( CNN ) Which high school teacher would assign his students the Mark Ronson/Bruno Mars can't-stop-dancing-to-it hit `` Uptown Funk '' ? Do n't think fictional `` Glee '' choir director Will Schuester . And no , not the leader of an admission-by-audition school like the one that inspired the 1980 movie `` Fame '' and a subsequent television show . It 's the joyous Scot Pankey , a real-life theater teacher at A. Maceo Smith New Tech High School in Dallas . `` I heard the song before Christmas and fell in love with it , '' Pankey told the Dallas Morning News . `` We are a project-based school -- there are only two in the Metroplex -- and that means you give the students a project , put them in teams and they have to come up with solutions . They had three weeks to work on it , then present as a group what they learned . '' The YouTube video has been seen more than 3 million times since its January 24 release . Pankey promised to join in the fun if his six theater classes would let him . ( Of course , they said yes . ) Attention Hollywood cinematographers : Student council Vice President Bryan Urraca and senior class President Johan Cruz shot the video in a single take . The teens impressed one key player : Mars himself , who said he cried when he saw the video .
High school students dance to Bruno Mars/Mark Ronson hit . The video features six theater classes from Dallas high school .