Hey MTDubberz! Here at Move This World we think on our feet, adjust to unforeseen obstacles, get creative, and make our own music! Today's Mover Monday features an anecdote from PeaceMover, Komal Thakkar. Read about how Komal gracefully overcame the hurdles she faced in the classroom!
The night before my third session, I made sure to have my curriculum printed out and all of my activities planned. I had packed everything I needed and was ready to tackle the day's lessons as soon as I got into my classrooms. Halfway through my first and second grade classroom, my speakers stopped working in the middle our activity. I quickly tried to address the problem, but once I realized my speakers weren't going to cooperate, I unplugged them and hoped my laptop would work. Unfortunately, the sound stopped working on my laptop too.
While some kids inquired about why the music went out and I lost the attention of others, panic mode kicked in. I still had thirty minutes left, and we were supposed to play freeze dance as a reward if they behaved well. I switched gears to do another activity and get their attention back, all the while trying to figure out what to do. My singing voice isn't exactly American Idol status, so that definitely wasn't an option. I decided to put dance education to good use, after all, this is a movement based program. I asked them how they would like to create their own rhythm, and when they all agreed, I led them in a series of rhythmic exercises. We stomped our feet, snapped our fingers, and clapped our hands to different patterns in order to create various sounds to make music of our own using movement. A technical difficulty turned into a pretty successful session!