Today my group and I met with Deborah Damast. She teaches lower and middle school students dance and movement class. We started off by warming up with a class of kindergarteners. Deborah had us stretch, run, and play with the kids. They played a skipping game where they run in and tap someone to stand up until everyone is up and skipping. The kids looked like they were having a lot of fun. I had never met these kids before and I could tell that they loved having that class. Deborah told us that they only get one movement class a week, but that she wishes they had it every day. She said that it’s obvious that the kids that she teaches need to run around, and get a break from sitting in class all day. She also told us that she believes that kids that act out, act out because they aren’t getting enough run around time. This is why teachers shouldn’t take away recess, or movement class as a punishment. All of the kids were laughing, screaming, and seemed to be having a lot of fun. they didn’t want to leave when their teacher came to pick them up.It struck me when Deborah told us that now common core is apart of pre-k curriculum, and pre-k students are getting homework. This is crazy, and a way to relieve the sound kids of homework stress is to run around.

Movement is crucial in all humans lives