I haven’t written a post like this in a long time. It’s no secret, this has been a looooong school year for me. Larger class sizes, a new building, the addition of a new daughter, and just craziness of everyday life at a middle school. I can complain about a lot of things, but like most things in my life, I try to make the most of it and keep fighting the good fight. As always with these posts, I will focus on 3 positives from this year:
- Smiles and frowns
- New opportunities
- Gamified units
Smiles and Frowns
Three weeks ago I decided that Social Studies was not important. Instead, building community, listening, practicing empathy, and creating connections was more important. I’m not going to sugarcoat it, this has been a rough year for me with school changes, student behaviors, and consistency. The icing on the cake was a student saying, “I love this class, but I don’t know anyone.” That was said in December and I felt like a failure. The cherry on top was a group of students that walked in and asked me, “Mr. Moler who do you think won the fight?” I lost it.
Rather than go negative, I thought back to June of 2019 and the best keynote speech I ever heard from Joe Sanfelippo. He preached, “30 seconds is all it takes to change culture.” The next day, I wrote my message up on the whiteboard, “It’s not the amount of time, it’s what you do with the time. In a 7 hour day, you have 840 thirty second chances to connect to someone and make a difference in their life.” I took a chance and we took 2 minutes to send an email or text to someone and thank them. It made a huge impact – some students were scared to push send and some began crying. But that was alleviated when they received a nice reply. HUGE IMPACT. After 3 weeks, we devote Thursdays for taking 30 seconds, but I have noticed many students doing this on their own during the week.
To help students get to know each other, I took a chance and implemented a Monte Syrie idea of Smiles and Frowns. At the beginning of class, I say each student’s name and they have an opportunity to tell me something that made them smile or frown in the last 24 hours. We do this EVERYDAY for 5 minutes. At first it was awkward, especially for 7th graders. However, more and more students are sharing. We have applauded successes, and gave pats on the back for failures. I’m seeing a community being built. Students are hearing each other’s names. We are getting to know each other. I wish I started this at the beginning of the year instead of 3 weeks ago. What happens in week 5? Week 10? Week 20? I haven’t a clue, but I’m seeing some great results now.
New Opportunities
5 weeks ago, I was offered an opportunity by Jon Corippo to go to New Jersey and work with a small group of teachers with Eduprotocols over 2 days. I have never done anything like this before, and I was apprehensive at first. I worried about doing this because I didn’t want to leave my wife hanging with 2 kids. Moreover, I worried because I always have my self doubts and insecurities. Despite my self-doubts, I always come around and accept. Deep down I know I need to take a risk, learn, and grow as a teacher. I couldn’t pass up this opportunity. Although I haven’t done this yet, I’m excited to make my way to New Jersey Feb. 24 and 25 to share the power of Eduprotocols.
Gamified Unit
I tried something new this year that was a hit. I took Ancient Rome and turned it into a game called Barbarian Battlefield. I had students get into groups, and create Barbarian team names. This is an honest statement, and maybe not the best practice, but I thought of this over a weekend and put the website, story, and foundation for the game together in one day. Here is the website: https://barbarianbattlefield.weebly.com/ I didn’t know what to expect, but what I learned is the unit was fun. I threw in twists and turns along the way, and created new games. For example, I created badges related to ancient Rome (pictured below). Students could earn badges for quality work, winning games, or earning certain scores on assignments. Another aspect of this unit I liked were the side quests that students could do. Students had the opportunity to choose from a variety of side quests – they could choose things that suited their interests and strengths. Overall, this was a fun unit that created friendly competition and helped bring out my creative side as a teacher.
Moler's Musings 