Teachers in America
Education is ever evolving. On Teachers in America, we connect with real educators and ed leaders to provide practical instructional tips and talk about the latest teaching trends to help you stay on the forefront of what’s new in education. Tune in to learn from educators who are embracing innovations, rethinking their approach, and focusing on what moves their students forward in learning and in life.
Teachers in America
Tracking Touchdowns and Engaging Students with Mary Martinez Crippen
Monday morning football lessons can spark student engagement. Just ask Mary.
We’re kicking off our season with third-grade teacher Mary Martinez Crippen from Miami, Florida, joined by Teachers in America host, Kailey Rhodes. Mary became a viral sensation when she began tracking football stats with her class and sharing their journey on social media. Throughout the football season, her students learned grit, perseverance, and other life lessons. In this episode, Mary gives advice on how to incorporate personal passions into your instruction, how to connect classroom learning to the real world, and how to include football into your own lessons.
Teachers in America profiles K–12 teachers across the country. Hear firsthand from the people who are shaping young lives in the classroom every day. If you or someone you know would be a good candidate for Teachers in America, please email us at shaped@hmhco.com.
It puts me to the test each and every year, each, every week, because there's something that's changed. It's not the same season as it was last season, it's not the same lessons and things that are happening, so you really have to be on your game. And it keeps you going, waking up, and it keeps me thinking about my classroom, whereas if I'm just teaching from the book and not adding any extra flair, I'm just waking up and teaching from the book, whereas this is this sets the fuel, where then, after it's like, okay, open up your books and let's read our next tech set, and they're, they're ready to go, and they take stories and they compare characters to characters on on the dolphins right, it's just wild.
Speaker 2:From paper to pencil to wifi and AI, education is ever evolving. On this new season of Teachers in America, we'll keep you on the forefront of what's new. We connect with teachers and ed leaders to talk trending topics and real issues, bringing you inspiring ideas that will influence the future of your teaching. Today, we're excited to welcome host Kaylee Rhodes to the Teachers in America team. She's a math teacher in Portland Oregon and she recently sat down with Mary Martinez-Crippen, third grade Miami Dade teacher and viral sensation. You may have scrolled through social media and seen how Mary is tying football into her everyday lessons. Well, we're kicking off our season with advice from Mary on how to make real world connections in the classroom. Now here's Kaylee and Mary.
Speaker 3:Mary, welcome. Hi, thanks for having me, kaylee. Oh, I'm so. It's like a fangirl crush over here. I went to watch your I learned about you for this podcast and I went to watch your TikTok videos and I just like got a little bit lost inside them. I just love your teaching persona. Thank you, thank you, it's wild my favorite is like a recent one, where you're in your like um Christmas pjs oh yes, the uh.
Speaker 1:I think that one's pinned at the top when I am. It was the last. It was the last preview before we went off for Christmas break or winter break, and the dolphins had played like three games. We're gonna be playing three games. So it was like three predictions we were doing and they were. It was the last day before winter, before we were off for break and the Dolphins had played like three games. We're going to be playing three games. So it was like three predictions we were doing and they were. It was the last day before winter, before we were off for break. We're all in our pajamas, we're ready to go, but we are talking about football before we leave for two weeks.
Speaker 3:And they're totally into it. I mean, this is the secret, right? This is the whole point of this. It's like this evergreen theme that keeps your kids engaged.
Speaker 1:Right and it keeps me engaged. I'm not going to like this, keeps me wanting to come back and puts the fire in me, and I think that's what we all need as educators. Is that fire to keep going, especially because it gets tough as a teacher, and there are days where we wake up and we're like, oh, what am I? Doing here? Can I just work from home for today?
Speaker 3:I'm sick, no, I know. But like, as we head into back to school, it's so cool that, like, you're going to be doing football again, obviously this year. But it's so different every year Cause, like the season's different.
Speaker 1:And that's the greatest thing ever. It's because there's, there's so and you don't know what's going to happen. And that's the beautiful thing is, you teach them that life lesson throughout the way, throughout throughout the entirety of the season. You don't know what's going to happen until they play the game, because we can say they're going to win, we can say they're going to beat them or they're going to lose, but you don't know, and that's like life, until you try you just, you just don't know.
Speaker 3:And how, how is it? How do they handle the disappointment? How do you, how do you put guardrails around that, have discussions around that really grow them in like their disappointment muscles?
Speaker 1:I think that we, just like I, really was inspired by coach McDaniel and the way that he put it into perspective. A loss is an opportunity for growth, and especially because the way that this started was dolphins. It was very simple we tracked the dolphins. The dolphins win 10 extra minutes of recess, the dolphins do not win, there's no extra recess. And we were hyped. And then the first loss came and, instead of just putting up the L on the board and moving on, I said you know what? I would have given them 10 extra minutes of recess had they had won. Let's talk about the loss. Let's talk about what it means. Where do you go from here? What's coming next? Well, another game is coming, whether they like it or not. Are they going to sit and sulk?
Speaker 1:for a week Right, or are we going to learn from our mistakes and get better, kind of like in third grade? It's a rigorous testing year in Florida, with our cold reads, our progress monitoring assessments, our portfolio assessments. Are you going to sit there and sulk in your mistakes? Are you going to let's dive in, because we do heavy debriefs with our, with our cold reads and our portfolios and everything that we're doing to really understand what they're asking us in these questions and how to answer it? Or are you going to take that opportunity to learn from where you went wrong?
Speaker 1:And I really, and it started like that every every week that it went, every week that passed and it started to become they were telling me what the dolphins needed to do and I wasn't leading the discussion, they were leading it. So if you look at some of the beginning videos, which were when I threw them up on TikTok, they weren't, as I wasn't expecting it to be as massive as it was. Now I've kind of got it where I can title it and if you want to look for a video, you know one to click, but in the beginning, all the videos look the same because I'm just standing at the board and you're like what is she talking about on this one?
Speaker 1:You have to like listen to it. But as you watch them you see that their understanding of each passing week, what a loss means, what a win means, and even just the little things that happen in the game, because now they're interested Somebody getting hurt, a penalty no-transcript.
Speaker 3:But what I want to make sure that we do is, you know, I want to make sure that if you're not a third grade teacher, if you're not interested in football, if you're not, if you don't feel like you have any connection to like mathy, statsy stuff like you still can do what you've done, which is basically like bring an open-ended situation into the classroom, a real world, real stakes, ongoing kind of theme into the classroom that keeps everybody engaged and like I think what I'm also hearing is that in following a team, you really like create a team.
Speaker 1:Our classroom is our team and, especially with the Dolphins, it's our sense of community because it's our hometown.
Speaker 1:Whereas so, and I've had a lot of teachers that have reached out to me on TikTok and on Instagram saying I'm from Buffalo and I can't wait to do this with my class next year in Buffalo, and I've had principals reach out saying we'd love to do a Zoom with from a children third grade class from Rochester, we'd love to Zoom with you next year, from, like, fans of Buffalo, fans of the Dolphins, just to talk about what's different about Buffalo and Miami, what's fandom like, just all the differences. So I think it just creates even if you're not a football fan, just try it it's just the sense of community that you get within your classroom and you almost start to love it even more. Not I mean, I didn't need to love football even more, but I paid attention 10 times more throughout the week just because I was like how am I going to apply this and teach this to my kids Now? How am I going to? So?
Speaker 1:Monday mornings were the best, even after a tough Sunday loss. What am I going to do now to teach my kids about this? And it kept those creative juices flowing for me and, mind you, this was just our 10 minute warmup activity.
Speaker 3:This was not even like an entire lesson. Yeah, that's's my question. Help an educator who's interested in this and who maybe is thinking like, oh gosh, I don't have any time.
