Promoting My Tabletop Gaming Club

At my school, they read announcements over the loudspeaker. So whenever I have something to add for the clubs I run, I just write up a little announcement and it'll be read by the kids assigned on that day to read them. I usually try to make things exciting or funny. I found the students who actually are asked to listen to announcements get a kick out of them. Doubly so if our Dean of Students reads them, because he gets all sports announcery. So I always try to come up with something fun and witty to get the students attention instead of just "Don't forget about gaming club at recess."

Also, our weather here in Wisconsin was getting pretty snowy and really cold and is projected to be even more snowy and cold. Most of the recess times were being spent inside. So the students had to either sit in the balcony of the gym or they got the gym floor, depending on the day (alternating between the grades). So instead of just sitting on the balcony, why not come play a tabletop game, right?

Caching in on the season and the reason, I made this cute little announcement and then had my club members pass them out to their teachers and friends to promote the club.  I also put it up on my projector background in my classroom. It was awesome! Just imagine a kid coming to this announcement on a page and having to read it aloud on the spot. Poor girl on Monday didn't know what to do. Today, the Dean of Students actually got in on it and gave it a nice little melody. I'll have to change it for tomorrow. Maybe. . . Winter Wonderland?

BONUS: Our "Game of the Week" from the previous week was Smallworld! I actually used his brief tutorial at the beginning of the episode of Tabletop to help explain the game

Edited 12/20/2013: We had 5 new people come to check out the club this week and even had an inquiry about Magic: The Gathering. I'm super excited about having a very productive school group with a consistent group of kids who participate.

I also made the Winter Wonderland announcement for Thursday and Friday:
School bells ring, Are you listening?
In the hall, snow is glistening.
A beautiful day, We're not outside play.
Walking to a gaming wonderland (In Mrs. B######'s room.)      
Tabletop Gaming Club is open every lunch/recess. Come on over to Mrs. B#####’s room, A###, and check out the game vault!

My Geeky Halloweeny

I just want to go on record saying I had my most, hands-down, favorite costume ever! My husband tried to say it wasn't a costume, but 1) I had to think about functionality in my class and 2) something I can handle doing on my own. This birthed. . . ZOMBIE TEACHER, Great Minds Taste Alike.

I committed to this costume 100%! I zombie-walked (Romero style) and posed with my kids for whole-class pictures of costumes and I always ate one of the brains of one of the kids. Also, in my first hour class, I was eating an apple cake from Starbucks and it looked like a brain cake! So there was some gross fun with that.

The shirt I got from snorgtees forever ago and I knew I wanted to wear it for Halloween. And I know I didn't commit to the full face paint or the full body paint, but I had to work. . . all day. . . with kids. . . in a black shirt. . .  But I was very thrilled with it. More than last year's Ghost Hunter costume. I just wore my Ghost Hunter t-shirt that I purchased while at Ohio State Penitentiary. Then I wore a bag and had some of my ghost hunter equipment with me. It was neat, but not as cool as this.

I got to school Halloween morning and I pulled out my cream paint and hair spray and went to town. I started out a bit too green (and turned a bit too blue by the end of the day), but I really pushed the whole grey look and the bloody mouth. I told my first students who came into my classroom who reacted to me that this was from the first student who tried to come into class early. Even when I had to go around the school, whenever I ran into people in the hall I'd act like a zombie. It made getting places slow-work, but it was well worth it. Later in the day, I had to return the Chromebook Cart to the Library and I really sold pushing that cart as a zombie. It was HILARIOUS!!! I won best drama personality, because I thoroughly commit to my personalities. So for my kids who are counting. . . I've had Aviator Bonilla, Beatnik Bonilla, Yogi Bonilla, Bonilla the Bard, Ghost Hunter Bonilla, Gamer Bonilla, and Zombie Bonilla.

This particular Halloween costume was a huge success and a great deal of fun. Other awesome costumes that showed up in my classroom this year: Philip J. Fry, complete with can Slurm can and Pizza, Captain Kirk; Slenderman, Princess Peach, Properly Dressed Jedi Knight, and the Apocalypse Prepared Guy. My kids were awesome and their creativity was impressive.

Halloween Eve was also the first time we would be taking our daughter out into our new neighborhood to Trick-or-Treat. Last year we didn't realize that our neck of the woods was devoid of houses to visit and no one out here does anything, because they're all snowbirds. This year we knew to go in a bit farther to the main town and Trick-or-Treat along our walking route. So our daughter dressed up as a pink unicorn and I still was a zombie and we went out Trick-or-Treating.

To top off the evening, Ray and I were hosting our first Thursday game night. Sadly, only two people came. Ray had worked hard to create a nice environment. He cleaned and made sure there was enough open space. The house looked quite impressive and Ray was really keen to impress any visitors. Two of our awesome club members showed up, but I was so exhausted from the long school day and going out with our daughter that I had to call it a night. The night wasn't over, though. Our daughter was so excited that people were there that she couldn't help herself and wanted to constantly come downstairs. She was was interrupting the gaming and our dog was being a pill. I felt bad for my husband, because it wasn't as perfect as he wanted it to be. But I do hope that he had fun. . . and that we didn't scare away our gamer group friends. Poor kid was hopped up on candy and the need for GAAAAMMMESS!!!

So all and all. . . it was a Happy Halloween. The Ghost Adventures Dracula Special was really quite fun and the Halloween Scooby-Doo was fun for me and Isabelle, too. It was a good Halloween.

The T-Shirt Treatise (con't.)

A while back I wrote about how I wanted to use t-shirts as a teaching tool in my classroom. Of course I was being a bit hyperbolic at times and not every shirt was a direct link to the classroom. I have now, though, had the time to start using the shirts in the classroom during certain lessons and on certain days and I wanted to share some of the results that I've collected from the use of the shirts (plus add a few shirts that were recently released by snorgtees.com).

I did wear this on International Talk Like a Pirate Day. It was awesome. I had a whole list of pirate lingo and the students had to write pirate stories using the story dice in my class and an awesome pirate name generator. And we used the shirt as a joke and the hook them to the awesomeness of the day. It was a win-win situation and it was a lot of fun. They were trying to figure out the shirt and we talked about why the pirate crossword puzzle would look like this and how hard it would be to solve. Hilarious! A definite shirt to wear again next year for International Talk Like a Pirate Day!

My students were working on plot in the narratives they are writing. My seventh graders were working on a plot for the origin stories they were writing for their super heroes. Whenever I had a student say they were done, I'd always say "Cool story bro, needs more dragons." It usually meant they were missing the action in the story. They just told me some things, but nothing ever really happened in the story. Plus, many of them needed excitement and we talked about that in one-on-ones to help them improve their writing. The students also got a kick out of the fact that my shirt said "bro." While I don't know how memorable the t-shirt will be, it was a fun way to break the tension for ushering in a need for revisions.

My students are struggling to understand what literally and figuratively mean. So when I ask them to tell me what the idiom of the week LITERALLY means, they give me the idiom definition. When, literally, it means "to hit a sack" or to "find a needle in a haystack," instead of "go to bed" or "finding something small in a big place/area." If I am figuratively speaking, I am using "coded" language to explain something. It was an interesting discussion. Does it bother me that people say "literally"? According to this shirt, no. I'll be wearing it again, especially when we're working on figurative language throughout the year in both of my grade level literacy classes. It doesn't hurt that red is our school color, either.


This shirt was a fun puzzle shirt for my kids. The students who are keeping their eye out for what I'm wearing were already trying to solve the puzzle before I ever even introduced it. I  used this t-shirt on the day we were starting spelling in the classroom. Someone said "I don't get it." I flattened the shirt and let them take a moment thinking about it. I said, "Don't words usually follow the 'I before E' pattern, except after a C where the E would come before the I? Don't you think that's wEIrd?" It was great the students won't forget weird, but I used it as a reminder that the "ie" combination doesn't always go "ie," It might follow the "ei" pattern. That is why we are learning features in spelling, so that they can be aware of the certain types of word structures that occur naturally in the English language. It is a great thinking shirts where the students have to start applying what they know to solve the problem. It also causes that kind of awareness that they need to start developing to be more participatory members of a productive community.

This is a Friday or before a break shirt. Sometimes you just need just exude an indifference to high stress situations. Sixth graders can be incredibly worrisome over things that don't necessitate worrying. I have found this has a tendency to stem from not listening to directions or guidelines. It happens. So I have to "meh away the stress." Plus the kids laugh and I have a tendency to say it alot. It helps facilitate a positive atmosphere before the weekends (especially for me).

What? A Sharknado shirt? Yes! My students were working on their narratives again and I wore this shirt as a reminder of how EPIC they needed to be! I said "we're going to need a bigger classroom with all these amazing ideas!" It worked for my students writing a standard narrative AND those who were working on their super hero origin stories.



This is the shirt I am anticipating the most. While teaching spelling this last week, my students had to deal with certain spelling features which focused on vowel/consonant combinations. So, for example the long a using the CVCe word pattern. (Yeah, it's a little intense, I think, as far as spelling is concerned.) As a review, I asked the students, what are the vowels. . . they are sixth graders. . . and they were like "It's like. . . a-w-sometimes y." I mean, they kept saying w. . . and it made me wonder what disconnect happened where they thought u was w. So I went home that night and I saw this shirt on  snorgtees.com and knew it was a must. Here are all the vowels that are always counted, partying inside and Y is only invited sometimes. Love it! Hopefully they'd never forget it. We'll just assume they're drinking soda and punch. What? You thought it was alcohol? Shame on you! Be an adult!


Now that I'm getting to wears my shirts in the classroom, it's wonderful to see that my plan for hooking the students is seriously working. My peer coach also recommended having reference posters that remind the students about some of the t-shirts. I'm not sure what I want to do about that. Either way, I am loving being able to wear my t-shirts in the classroom. Complete with dress pants! It's a great idea for use in your classroom if you're a teacher, especially in middle school.

Let Them Eat Cake, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Make a Cake

For anyone who knows me, you know how much stress I've been enduring lately. I have too many fingers in too many pies. . . my plate is overloaded. . . a bee has got nothing on me. . . I arrived home from our trip to North Carolina and I hit the ground running. I immediately had to work on curriculum for the Milwaukee Film Festival. Then I had to meet with some district colleagues to complete a Literacy Department District Assessment. It was the first week back at school, which was full of all the staff meetings and trainings and things like that. Then. . . the first week of school. I started a new club for Tabletop Gaming. I'm running the school newspaper. My weekends have been stacked with traveling down to Milwaukee for events.

Throw into the mix that I'm trying to relaunch the school paper with a brand new staff. I'm also trying to get a field trip organized for the Tabletop Gaming Club so that they can participate in N.E.W. Game. . . I've got my PDP (Professional Development Plan), 2 SLOs (Student Learning Objectives) and 2 PPGs (Professional something Goals). . . sigh. . . and I'm on the Academic team at my school developing a school-wide goal of improving students ability to apply close analysis with citation support for claims. . .and just the normal ins and outs of being a teacher.

Then there are money issues and I have the whole mommy-wife thing going on. Meal planning and "life" planning. Did I mention we have a puppy?

Do you feel stressed yet? I haven't even mentioned everything. It's no wonder to me why I'm ready to crash at 8PM every night. And I've been lamenting to my husband that I need a zen weekend where I am not worrying about lessons or grading papers or anything. Lucky for me, I finally hit my stride with being comfortable with my lessons and my Thursdays and Fridays are a bit more relaxed.

So after I kicked my husband out of the house. . . and off to a gaming night with the group we've joined, I had some time to relax with my daughter a little bit. After she went to bed, I had some time to just. . .scroll endlessly and blindly through Twitter and Facebook. Something caught my eye. It was posted by Epic Reads and it was about a Divergent Read-a-thon!

I've never read the Divergent books, but I know a new one is coming out very soon. So I went to the Epic Reads website and I started reading about this Read-a-thon. From October 1-6, you have to read the entire novel. Then there will be another week to read Insurgent and, finally, the third release, Allegiant. I'm heading upstairs now to read as much as I can before I fall asleep.

Yet, a link caught my eye on the page. Recipes that relate to books? I am intrigued. What could this mean? I clicked the link and all of a sudden. . . there it was. . . a chocolate layer cake. . .inspired by the book I was going to attempt to read in three days. And that is how stress becomes a chocolate cake. . . I will be reading Divergent and making a chocolate cake this weekend. What better way to eliminate stress than with reading a new book, baking a cake, and then eating that chocolate cake WHILE reading that new book?!? (Just see this from a girl's angle where Star Trek, Asimov, and Bradbury don't exist. . . haha!)

Thank you Epic Reads! I am so looking forward to reading this and enjoying the cake recipe! Who knew you could have your cake and eat it, too!

UPDATE: Epic Reads gave me some love for a tweet I made when I started the Read-a-Thon. Check out their daily updates!

Tabletop Gaming Club (and other activities)

. . . . a girl had a dream of marry fun and education. . .

I realized a long time ago how much I value building strong relationships with my students. That doesn't mean I don't give them distance and let them be their own independent leaders, but I enjoy when they come in at recess and are interested in just "hanging out" while helping to complete classroom "chores." Not only does this make class run smoother, because you have students within the masses to quell the rabble-rousers, but you also can create a classroom environment that is geared towards them. For example, I'll make sure to use The Regular Show for an activity instead of just some vague, made-up, or Disney characters. This will make the assignment more meaningful and I knew they watched the show, because I took time to build those relationships in a relaxed way.

I also realized that having these kinds of interactions makes those harder moments bearable. Being a teacher is a full-on assault of your mental, emotional, and spiritual state of being. Yet, having those relaxed moments where you're just joking around with the kids or having a laugh helps to reset things. In all honesty, I'd rather be hanging out with the kids who don't understand my full-blown social awkwardness, than waste more of my energy trying to fit into a circle of adults who emphasize my social awkwardness front and center.

Thus was born the Tabletop Gaming Club! I'm going to have the students meet every-other-Monday during lunch to learn how to play a game. What goes through my mind is that there isn't enough time for some games. In those instances, games would be left alone to continue during the next lunch period or after school is the students are available to stay.

Once we have learned the game, the students will be allowed to sign in on a calendar to come in at recess with friends or other club members to play the game. The same unfinished rule applies. They can stay after school to finish playing or we'll have to photograph the game to set it up to play another day. I'd prefer staying after school, since I seem to stay a little later anyways. This week alone I  have been getting home well after 5PM, even though school gets out at 3:50PM.

I did explain Tabletop games to one of my Literacy classes today. Sixth graders are so eager to sign up for things. It's having the follow-through to stick with it. The kids, though, thought Tabletop games were chess an checkers. And while I accepted those answers, I pulled out my classroom copy of Dixit and gave them a smaller explanation. I think I'm persuaded a few to give it a nice check-out. Bonus, you don't have only one sign-up date. You can start playing any time during the year. I just ask that you commit to the time.

I think it'll be fun once we get it going. I am so super psyched about it.I also want to have some of the students help run games in class. I think it'll be cool.

And there you have it. . . a club is born!

T-shirts, T-shirts Everywhere, but Which One to Wear!

I am a huge t-shirt nerd. I love t-shirts that say geeky things. I love t-shirts that show I've been to a concert or an event. I do not, though, love Hard Rock t-shirts. I prefer their pins. We were unpacking some of our clothes bins and I was even finding t-shirts from when I was in high school! X-Files, No Doubt, and, of course, my skater shirts that say things like HOAX!

My husband reintroduced my teacher passions one Christmas when he purchased me a LOST t-shirt and a shirt that had nuns on it which said "All the Single Ladies." I mean, I was known as the nun girl because of my dissertation work, so it was perfect! Since then I have only very slowly added t-shirts to my wardrobe again. This time, they've been more teacher-orientated t-shirts. T-shirts are considered taboo professional wardrobe choices, but as a literacy teacher, I find them to be a fascinating and overlooked teaching tool!

This year, I spent my time browsing SnorgTees and I developed a meaningful t-shirt oriented teacher wardrobe that is a great hook for some of the lessons or mini-lessons that I teach. If I were still teaching Science, I would have so many more listed, but I'm only teaching Literacy this year. I would just like to note that these would be worn with dress pants and/or a little jackety-type-adult thing.

1. Do Not Read the Next Sentence
I wanted to wear this the first day of school, but I'm already wearing my Star Trek Red Shirt (our school colors are red, black, and white and we're supposed to wear a red shirt on the first day). But I wanted to wear this to give the kids a laugh and feel a little special. I also wanted to give the hint that I appreciate thinking outside the box. I honestly do. This is more of a classroom management shirt for the first week of school to encourage students to be themselves and feel comfortable with my sense of humor. I'm a little weird.

2. Misuse of Literally Makes Me Figuratively Insane
This shirt is for my days when I am introducing or working with Figurative language. We do work with idioms in sixth grade and we have a small unit at the end of the year on Figurative language. I try to make the point that figurative doesn't mean what is says directly, so it's not literal. This is especially important for English Language Learners and English as a Second Language learners. To recognize these pieces of the language as having another meaning is incredibly beneficial to them. 

3. Thesaurus
What kind of a Literacy teacher would I be if I didn't encourage my students and teach them how to use a Thesaurus to improve their writing! Last year, when I worked with my kids, it was like they had never heard of one before. This t-shirt would function as a hook and, eventually, become a running gag in the room for the kids to feel just a little more special about using a Thesaurus when editing and revising. Plus, several of my students are still really into dinosaurs and that's always a bonus!

4. Cool Story Bro, Needs More Dragons
This is another hook shirt that I can use when we are writing our stories early in the year or when I do some writing activities throughout the year. Students sometimes forget that it's not a personal attack when a teacher reads their writing. Don't get me wrong, there are teachers who do make it a personal attack, but for me, I'm not here to criticize your STORY. I'm here to help you package your story better. Sometimes, your story is right there. . . it's amazing, but it needs a little something extra. I thought this t-shirt was a great way to create a funny catchphrase for the kids when there's just a little something extra needed. For me, humor takes the edge away from making the kids feel like they are being attacked. It doesn't work for everyone, but it worked for most of them last year. I wanted to wear this on revising or teacher writing conference days.

5. Most Intelligent Person in the World Citation Needed
This t-shirt is a must for any teacher trying to teach kids to use citations. This is a huge deal in Middle School and I worked with my kids relentlessly to improve their justification of their information when we moved into all our research-based writing. As someone who had a professor at UNC-Chapel Hill sit her down and say he doesn't care about anything she wrote, because it's arrogant that I made no citations indicating research or the work of others, I get the importance of citations. Plus, I do a 2 day lesson on plagiarism. This year, I have a little Volturi picture that I'm going to hang on the board with all the "plagiarized" papers hanging under it, to remind students that they need to cite their work. More on that when I get there.  So, clearly, this is a learning tool and a great hook to bring the kids in.

6. Free Contradictions
I think sometimes kids don't pay close attention to what they write or say. Sometimes they need a reminder about what it means to contradict. This one I'd actually need to stretch a little on, I think.





7. Inconceivable Definition
This would be used to break down dictionary definitions. Or at least, I could wear it on that day to help
reinforce what they are learning with a funny joke! It's all about the dictionary! This can also be used for the idea of a character having a catch-phrase.

8. One Smart Cookie
What is that cookie doing that is making it smart? Oh. . . reading. Well, would you look at that! Cookies that are smart read, what are YOU doing? A potential subliminal message associating smart and reading with the need for a cookie!



9. Allow Myself to Introduce... Myself
I actually want to use this one for an introduction project I have the students working. During the first week of school they are making their own QR Avatar, which will link to a PREZI they created that shares information about themselves. This was just a geeky connection to the activity and not really a necessity, but a funny one, at least.



10. Friends Don't Let Friends Use Comic Sans
My students are OBSESSED with fonts. Heck, I think I was even a font-fanatic back in the day when fonts were actually NEW! I typically ask my students to follow a common professional rule about Times New Roman. My kids get all frustrated that I request this of them, but when it's a paper that I have to read and it's research, I need you to be sensible in your font choices. If you give them an inch, they take a foot. So I thought this shirt was funny, because it might be a good way to remember than you're supposed to use TNR instead of CS.


11. Bono Can't Live Here
I. . . LOVE. . . VENN DIAGRAMS!!! Sure the reference might be a bit over their heads, but the message is still the same. And let me tell you. . . Venn Diagrams are in constant use. Love it! Live IT!! With or Without you!

12. I Hate Rhyming
When I am teaching poetry, I try to teach my kids that it's not always about rhyming. They are still stuck in that mindset of cat/mat and frog/bog. NO NO NO Dear child! During some of your most developmentally profound expressive years, you must understand that poetry is not about rhyme ONLY, it's about the form! The form could mean you have to rhyme or it could be the rhythm or the syllables or any number of things! So don't be scared to break away from the rhyme!

13. Pirate Crossword
I like to take the time to celebrate International Talk Like a Pirate Day! This occurs on September 19th. I let the kids have fun sounding out how to spell pirate words and using their background knowledge to help create their own pirate dialogue. This year I want to have them use the story dice to create a suspenseful pirate story! This shirt highlights the hilarity of pirate speak.

14. Support Recycling
We celebrate all that hippy stuff about taking care of the Earth. What better way to help save the Earth than the conserve water by recycling what you wear? Just a fun shirt to wear on those days when we're supposed to think about how our behaviors affect the world around us. I mean, seriously. . . do we ALWAYS have to wash a shirt after only one wear?

15. Save the Clocktower
Okay, this one is just silly, but I thought it would be fun to wear at fundraiser events. We do a lot of them at school and, well. . . sometimes it's good just to have fun.

16. Always Give 100%, Unless You're Donating Blood
Just a reminder shirt that you should make sure to always give 100% in all areas. Sometimes a good reminder shirt to wear after the winter break when students start to fade a bit. I like the message and it's funny. Again, something that could be used for various things in the classroom. Maybe even WKCE testing (or whatever standardized test those poor kids are being subjected to). We all need a good smile on those days.


17. Haiku T-Shirt
A prize to any student who figures out I'm wearing a haiku on my shirt on the day I'm teaching them how to write a haiku! This one is self-explanatory.

18. Alliteration is Alarmingly Addictive
I am an alliteration geek through and through. I've used alliteration in names and labels and all sorts of things. I overuse alliteration in such a bad way, I could hardly pass up a t-shirt about it! Plus it's something we use in the poetry unit that I teach and I could always wear it then.


19. Hold Your Horses
IDIOMS!!! See above about the importance of figurative and literal understandings of phrases. This is one of the ones we use for idioms. Brilliant!

20. Classic Blunders
I liked this one when we're working on comprehension strategies. We have to pull out the importance information and understand the meaning behind what is being said. Clearly there are two classic blunders, but what does Vizzini mean when he says these things? Just an example of a teaching tool.

21. One Brick, Two Brick, Red Brick, Blue Brick
We celebrate Dr. Seuss Week and, ultimately, his birthday. What better way to celebrate geek and Seuss than to wear this shirt? Enough said.

Teaching = Super Power!

I was looking for unique acrylic tumblers. I have a bit of an obsession with them. Mostly for work purposes. I make a really cheap and "healthier" version of a Starbucks favorite and the tumbler has been the perfect travel glass for me.

I remember a while ago, I was browsing through tumblers and I really liked the teacher ones. I'm beyond proud to be a teacher, so I was tempted to buy myself one. Somewhere deep down, though, I have hopes that someday a student will buy me a tumbler. For some reason, middle school teachers are completely ignored by parents when it comes to donating supplies and recognizing them with gifts of appreciation. Not that I'm fishing, I'm just saying. . . I'm a little blown away by the complete lack of donations I had to my classroom. I did have two students who did give Christmas and end-of-year gifts. I cherish those gifts with all my heart. I also was given lots of artwork from students and those I also cherish. The smiles and that moment you hear them repeating something you taught them. . . is all the appreciation I need. Well, . . . that and hearing from students in the incoming class that they've heard about me and are totally bummed not to have me as a teacher. Yeah. . . that feels pretty darn good.

Ok. . . I got a little off track. What I wanted to talk about was the fact that apparently educators have Super Powers! I mean, seriously. . . think about it. It might be a stretch, but think about the basics that are applicable to the basic human. Do the conversion. It is pretty impressive. These, of course, aren't all the powers, but there are just so many to keep track of and different teachers have different talents. Some are Science teachers and might have all those Science powers. The same with Math teachers. I tried to put them into context. Stay with the more positive side of the superpower and not so much the villain aspect. That's if. . . you know what's good for ya'! Enjoy!

• How many people can say they can run a room of 20-30+ kids/preteens (Persuasion)? 
• Where. . . the room actually isn't in constant chaos and learning is occurring (Yin & Yang Manipulation)? 
• To be able to see all things at all times in your room, especially when your back is turned (Circular Vision)? 
• To know everything that is happening at all times in the room (environmental awareness)? 
• Where students are having FUN learning (Empathy & Temporal Manipulation - Slowing Down or Speeding Up Time)? 
• Where we have the power to influence future generations (Knowledge Replication/Knowledge Projection)? 
• Encourage trends or expose children to the wonders of culture (Telepathy)? 
• To be all the multiple roles that teachers are for these children (Shape-Shifting)? 
• Knowing when someone is lying or telling the truth and the ability to judge situations with a judicial hand (Claircognizance & Mendacity Detection).
• Creating a classroom with next to nothing to start with and very limited money. Time for creativity to reign (Psychic Constructs)?
• To somehow have everything you need, when it even becomes an obscure request. . . like. . . a parachute guy, as well as a magical supply of loose-leaf paper and pencils (Dimensional Storage)?
• Adapting the classroom to fit all the needs of all the creative ideas you need to teach in the most engaging way possible (Spatial Manipulation)!
• Helping students learn to channel their inner writers and embrace a love of the English language (Literary Manipulation). 
• Working those long hours without always having the food or coffee to get you through the day (Self-Sustenance).
• To literally be consumed by your job, but still have something of a small life outside of it (Self-Transcendence).

Teachers have these powers!

Way back, I ran a tabletop incentive for the kids and the fact that I had 6 different tabletop games running in my room with 30+ kids and it was organized and running smoothly. . . that's a power in and of itself! You have to channel that power. And you do have to regenerate it. Look at the list above. . . those are all used on a daily basis. Try regenerating that with only 6-8 hours of sleep. I think that's one of the biggest problems. . . for all these incredible "powers" teachers have. . . there isn't enough time to regenerate so that the power is at full strength. A summer off sets you at 100% for the start of the school year, but  there is a minimum of 3-7 days to fully regenerate to 100% depending on the teacher. Think about how exhausted super heroes get when they're using their super powers! Even Ironman can't be in constant use of his energy.

Talk about a bit of motivation and power-boost to be able to remember you're special for being able to do what you do in the classroom. It also explains why, at the end of the day, I sometimes couldn't get off the couch once I had sat down. I mean, couple all that with then all the parent superpowers! So if you know a geek teacher somewhere out there, appreciate their combined superpowers and chuck them something to help with sustenance.

Can't Even Game Without Teaching

So we are driving to North Carolina to visit family and friends. We always make a point of gaming as much as possible when we are with our family and friends because, quite honestly, there just aren't enough people in our Wisconsin Circles to really game frequently. Maybe that is one of the subconscious reasons I try to expose my students to so many tabletop games. Who knows!

The bottom line is, when Ray and I were talking in the car about games, I all of a sudden went on some random tangent about how I want to create "Teacher Editions" or "Teacher Skins" for classroom friendly tabletop games. For example, I LOVE using Dixit and Tsuro in my classroom for reading comprehension strategies. What I run up against using them, though, is that they aren't connected or linked with anything super obvious. Tsuro is a bunch of dragons flying around. . . what does this have to do with Alex Rider? I would have to implement additional cards to the game to support additional learning. So not only do they have to justify their move by revealing their prediction or inference about their dragon's movement, but they'd have to draw a card or something that then relates to the story. Clearly this needs work, but it's just an idea to help really drive home the need for tabletop games in the classroom!



Or, for example, I could use Zombicide to help students understand and develop narrative stories! Why this ultra-violent game about zombies. . . in the classroom? Oh no . .. here come the parent notes. But surprisingly, my kids wrote so many zombie-related stories last year that, well . . I couldn't help but include the game. On the flip-side, I could also attempt to tone down some of the violence when I make my "Teacher Edition."

So once I've created the classroom friendly edition, what am I going to do besides attempt to kill zombies and hope my little character doesn't turn into one? Well, the students would have to write a zombie story and use the game to create a plot. Each of the moves drives the story. You still have an introduction and a climax and a resolution. Either you all get out alive or you all die! And I think it would help the writer's block some students might have when pushing their plot forward. . . or their need for a ". . . to be continued. . ." (Can I just say I hate when students use tbc. It is such a cop-out from actually learning to use the final step of the narrative process. I may be a hardass for it, but I just don't let it fly. I only allow it if you have a complete story and feel the need to write a second.) So the students can choose one of the little character people and develop a character. Then they can create a little band of people and develop their personalities. Look! They have character cards to help them GRAPHICALLY ORGANIZE their characters! How perfect is that? So you keep all the same rules, but add a worksheet or something to help the students outline their story! This is something I actually am so gung-ho about, I've started making notes about how to implement it. Hey, maybe I can even contact the creators and get some discounted copies of the game for my classroom! (shamesless teacher plea for teaching materials!)

As you can see, I can't seem to separate my innate desire to game with my obvious passion for teaching. They are just always linked together. Which made me further think about my desire to professionally develop my literacy background by researching the benefits and positive connections between actual tabletop games and the classroom. I mean, the kids don't have to sit in front of a TV or play on their phones. . . no. . . they can enter a whole new realm that can challenge their thoughts. Why does everything about to be about electronics in the classroom? How about encouraging the kids to build up their own personal computers  (duh. . . the brain) and still engage them? I almost feel like there is a mission in here somewhere. To spread the love of tabletop and imbue the benefits of it as a learning tool in my field.

And there you have it. On my drive down to North Carolina, I couldn't JUST talk about games. . . I had to make it a teacher-moment. It makes me wonder what the actual gaming is going to be like. Guess I better keep a pen and pad of paper handy for all those moments where I realize "I COULD USE THIS IN A LESSON!!!" Now back to my regularly scheduled geek-a-thon of gaming!

Using Tales of Beedle the Bard to Teach Storybook Writing

The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K. Rowling

I am teaching a young author's class this summer and I wanted to try to engage my students by sharing with them short stories that also had visual counterparts. Strangely, my 3-5 grade students are obsessed with dark stories, which comes out in their writing. So when I was thinking of book examples to share with them, I immediately thought of The Tales of Beedle the Bard. In the last Harry Potter movie, they have that interesting animated vignette of "The Tale of the Three Brothers." Hermoine reads it and a shadow puppet style animated short is shown. It plays out the story.

So what I did was read the short story to them first. Then we watched the video and talked about how the images connected to the story. They loved it! Why do I need my students to connect images with a story? They are writing their own stories that they will also have to illustrate. So matching a story up to images is part of writing a storybook. I also showed them actual storybook examples.

Another reason I wanted to read stories to them was so that they could draw from their exposure. I asked the students to share what they were reading right now (or at home) and we looked them up on GoodReads.com. Then we talked about how they were using their inspiration from their current story to enhance their own story. This was something I got from a video interview I watched on Rick Riordan (The Percy Jackson & the Olympians Series). He had a little video where he gives advice to young authors and his three rules of writing are:

1. Read ALOT! As a writer it is your fuel. You have to "ingest those voices" which help create your own voice.

2. You have to practice! It's like a sport. You have to actually write a little bit everyday to help you improve. Build those writing muscles!

3. Don't give up! Keep going and have the determination and self-confidence to keep going.

In order to help my students achieve this, we've been doing little writing activities and I've been reading books to them and short stories. It has been an amazing experience. And that is why I used The Tales of Beedle the Bard. Each day we read a different short story. They wanted to hear them all, so we worked through the stories together. I didn't read all the additional commentary, because the students hadn't actually read the Harry Potter books (no... they saw the movies instead). So we used the short stories as inspiration and fuel.

Wow, look at all the nerdism coming through in this post just over one little story connection. The kids loved it and their stories are really exploding with creativity! The little stories in The Tales of Beedle the Bard were enjoyable, because they were still part of the Potter World, but without being part of the central story. The Hermoine commentary, which I did read on my own, was interesting and just builds on the universe Rowling created. Cool beans!

Geeking on a Field Trip

I had been volunteered by my coworkers to be one of the sixth grade representatives for the end of year Honors Level All-Stars field trip to the YMCA. I can't complain really, considering I get to go on my first field trip as an official teacher AND leave the school for the afternoon. When I woke up that morning, I decided to wear my Red Star Trek T-shirt.

First of all, I thought it would be good to wear red on the field trip. Why? Because our school colors are red, white, and black and I didn't really want to wear my school shirt (which is not as cool as a red Star Trek shirt). Plus, I was like "ooo... I'm leaving the primary vessel for new territory to explore and report back!" Since it was also my first year as a teacher, I thought the status of "red shirt" would be kind of funny, as well.

Then Ray decided to tell me that the red shirt becomes an honorary color and yellow gets bumped down later on in the series/films. So technically, by wearing red I was distinguishing myself as one of the superior officers on the trip! Yeah, that was an awesome thing to hear.

One of my students then asked me about the red shirt and we swapped geek stories about red shirts and Star Trek, because my student ended up being a trekkie.The sad thing was, though, I was in the pool area and it was a million degrees and that shirt was definitely not for such extremely hot temperatures. I thought I was going to go back to school with sweat stains showing up everywhere! Luckily I survived, unlike other Red Shirts. Hurray! The geek lives to geek another day!

"All Summer in a Day" by Ray Bradbury

A long time ago, during my college days, I read a good deal of Ray Bradbury. Most notably I read Fahrenheit 451. Not because I was pursuing some sort of connection to the Sci-Fi genre of literature that I frequently stumbled upon, but because I was studying the films of Francois Truffaut.Yes, it was during my Truffaut phase where I wanted to know more about his films that weren't The 400 Blows. Why did he go more Hollywood? What compelled him to work in a more mainstream way? Why abandon the style that Jean-Luc Godard and others carried on with their films? And so I watched Truffaut's futuristic take on the already futuristic Ray Bradbury.

So as I was trying to find a meaningful lesson to combine literacy and Science (sort of) to fill an extra hour that I had to teach outside of the Amazing Race (an end-of-year whole grade level competition ala the TV show), I stumbled upon a list of "Great Short Stories for Middle School." I thought it might be interesting to use some Sci-Fi short stories and encourage the students to think about Sci-Fi and how it relates to our world. As I looked through the list, I came upon "All Summer in a Day" by Bradbury. I quick found a .pdf and read it. Wow! What an amazing story! And the ending. . . oh the ending and it's teachable possibilities!

So I taught it! I  used it in my Science class the Friday before the last week of school. I gave the students some questions to fill out that accessed concepts we had learned in previous classes throughout the year, such as a question about discrimination, creating similes and metaphors, and comparing and contrasting Earth and Venus. I performed a dramatic reading of the short story for the students, as they followed along or sat-back and listened. When I was done, one of my students raised their hand and asked, "So is this how you planned to torture us?" Confused, I asked "what do you mean?" "Why didn't you give us the whole story?" "OH! Well, I'm sorry to say, hun, but that's it. There is no more to the story. It ends here. I am not withholding information or pages or anything. No torture meant, except to inspire you." Whispers and frantic talk started to break out in groups. Another student spoke out, "But what happened to her?!?!"

Seeing the excitement on the faces of my kids prompted me to add an additional activity. They could either draw a picture to show me what they think happened after the door was opened or they could write me an ending AFTER they finished the worksheet. An assignment come down from heaven. With the exception of the six students who have decided to already check-out and make classroom life miserable, my other 18 students talked in their groups, reread the story, and offered up some pretty interesting ideas. One said she went on a Carrie-type rampage. Another said that the kids were so embarrassed they ate Margot to destroy the evidence (this particular student enjoys Battle Royale and The Hunger Games). Some students just drew pictures of what they pictured in their mind while listening or rereading the story. I've included pictures below.

What an amazing moment for myself, for my students, and for my journey. I love giving my kids classic literature to read and this was a great suggestion for my middle schoolers who were able to understand the concepts and it totally engaged them. Thanks Bradbury, you brilliant writer, you.

My sixth grade students had to write song lyrics as a final assessment for our unit on figurative language. Currently, I am hosting an informal Poetry Slam in my classroom where the students are able to perform their two favorite poems and their song lyrics. I'm still telling them that they have to perform it. If they see my fender guitar in the front of the classroom tomorrow, they are going to have to sing and I will magically know how to perform all of their songs to accompany them. Some of them seriously believe this. I don't know what this is an indication of, but hey. . . they're kids.

So in order to help prepare them for what I am looking for in their performance of their lyrics, I wanted to show them Rocket Man, as performed by Shatner. Problem number one is that he's smoking. While not a major issue, I'd rather protect my butt that hang it out the window. Problem number two is the "high" part. I battled with my inner demons on this one. I wanted so badly to show it. I tried to rationalize it and then finally backed down. I had to be more responsible as a teacher and this was a bit. . . on the wayward side.

Devastation sunk in. How would I ever allow them to experience the awesomeness of Shatner's musical performances? I started searching and I found this:


Now... many of my kids are Star Wars fans and a few are Star Trek fans. The added bonus is that Shatner does a Hupy & Abraham: Attorneys at Law commercial here in Wisconsin, so several of my kids know him from there. They also recognized him from the Priceline commercials. BRILLIANT! Not surprisingly, they did not recognize all the Star Wars people in the audience.

What I did was had them watch/listen to Sinatra singing the song "My Way." I asked them to explain how the song was performed and what they would have to do for their performance. Then I told them that this is an example of what they can do for their song if they do not have to sing it. So I showed the above video. We talked about what they could do for that and how it is still a "song."

Bottom line is, I tossed some geek at my kids. It was awesome!