Swag

I'm pretty sure most high school students think their teachers are robots. We do not exist outside the classroom. We eat, drink, and sleep school. This depiction is - sadly - closer to the truth than I would like.

Yesterday, during our fall pep rally, the teachers had a chance to break out and break it down flash mob style. When Ams told me her school was doing a flash mob I knew mine had to as well. Teachers need fun, silliness, and school pride too. And so I stealthily went about signing non-dancer faculty up for dancing in front of our students.

I promised no jazz hands.

When cutting the music, I knew the dance had to have several things: a repeat, the grapevine, and old school dance moves. I could make teacher jokes of how I scaffolded the teaching of the dance and differentiated for learning styles, but what's really important is it all came together and the students were thoroughly amused.

So amused that at one point we got off the beat because we couldn't hear the music through the screaming. You can watch it here.

Afterward, there were many high fives and exclamations of "you can dance" and "you've got swag." To which I humbly said "thank you" and "I know," but should have said: "and that's just the grapevine." And I might have said that had I not already been back in my robot teacher disguise.

"The real American type can never be a ballet dancer. The legs are too long, the body too supple and the spirit too free for this school of affected grace and toe walking."
Isadora Duncan