Speaker 1:Like, yeah, build that up for us and I think for me it started on such, it started on a whim. It actually started last year where, when I first moved from kindergarten to third grade I was I noticed the big jump in just age difference.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, third grade is very different from kindergarten and a couple of the boys night and day I have more energy now as a third grade teacher, but I'm like, oh, let me research that. I'm not quite sure about that answer. Let me ask Google. But I noticed their interest in sports was tenfold and they weren't just a fan of a team because their grownups were. They were a fan of the team because they had their own passions and they are their own. They're starting to become their own humans in third grade and they really are there. They have their own interests and whatnot.
Speaker 1:So last year is when I actually got into like a little argument with a student. He was talking about Patrick Mahomes, I was talking about Tua and I was like, okay, well, and that's where I just threw up the dolphin schedule on the board in the beginning of the year and I said, okay, we're going to track the dolphins. Here's the deal If they win, you guys get 10 extra minutes of recess. If they don't, then that's it. And then that's how it started. And then that's the crazy thing, it was just a W and L and then move on. But then, as each passing week, they started asking questions and it just grew and it built and then. So when I came back for this year I knew it's something I was I wanted to do again, and it really was the community of the dolphins that turned it into what this is now, because I took.
Speaker 1:I took what I did to X, formerly known as Twitter, and one of the dolphins beat reporters, was like, oh, you should also track that. And I was like, oh, that's such a good idea. And then it just turned into our Monday morning. Quick, I'm telling you 10 minutes, maybe 20 minutes tops If there was something like extra that happened, or if there was like we were going on break and there was a three game stretch, but it was winter break and we could afford the 20 minutes of conversation we got into such a routine where it was come in and they were on time to school.
Speaker 1:They were excited to come to school and it's Monday. It's Monday and they were. I would be in my classroom, Cause I get here early. I get here at six 45. Don't ask me why, but I do. Um, and I would hear them arguing outside about the game or arguing about the score or who won or no. This happened, and it's just then. They came in and their brains were already turned on because they knew the conversation that was coming and they were already talking about their numbers, that they had predicted and who was closest. So their brains were already turning on, which is half the battle in the morning.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it really is.
Speaker 1:Getting their brains to turn on, but I didn't have to do that anymore.
Speaker 3:No, and it sounds like there's so much. The sparks were flying. You teach reading, you teach ELA, your focus is literacy, but, man, how can you even talk about football without talking about all these numbers? I mean, you've said, even in these examples, you're saying so many numbers, and so, like I'm just hearing and I'm gonna skip ahead to a question how this is so ripe for just so many cross-curricular connections, especially like if we have teachers who teach older subjects, listening, you know, like if you're, if you're a middle school teacher, imagine where you could go with this high school teacher. You could go deep. I mean, you're into stats now, but, um, how have you been able to see? Or or maybe I can phrase this question and you can answer it whichever way you want. But, like if you had a magic wand and you had, um, resources, money, time and cooperation, cooperation what would you do with the cross-curricular opportunities of a football theme?
Speaker 1:That's a loaded question. So you're saying, if I I'm trying to get this question correct if I had unlimited resources, what? How would I? What would I do with this program?
Speaker 3:Yeah, if you could just dream as big as you wanted, like how could you get really all of that cross curricular juice out of this like such ripe field?
Speaker 1:for this year. What I'm starting is we are moving beyond dolphins, and something that I learned last year is because half of the battle is what I learned truly this year as an educator was to listen more to them. And sometimes we can preach and we can preach, but we need to stop and we need to listen to the children. Um, cause they've got a lot to say. And um, when we, we, when the Dolphins were eliminated out of the playoffs, they asked can we continue to follow?
