In November 2023, Karen Jensen, a Utah elementary school teacher, shared an from her classroom labeled, “THIS IS HOW WE GET EXCITED FOR MATH IN THE MORNING.” In it, she leads her students in a short activity where they rhythmically move their math books in the air in time to the song “The Circle of Life” from The Lion King. They finish with one strong beat where they all drop their books to their desks.
Since then, the reel has gone viral, with more than 18 million views, almost 500,000 likes, more than 6,000 comments and nearly 200,000 shares. There are good reasons the reel has received so much attention. Of course, with thousands of comments, there’s bound to be some negativity.
Some people feel that kids should be expected to sit still and focus, and others think time should be spent on the lesson content rather than the transition. Responding to a commenter who said, of the 40-second exercise, “All I see is wasted time,” Jensen said, “That’s too bad that’s all you see! I see 31 kids with math books out at the same time ready to learn and excited to be in class. I call that teacher success!” a psychology professor at Temple University in Philadelphia and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, watched the video and said, “That definitely is a way to deal with the transition time and to actually get them paying attention.
” She points out that it’s not books or math that matter in the exercise, it’s the attention to the transition: “It .
