Pizza Dance Day

I guess my new school district has a history of encouraging wellness activities during break times on PD days. And from what I’ve heard, they used to be really fun options, though not recently, so the wellness committee, which I’ve ended up on, is trying to brainstorm fun activities to get teachers moving.

Someone suggests a dance party, it makes the cut, and now someone needs to compile a playlist. No one else volunteers, and I think dance music sounds fun, so I take on the list.

I spend all weekend brainstorming songs that make me want to move. “Walking on Sunshine” gets added to the list early on, as does “YMCA” and “Celebrate”. Sunday afternoon I think, “How could I have left off any Abba?!” and add “Dancing Queen”. Finally I have what I think is a pretty good list (though lacking enough diversity–I’m going to need to crowdsource more ideas for that–if you have suggestions, please share in the comments), and I’m ready to test it out. I have friends coming over for dinner, and I put the music on soon before they’re about to show up. I’m going to test out the list: will they be able to stand still to the background music?

The kids, who don’t get much screentime, are fascinated with my Spotify list. They stare at the screen, even though it doesn’t look like much is changing to me. Then they start asking questions. “What are the three dots for?” “Do you have any Encanto?” (No, but I meant to. I add it right away.) “What’s this song?” “Why are you playing these?” They go to a different school in my district, so they know Friday is a day off for them while the teachers learn. I explain that I’m hoping to get teachers dancing to the music. They love the idea of teachers dancing all day. “Well, not all day,” I explain. “Just during our breaks.”

Then they ask what the PD stands for on my playlist title: Dance Music for PD Day. I tell them that it stands for “professional development”, which is a fancy term for teachers learning.

They let that stew for a while.

A little while later, one of them says, “You know, instead of Professional Development, teachers should have Pizza Dance Day.”

“You know,” I tell her, “I think you’re right.”