Speaker 1:and I said sure, and they were so interested in all of the other teams, the stories, the history, so I started okay, let's, and it was on a whim. So I talked to them about Dan Campbell and the Detroit Lions, how he was a part of their team in 2008 when the Lions went 0-16. And now he's returned as their coach and he has changed this program around and just the magnitude of Dan Campbell and his grit and what he's done to the program and they have it sparked a fire in them. Where is Detroit? What's it like over there? And they wanted to. I had a couple of them start like a Detroit Lions fan club and I was like, what's it like over there? And they wanted to. I had a couple of them start like a Detroit lions fan club and I was like what? But? And then? So this year I said you know they, I'm doing them a disservice if I only stick to the dolphins. So each of them this year they're going to draft their own team.
Speaker 1:So they're going to and they're going to and that team and I think I'm. So. What I'm so excited for is that you know, we went on this dolphins journey together. So when the dolphins lost, we all lost and we talked about the loss. When the dolphins won, we all celebrate and we got extra recess. Well, we're still going to do that. I, I will.
Speaker 1:The dolphins is my team. I will draft them and that will be my model on the board, as I do. But each of them are going to draft their own team. They'll pick a team out of a hat. They can choose to trade the team or whatnot, and since I have two classes, all 32 teams will be represented and maybe some double. Then they'll get to. I even created and I got this actually from my mom, who created this, but I'm putting my own twist on it she just did it in a time where there wasn't social media, so, um. So they'll follow their team the stats, the, the climate, how the time zones, right, and what I want to really um do with them is technology literacy. Some of some of them just don't use technology in the proper way, so we're going to.
Speaker 1:We're going to research. We're going to look up the official NFL site. This is an official website. You're going to go to your team. You're going to read about your team. You're going to fill out a history report. You're going to talk about their climate.
Speaker 1:Each week You're going to do a report. Who did they play? Um, how far in miles is that team from you? Um, did you change time zones, did you? But then, at the end of the day, when we come in on Mondays, all of them have gone on a different journey, which is like life. Yeah, raise your hand If you won. A couple of hands will be raised. Raise your hand If you lost.
Speaker 1:Look at your best friend. Did she win? Did she lose? Did he win? Look, you know, there's going to be times in life where I win and he loses. And how, how do we handle that when one of us is winning and one of us is looting and it's a lot of the social, emotional learning how do you, how do you handle friendships? When one of you is celebrating and it happens in life, even as adults, in relationships and friendships, we celebrate a promotion when somebody is mourning the loss of something, right? How do you handle those things. So I'm really excited for that, just because they showed such an interest, and I still have the flags on my board. And actually today we went through like the changes how the Las Vegas Raiders used to be the Oakland Raiders. They were just so enthralled with all of it.
Speaker 3:It's amazing because, also, what's really cool is that you know you've tried something for a couple of years and teachers have this really unique ability to like reset every year and that can be like really boring or it can be awesome because we get to like learn and literally try again and iterate. It sounds like you've been trying something. You're going to try something new. I'm so curious, like cause we're heading into back to school. I'm so curious about a year from now, about like are you? Are you going to be like, uh, I, I loved this, I'm going to stick with it. Are you going to be like, oh, I got to go back to the Dolphins as a team.
Speaker 3:Yeah, like it's going to be fascinating, but can you build a go?
Speaker 1:No, I'm just saying that's the great thing and that's what keeps me going, because we all have a curriculum that we follow and then we can all become masters of it. But this has truly. It puts me to the test each and every year, each every week, because there's something that's changed. It's not. It's not the same season as it was last season. It's not the same lessons and things that are happening. So you really have to be on your game and it keeps you, keeps you going, waking up, and it keeps me thinking about my classroom, whereas if I'm just teaching from the book and not adding any extra flair, I'm just waking up and teaching from the book, whereas this is this sets the fuel where then after it's like okay, open up your books and let's read our next text set and they're ready to go. And they take stories and they compare characters to characters on the dolphins right, it's?
Speaker 3:just wild. I wonder if there's even like an opportunity and I'm sure you have the answer for this, but like, of reading football coverage. Reading I mean introducing so much. There's so much copy written about football and if our, if our focus is literacy, I mean well, they even you look at their um library checkout, log the pre and post.
Speaker 1:All of them. Now, even different teams, like they're checking out books all about history of the green bay packers uh, the san francisco 49ers. I just had like 10 of them return books today. Eight of the 10 of them were all football books because they want to go to the library and they want to read about them. They want to read about these teams and they're interested and and it's cool because they all find connections to these teams in different ways, whether their favorite animal is the lion or their favorite color combination or they love. I went to California for the first time this past summer and it was the best time ever. So now they're a Rams fan, or my grandmother is from Green Bay, whatever, and now I'm a Packers. There's some connection that all of them can make on so many different levels. You don't just have to be like a hard-o football fan. You know there's. There's a level and a surface for everybody. Which makes football so great is you don't have there's so many different ways to connect with it.
Speaker 2:Hey teacher friends. If you're an HMH user, did you know you have access to Teachers' Corner on Ed Included with every HMH program? Teachers' Corner is a community of teachers, learning experts and instructional coaches gathered in one place to support you with a new kind of professional learning Bite-sized, teacher-selected and teacher-driven, with on-demand sessions, lesson demonstrations, program support and practical resources. Teacher's Corner lets you choose how you interact with our content. I like to think about it as inspiration on demand.
Speaker 3:You know you're on social media. I think social media, when used correctly and sparingly, is just like incredible for educators, because we learn so much. And as you are sharing these um and connecting with other educators on social media, are you seeing, like other, mary Martinez Crippins emerging with their own like niches of like well, I'm not doing football in my classroom, but I'm doing X. Or do you have you had any other other outside inspiration that our listeners could be like? You know, maybe I couldn't do this with football, but I could do it with something else.
Speaker 1:I haven't seen it yet and I think, just because of the, I think I will see a lot of it next this year, because once I feel like once you get into a groove with something in the middle of the school year, it's so hard. It's like when the district will hand you like a new textbook in December and you're like how am I supposed to learn and implement this new?
Speaker 3:textbook.
Speaker 1:Thank you. Thank you so much. I will add it to the list of resources that I already have and I'm supposed to be using and don't know how to fit it all in already, but thank you, but it's like talk to me in a year from now and then I'll be able to tell you.
Speaker 1:I have had a lot of people who have been inspired by it and want to do it in their own ways and have talked about implementing it in their own way in their own city. I'll be interested to see how it plays out. But I think TikTok has been especially for educators. It is such a cool. You know, some of my favorite things that educators are doing now is like things that I'm saving that I'm definitely going to purchase next year for my classroom. It's like timers for, like, the struggling student who can't get work finished on time. It's like one of those hourglass hourglasses but it has five, 10, 15 minutes and it's like that would have been perfect for me to use. So there's always something to learn as an educator and I think that's the by learning and collaborating with each other. That's the best way. I think TikTok does a great job at doing that, facilitating that.
Speaker 3:Can you tell us your your TikTok handle so that we can make sure our listeners can go check you out and what I also? Love about your TikTok and I want to tell our listeners this is that you, you're, you're putting up live footage of your teaching, so teachers are not only learning from how you're doing and implementing the football, but we're watching your classroom management.
Speaker 2:We're watching.
Speaker 3:I mean and my attempt, I'm just kidding and well, and also like your patience when you intervene, when you kind of let them like cue chaos, and I think that's really valuable. So our listeners should go check you out at.
Speaker 1:Mary is Bananas M-A-R-Y-I-S-B-A-N-A-N-A-S. It was my seventh grade AIM screen name. That has never changed and it is my handle for everything. I just and now I can't change it, it just, it cannot change. I.
Speaker 3:I am. If you think I'm gonna reciprocate with my AIM username, you are mistaken it's not gonna happen.
Speaker 3:so, um, if you were gonna give advice to listeners who do want to try this, um, and and I really I'm a sixth grade math teacher um, I've taught eighth grade, uh, english as well. And I feel like I'm a sixth grade math teacher, I've taught eighth grade English as well and I feel like I actually feel like, if you're, if you are a teacher who teaches even like 12th grade, you actually could probably pull out even more like way more Are you kidding me?
Speaker 1:Probably better math than I can. Third grade math is perfect for me because it's probably as high as I can go right now without having to really study.
Speaker 3:I know I'm not hearing you talk down your numeracy I know that here as a math teacher. But if they kind of wanted to just like try, they can't commit a whole year. What should they like? Superbowl, Like. How should they? What should they do?
Speaker 1:I think the easiest way to try is start small. I mean, the first thing that I did was just track the wins and the losses and see what happens and have some sort of tangible reward. Don't spend hundreds of dollars each week if you have the Chiefs and they're winning right, spending candy for these kids. Extra recess was something that I could afford in my schedule and I was willing to do for the kids on a Monday, cause it's not like it was every day. It was on a Monday.
Speaker 3:Oh, good clarity.
Speaker 1:They might. It was just the day after the win. They would get 10 extra minutes of recess. It was not the whole week, right, nice, so that was something that I could afford. Um, maybe it's whatever type, whatever your kids might be interested in. Maybe they like to eat lunch with the teacher, maybe the day after they eat lunch in your classroom. It's something that's free.
Speaker 1:Free seating no seating chart on Monday yeah, exactly, I'd say start small, start with there, because that's that's where I started, when I didn't know what this was going to be at all. It all started on a whim from my, from my ADD. It was just like, well, let's here we go.
Speaker 3:But then you pulled in your responsive teaching where you were like, oh, I'm just, they're interested, cool, I'll, I'll do this. And like that's the whole. Whenever we, we, as teachers here, you know the the warm fuzzy bumper sticker advice of like you know, listen to your student. That's what it actually looks like, this is what it looks like. So I love this advice Start small. Pick a team, pick your team.
Speaker 1:And pick your team, because I did my first year of teaching very first year of teaching ever at a charter school in Rhode Island and I couldn't have pulled off the Miami Dolphins in Rhode Island when they're massive Patriots fans. I mean I used to get booed at Stop and Shop for wearing my Dolphins jersey. Like there was one time after the Dolphins beat the Patriots and I went to Stop and Shop and the guy was like you're not coming to this checkout line? Oh my gosh, he was kidding. But you know you have to find that connection and start small.
Speaker 3:I mean but it sounds like you could do that with any team.
Speaker 1:I mean, I'm a soccer person so we could track an English Premier League game. But you could and I. And that's actually brought in because my second class is my ESOL class, where I have I call myself the United, the teacher of the United Nations for my second class, because they come from all over and it's so cool because Miami truly is a melting pot. And talking about soccer I mean talking about football has gotten some of my soccer players to talk about soccer and then I learned interests about them that I might've not even known.
Speaker 1:Yes, I knew they like soccer, but now they're telling me what teams they like the premier league and they're teaching me about the differences because they see, oh, okay, like we're talking about football, like they feel more inclined to share what they like to do, or cheerleading, or dance, or so it's just a way for them to feel comfortable and I've learned so much about my students doing this just because they see me now as a human and as somebody who is going through as a fan. Right, they're not just looking at me as miss martinez, miss mrs crippen, like, oh, we need to follow rules. They're seeing me as a human, responding to my favorite team, their wins and their losses and struggling with it, and we're just able to talk and for once we're not talking about their data and their testing and what they need to do and all the expectations that they have this year and how they need to pass third grade and if not, if they don't pass the portfolio or the fast, they have a possibility of getting retained.
Speaker 1:But once they're able to put that aside and they're able to follow a team and it's not about their wins and their losses, it's about the teams and then they can take that lesson that they learned and correlate it to their own life so that when they go through those failures because I remind them that you are going to fail- you are not better than the dolphins Right 1972 dolphins, maybe Perfect season.
Speaker 3:Totally yeah, yeah, 1972.
Speaker 1:I think what I would love for teachers is for somehow some way to take this program and maybe to inspire other teachers doing professional development, helping them. Because it is scary, especially as a first year teacher, especially as when you see all the expectations you have lined up, it's scary to add new things. It's scary to go off the rails when there's a book and there's a pacing guide in front of you and you have all these things that you feel like you need to do. But I honestly and I have a group of students in this past year I truly believe because of this program it pushed them to a level they weren't being met at before. It allowed them to because you know you set the expectation high right, it sounds like talking about football and watching.
Speaker 3:You know, highly paid, highly professional, the top of their game.
Speaker 1:Athletes lose, drop a ball fumble to respond like how some students when they when they're going through their emotions and they respond in a way and they see that happen and then they see them bring it back and pull it together, but they apologize, right, and they're human.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but I think it's like this is this is what we mean by a growth mindset.
Speaker 1:Mm, hmm and let me tell you this season and that's why I love the NFL, because I know you talked about tracking, like soccer the greatest thing about the NFL is it happens all in the same school year, so you start like I will start and finish an NFL season with the same group of kids, whereas you won't do that with baseball.
Speaker 1:And you won't do that with basketball because, especially if your team makes it to the finals, you won't get to do that because the season has that your school year has ended and the finals are happening during the summer. So that's the best thing about football and it's once a week. It's not like these crazy. I mean, baseball is like all the time. I feel like it was based constantly.
Speaker 1:And it's right. So there is one game. It's very easy for them and the perfect thing and the greatest thing why I love third grade is that right when the football season ends and the Super Bowl or cheering for it is right when they are beginning their portfolio. And the portfolio is basically kind of like a football season where it's 17 assessments, one per week. Maybe you take two with the spring break, but it's like a football season. So we take those same lessons that we talked about all throughout the 17 or 20 weeks of the season and we apply it. Now is our time to shine. We use those lessons that we had and apply them to what our Superbowl and our season is.
Speaker 3:I'm. You're converting me, I. I. I don't know a lot about football and I imagine some of our listeners are like I don't even know the rules. You could do wins and losses yeah, you know what a W is, what an L is. Just a quick Google on a Monday morning with your 6.45 am coffee.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there you go.
Speaker 3:It's fine and I love you also have this thing on your TikTok and I would love it if you would chat to us about it, because I think it's the perfect thing for someone who's like oh, I want to do this, but I don't know about football. Can you talk to us about the snack draft?
Speaker 1:So after the NFL season there is kind of an off season. But with the NFL there's never an off season, especially if you're on Twitter because you're constantly being updated on everything that's happening, even when it's a dull moment. So the draft is when college players like say, I went to Florida State, so Florida State football, all these players from college, the best prospects coming out of college and going into the NFL, they enter the NFL draft and all teams get a pick. Right, if you're really really bad, like the Bears were, you get a really really high pick. So a lot of people tank or play poorly throughout the season because they want a really really high pick. If, so, a lot of people tank or play poorly throughout the season because they want a really really high pick if they know their team's not going anywhere.
Speaker 3:Wow, do you talk about all of that with your third graders?
Speaker 1:We do sometimes because but this one was the funny the snack draft cracked me up and there and my block two. I actually didn't get to finish with it because we had a situation happen. But, um, snack draft was. We simulated the NFL draft and I even told them. I said Listen, guys, I don't know anything about the college players. I watched my team, florida State, play, but I couldn't tell you anything about any other person on any other team. I can't tell you. I just I can't and they can't either. I said so why don't we? We'll simulate a job. Because they were interested in understanding what it was. Yeah, I said we'll do a draft, but instead of drafting college players, since we don't know, we'll draft snacks.
Speaker 1:So we listed all their favorite snacks, from drinks, even I think some were entrees to chips, to candy, and we listed them all out. Then we categorized them to entrees to chips, to drinks, to candy, to desserts or whatever. And then we talked about positions and I said, okay, what positions are like biggest? So we have quarterback, that was one, and then we have your wide receivers and your running backs are wide receivers and tight ends. And we had our running backs and then we had I did our offensive line and then I did defensive line and then secondary, because defensive line I'm like the big guys on the line and then the secondary is like the guys that stand back and get the interceptions Right, got it.
