MIDLAND, TX (KWES) - A Midland teacher is doing something a little unconventional. She's incorporated song and dance into her English classroom. Since then, she's seen more excitement from her students.
At Santa Rita Elementary in Room 125, you'll find students singing and dancing, but this isn't a music class.
"We are going to do the song that we are really, really proud of that we wrote all on our own," Paxton Mooney said to her class.
Mooney is taking a different approach to learning. The students remix popular songs like "That's What I Like" and "Juju on that Beat."
"Got a class at Santa Rita. Mooney is our teacher," chanted the class.
"Everything that we learn, they get to make up their own song that goes with it and we have a lot of fun with singing and dancing every day in my class," said Mooney.
"They help us get our wiggles out when we are really excited to start the day and it will help us learn to do that thing that we are going to do that day," said Ava Langner, a third grade student.
"I think it helps me learn more but in a fun way," said Joseline Bejil, another student.
The fourth-year teacher got the idea from an Instagram post. She then introduced songs to her 7th grade class a few years ago, and now her third grade class.
"I think it's really cool because we are all a team and we are all good at dancing," said Andrew Bowling.
"They have a lot more excitement about the learning instead of just doing worksheets and reading it out of a book," Mooney added. "They are able to interact with the learning the entire time."
Mooney says she's already gotten other teachers on board.
She believes the key in teaching, is also letting your students teach you.
"I get to learn their favorite songs and be apart of it with them," said Mooney.
Mooney has taught them songs on characterization and summarizing. She says for each lesson there will be a song to go along with it, so they can remember what they learn.
