Now I really have to disagree with you! If your school has a ballroom dancing program like mine does (although next year it might not be in the budget) great for them. My former students were part of the program when I taught 5th grade, and last year our school made it to the final competitions 
Watch the documentary Mad Hot Ballroom. That's the organization that comes to the schools. A movie with Antonio Bandares, Take The Lead,
based on the life of Pierre Dulaine, the founder who, in real life, is a wonderful and down-to-earth guy.
I love it!!!! But Pierre's teachers usually go "T-A-N-G-OOOO" for the steps. I never heard them count.
If your kids seem really distracted, you might say something like, "Hey, let's all get up and tango while I tell you about your next essay assignment."
Maybe I'll give it a try.
We don't have a real gym at my school since some kids burned it down. We also have a lot of portables at my school since we're overcrowded. So, the PE classes are always right outside those portables doing their thing. Balls, boomboxes, and all. Nobody really complains. It's noisy life in the 'hood. We all get used to it sooner or later.
Use the opportunity to introduce your class to Tom Lehrer:
"As we dance
To the Masochism Tango --"
It brought back memories of teaching in a portable that should have been condemned. I was told not to complain or I wouldn't have a classroom. When the ceiling almost caved in due to heavy water on the roof, they came in and put 4x4 beams inside the room to prop up the ceiling. Then they covered the entire portable with giant tarps tied down to my flower pots outside. When the walls started caving in like a deck of cards, they used cables and just pulled the walls back up and left the cables in place to hold them. When I told them I was afraid of falling through the floor, they told me to put an X on the tiles that I stood on and they put concrete blocks under the floor at those spots. I taught in that room for years this way but...I had a classroom! lol
Commenting by HaloScan
