Teacher’s Amazing Dance Moves With Students at Harry Potter School

Rachel Bertsche
·Writer

A teacher’s video of his impressive dance moves is going viral this week, calling attention to the award-winning educator’s unusual teaching methods and his Harry Potter-inspired middle school.

In the video, which has been viewed more than 2.5 million times and shared more than 58,700 times since it was posted to his Facebook page on Sunday, Ron Clark, founder of the Ron Clark Academy in Atlanta, joins seven of his students in a dance routine to rapper DLOW’s “Bet You Can’t Do It Like Me Challenge.” The 30-second video shows Clark and his students nailing every move of the viral dance, which the kids decided to teach Clark during winter break, according to the Huffington Post. The students met their teacher at school on Jan. 3, spent two hours teaching him the dance, and filmed the video at the end of the session. Clark told the Huffington Post that he knew his students would appreciate him jumping in and learning the dance they loved. “School should be exciting to them,” he said. “You’ve got to know who your kids are and show them that you care about their culture.”

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Ron Clark with students from the Ron Clark Academy. (Photo: Facebook/Ron Clark)

This isn’t the first time Clark has earned attention for his teaching methods. In a CBS This Morning feature that aired in March, Clark showed off the institution that mixes strict discipline with fun. The school has a 55-rule code of conduct, which includes answering questions in full sentences and making eye contact, but also has themed classrooms, a giant indoor slide, and a bungee jump. “I love Hogwarts and Harry Potter, and the kids do too, and so we wanted to bring that book to life and that feeling to life for these kids,” Clark, a former National Teacher of the Year, told CBS This Morning.

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Clark’s goal for the school, which opened in 2007 and has 112 students in grades 5-8, was to establish a space where kids want to learn. “It is a place that’s about passion, energy,” Clark told CBS This Morning. “I wanted to create a school where you could feel the spirit, wanted kids to walk into this school and say, ‘I love coming here.’ If you’ve got individuals who are passionate about making a difference in the lives of kids, they’re going to be successful.”

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Clark at the Ron Clark Academy. (Photo: Facebook/Ron Clark)

And when they graduate, he hopes they do so armed with the skills and confidence to succeed. “I want them to go out into this world and to know, ‘I am confident, because I have the ability, I can achieve this.’ I want kids to leave here and go for it and make an impact,” he said.

As for the parents and educators inspired by his most recent video, Clark says you don’t have to Whip or Nae Nae to get through to adolescents. You just need to find a way to relate. “You may not be a dancer,” he told the Huffington Post. “But you’ve got to find a way to reach the kids or else you’re going to lose them.”


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