It’s not always simple for teachers to connect with their students. There is frequently a significant, if not massive, age difference between the two, which renders some professors completely uninformed about pop culture. Describe TikTok. What exactly are these kids saying these days?
However, Scot Pankey, a theater teacher at Dallas, Texas’ New Tech High School, seems to understand exactly how to connect with his students. Mr. Pankey saw that his kids were spending a lot of time in 2015 watching YouTube videos, so he devised a project that involved the entire class: a choreographed dance routine to the tune of Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars’ “Uptown Funk.”
The video has garnered a lot of media coverage, millions of views, a shoutout from Bruno Mars, and a ton of comments from young people who wish Pankey was their teacher.
A image of a disgruntled and bored Pankey sitting at his desk signaled the start of the choreographed video. However, the theater instructor quickly jumped up, flipped his pencil in the air, and began to bop along to the music. The video hardly looked noteworthy as he slid and danced by himself throughout the classroom.
However, viewers could see that this wasn’t your typical footage as Pankey walked through the halls of New Tech High. Students suddenly joined Pankey for a flawlessly timed dance that would have pleased the “High School Musical” choreographers. Pankey is undoubtedly one of the hippest professors out there, that much is certain.
In January 2015, not long after the viral video had gone viral, Pankey said “I heard the “Uptown Funk” before Christmas and fell in love with it.
“There are only two project-based schools in the Metroplex, and we are one of them. This means that students are given projects, placed in teams, and required to come up with answers. They had three weeks to work on it before presenting their findings as a group.”
Pankey suggested the project to six of his classes after deciding that his elaborate “Uptown Funk” dance would be ideal for his students. Pankey, who sounds like a thoroughly entertaining teacher, wanted to participate, which was the only catch.
In an interview, he said, “I told them, ‘I am not a dancer, but I’d love to do this and go on this adventure with you, and we can all learn from it and have a nice time.'” They were all on board, too.
Pankey’s initiative as a teacher is undoubtedly commendable, but so is the work that went into the film. In addition to the video’s enormous scope again, six complete classes participated in this dance, Bryan Urraca, a student council member at the time, captured the routine in just one take. Pankey moved his breakdancing kids from one area of the school to another without pausing to record one dance routine at a time. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the remarkable film produced by Pankey and his students in 2015 quickly gained popularity.
Nobody, however, could have foreseen that Bruno Mars would view the tape and comment.
“On January 28, 2015, he said on Facebook, “I cried at the end.” “But I’m still a thug. We appreciate the efforts of everyone who contributed to this video.”
The New Tech instructor said he was “overwhelmed” when asked by The Dallas Morning News about the reaction to the now-famous video.
“We had a lot of fun”, Pankey remarked. “The response has me in awe. I feel honoured. Everything has been pretty nice.”
Watch the video here:
