proverb

I stumbled across the 2 minute dance party in college. It’s 3 am. You’ve exhausted your supply of diet coke, coffee, and peanut butter M&Ms. Your mind has gone so fuzzy that you can’t remember simple facts. Your thoughts wander. Sample inner monologue: “Did the Civil War end in 1864 or 1865? Should I use an OLS or logistic regression model to model the determinants of binary dependent variables? Why is OLS ‘BLUE’? Who played Cowboy Curtis on Pee-wee’s Playhouse? What’s my cell phone number?…. Who am I?!?”

Enter the 2 minute dance party. I throw on a song with a fast tempo and dance like Kevin Bacon in Footloose. When the dancing is over I attempt my studies with renewed vigor – usually, it works. I retain more of what I read, come up with innovative ideas, and avoid the 3 am existential crisis.

It turns out that there are a few studies about the impact of exercise on learning (see NPR story). One of my projects this summer is to come up with ways to mold movement into my lessons. Daily 3 minute dance parties, active science experiments, jumping jack spelling bees, acting out stories, and concept relays are just a few ideas.

I don’t want my classroom to be like that little town in Footloose.

We all love Ellen’s dance parties: