Happy Geek Pride Day 2018

I love celebrating Geek Pride Day and since things are really looking up for me, I was able to find joy in this celebration.

For my Geek Pride Day today, I posted this picture on my SmartBoard:

I made sure I wore my new TeePublic Tabletop shirt!

I brought my Avengers Towel (double getting all in one) I took my obligatory selfie (see towel in the background).

I wrote an e-mail to my coworkers about Geek Pride Day (and included Wil Wheaton's video). It was only responded to by the hardcore geeks.

Then, of course, I had to talk about the towel to my kids. Goodness knows I needed it today. We don't have AC at our school and being in the 100-year-old part of the school, on the third floor, and the unblocked windows of the rising sun, will make you sweat so bad.

I, of course, did all my geeky little things that I would normally do and I ended my evening with a Geek Pride meal of a Bob's Burger's recipe for "One Horse Open Slaw Burger." We couldn't do the bun, though, because of our whole Keto thing. But boy was it yummy.

We wanted to do so many more geeky things, but the heat from being up at school really did me in. But I did get to do something geeky with my Literacy classes. Our tabletop game unit in Literacy has wrapped up, so we decided to geek it up with playing some games. We book the Maker's Space (which has AC) and shared in everyone's games! While not perfect, we were still able to have fun.

If you're like to know more about these games, please check out my students' BoardGameGeek list and give them some thumbs up and/or feedback!

No games at home, though, due to severe exhaustion from the day.  Nevertheless.... Happy Geek Pride Day!!!

The Joy of Gaming: Our Last Tween Lock-In

Well... it's not the absolute last. It's just the last of this school year, but I figured the title might have become a bit obnoxious in length if I put in all the additional information.

The best laid plans of teachers and students often go astray. I sent home the letter of intent in January with all the dates we booked the library at our school for. I said I can change any of the dates if I have advanced notice, especially if many of the students could not attend. I put the date on the board in my room under club announcements poster. I remind the kids weekly about the dates.

What happens is... you have 6 kids out of 13 attend. My heart broke, especially since the previous lock-in was canceled since I doubled over in pain. I hemmed and hawed over canceling and rescheduling, but even looking ahead to various weekends, it was very clear to me that there weren't other weekends to make this happen. So I did not cancel it.

I never made a better decision. I also managed my exhaustion with much coffee and Rock Star. We also made sure our drinks were in red Solo cups, because the Solo movie is promoting Solo cups. Then we all labeled them with Star Wars names, except for one, because he apparently wasn't listening.

We always start our evening with our dinner, which gives the kids time to settle in and get comfortable. Then it was time to get serious and get going. Well... after we made some pickle jokes and it lasted all evening.

Jonathan Mariucci donated a copy of Hexplore It to our club, so a group of four boys immediately broke off from the group, which left me with the two eigth graders who showed up. I was totally fine with this and the results was that I played more games that I ever had before and the laughter and jokes were so much fun!

At around 7PM, one of my student's aunts brought us custard from a popular place in Oshkosh and the kids dug in! I stored the rest.

Someone put a pickle in their custard.

We essentially stayed in our groups for the whole night. At 9:30 I got a text from one of our volunteer-approved friends and he popped in with some extra games and stayed until around 1AM.  It was the best way to end the year of lock-ins for me, but I also cried, because... it was the last one and, especially, the last one with my 8th graders. I reflected on how far they'd come as gamers and their growth made me proud.

So here was our line-up for the evening, not including the break-off group that played Hexplore It and one or two silly party games... oh... and Sheriff of Nottingham... so...



Guillotine (I won)

(My review of Guillotine.)

Legends of Andor (We completed the note mission!)

Star Trek: Five-Year Mission (Won by the skin of our teeth)

Marvel Legendary (Lost, but my 8th grade girl student won in points)

(My article on the game.)

Azul (My husband won and the game freaked out my 8th grade boy)

Custom Heroes (I finally avenge my loss from the previous play, which ended up being due to a misunderstanding of the win condition. MWAHAHAHA!)

Article 27 (The kids still love this game, but I, sadly, became the bitter player because no one was doing what I asked and kept rejecting my requests. So I kept being the veto jerk.)

After I went to sleep, the horror of the caffeine overload finally taking me out.

Poison

Super Motherload









When I awoke, the boys had already cleaned up the media center. I was shocked! We finished cleaning up and there was so much time before pick-up that my husband actually broke out one more game! Oh... my... goodness... A morning game! This has never happened!


Why First?









This really was the way to go and it was a good final sendoff for the year.

It's Hard Out There for a Club

I've written extensively about my Tabletop Game Club. I have had my ups and down with the club. I started out passionate about it, lost some desire based on problems that were arising with students, and then was able to finally find my way again. Through all of this, we are still here and growing. And my proudest moment is announcing... this was our 5th year of running the club.

The work that has gone into creating what it is now is beyond what I can even explain. But after looking over our finances and how much I spend between club and my own classroom and, well, the volunteer hours, I decided it is time to finally beg the world to help me continue to run a club that isn't JUST a place for kids to sit and play games - it is a place that creates a family, contributing members of a larger community, and a safe space to you-do-you.

Minimum we spend about $300 on our club a year. We buy games for the kids, treats, snacks, host events and other things. We try to have perks for the club that make the kids feel special, like earning a membership pin each year that they're a member. We don't only participate in local conventions volunteering to run the family and kid areas, but we also have lock-ins and have hosted International Tabletop Day at our school. Our fundraising options are limited, so I'm swallowing my pride and reaching out to the greater geekisphere of gamers and asking for help.

Here is a link to my GoFundMe page. Please consider donating. Every little bit helps. All the information about our club, what we do, and what the funds will go to is already listed on the page. Please consider helping and spread the word. These kids truly do deserve a place that can call their own.

Star Wars Day Failure

Do you ever just feel like a complete failure?

Star Wars Day (sigh... the May 4th one) has been fast approaching. I feel like everyone was expecting me to do things. Dress up, help with announcements, post fun things.

But for some reason... somehow... I lost interest. I stopped caring. Then I felt guilty, because it was like... it's what's expected. Then what if I pass it up and regret leaving it behind?

The spiral down into whatever this is. I had been battling illnesses over the last two weeks, so I think it was affecting me. Going off and on different meds to try to handle it. I pushed myself, though, to try to make the best of a bad situation.

Some genius scheduled a field trip for May 4th. I was REQUIRED to wear a specific shirt. Well... I have an ewok hooded tank top, so I decided to wear it under the shirt. I put on my lego lightsaber earrings and my R2D2 3D printed earrings. But then I couldn't find my "May the Fourth Be With You" shirt so I wore my Buddah Yoda shirt (for before and after the field trip). At least I had my outfit planned. Also wore one C3PO sock and one R2D2 sock (who said socks need to match! Disrupt your thinking and open it to a new world of possibilities.).
     


Now for the announcements. I spent my Thursday evening constructing the most epic announcements ever. I had music and wavs and rewrote the announcements to be fun. I did it last year with my coworker and it was amazing! I left feeling amazing! We'd done it the year prior to that and it was okay, but last year we nailed it. I thought this year we'd make it even better, but as time approached my coworker started acting weird. He'd probably say I was acting weird, but I was asking if he wanted to do them.

The drama that transpired from that particular event was not what I needed at that point in time. I made sure to admonition myself later, because I didn't read the signals that he was in one of his monthly funks where he just acts like a jerk, but as men do... it wasn't him, it was me. I thought our relationship had been better since I finally confronted him back in March, but... well... apparently not.

So this year he completely ruined it. Was indifferent... didn't care what I did.... actually criticized what I did... didn't take a moment to quick prep with me or go over anything (even though I know he looked at the googledoc the night before). I really just felt betrayed and disrespected. He has a tendency to do that. Toxic is what this relationship is and I keep just letting them in.

Ok... ok... this isn't about that. But my vision... my creativity... my effort... my passion... was crushed and no one seemed to care at all. My one thing....

And then I rushed off to the field trip... WHICH WAS AMAZING! I had another Star Wars person with me. We joked. We even saw a Vader laser piece of metal at one of the locations.

A student also came up to me and gave me a fist pump and said "May the Fourth Be With You" and I said "And also with you" and as we bumped, I pulled away and did the explosion hand and said "Like the Death Star." I thought it was so cool.

But by the time I got back to school I was feeling all funky again. I couldn't perk up and then my final class of the day came in and they made me feel so much better. They even let me go through my announcements the way they were meant to be and they loved it and I felt so much better. Then we worked for the rest of the day on their games.

I tried to regain the day and we went out for dinner at our favorite Mexican place and my daughter had fried ice cream for the first time. I also saw that SHE had worn her Star Wars shirt, too. That made me feel so proud.

When we got home her and I took our obligatory nerd picture.

But then I was in a funk again... we tried to regroup and put on The Force Awakens and just tried to make a night of it. For me to not be so excited about all of this and have plans and neat things going on and treats and just all sorts of things is not me.

I feel so lost right now. Absolutely invisible to the world. Uncertain about myself. Alone. I've got to get back into the doctor and fix this, because joy is disappearing and my Jedi Mind Tricks to get better are just not tricking my mind enough.

Next year we'll make it through.