Speaker 1:So then I passed out, we categorized it and now we see on our board. Here's our list of prospects. These are our NFL prospects Takis and Prime and Gatorade and they're all looking and they're like you know, we all love snacks coaches and general managers get when they're looking at the draft and they're seeing all these future college players coming into the NFL. This is how they're feeling about them. They're drooling and they want them on their team, just like you want this snack in your lunchbox, right?
Speaker 3:You're so good at world building, mary, like I want, I want our listeners to like really what, no matter what you teach, no matter what you're into building the world for another, for a student's mind is is 80 percent of it. Continue.
Speaker 1:And so then I had my little draft picks. I put them on like little post-it cards and put them in a bag and they picked out of a hat and whatever team they got, it said what draft they were, what draft pick. So if you got the Chicago Bears, it said pick one round. We just did round one because there's a lot of picks. We're not doing 200. So we're just do round one because it's the most popular anyways. And I put their need and I did a little research and I went to Twitter for this, but I did kind of. It's easy to Google because I don't really know what the Carolina Panthers need and I'm not going to pretend like I didn't even know there was such a thing as a Carolina Panther.
Speaker 3:You know, I get it.
Speaker 1:There you go. So and I put their top need. So for the Bears I put quarterback. So say, if I drafted the Bears, OK, I got Chicago Bears and I need a QB.
Speaker 1:So I look at my entrees my entrees Right, ok, so which entree is my favorite? And I tell them so after everybody's got their draft pick and some of them my morning class only has 16 kids, so they got, some of them got double and then I've allowed them a five minute period to trade so you can trade teams. I said, if you're not interested in trading, put your head down, you don't have to trade. If you want to trade, now is your time to trade teams. And you've got three minutes. Go ahead and go. So then you see them and they're like buzzing and they're and they're negotiating and they're.
Speaker 3:I will let you, they're throwing in an eraser yeah, I will.
Speaker 1:I will do your whatever, not do your homework, just kidding um I will you know they're they're negotiating and they're saying, well, this team, you really like this team and la la, or this person, this team has two picks and because I have a couple packers fans and the Packers only have one pick, so you get to pick twice out of the snack drop if you get this team and I go like I'll pick once.
Speaker 1:So they're like negotiating, right, and that's a skill that they're gonna need to know, absolutely. Um, and it's funny to watch them negotiate. And then they get frustrated, right, because they don't get the. You know, someone tried negotiating for a team and they didn't get the team that they want. You get the frustration, like I had some my Jets player fan didn't get his Jets and he was a little frustrated, um, so then you learn how to deal with not everything's going to go your way right. Sometimes the cards don't work out for you and sometimes you really, really want something, but somebody already has it and you can't you can't force them to give it to you.
Speaker 1:That's not the way it works. You tried, and now you got, to make the best out of your situation. So then the draft started and then I reminded them that, listen, I gave them a piece of paper and I said write who you would like, write your prospects. Right, you have your official draft card, but that's only going to be used when it's your time, you're on the clock and you're ready to submit your pick. But on your paper, write the people you're interested in. And it was funny, I said, because you know it might come to your pick at pick 21 when you're the dolphins and the pick you want is taken yeah, what are you gonna do where?
Speaker 1:are you gonna go? Are you gonna stay in the same category of what you need, or is talkies still sitting on the board and you love talkies?
Speaker 3:why do they love talkies? I don't, I hate them, I can't stand them sorry talkies.
Speaker 1:Why do they love talkies? I don't, I hate them, I can't stand them. Sorry talkies, if you're listening.
Speaker 3:Sorry, they're not our sponsor. It sounds like what you're inviting, like you're narrating, right. You're constantly narrating every moment of like, not only like strategy and like actual, like the way the real draft works. So like, imagine what coaches are feeling, but you're asking them to like, be like alive inside and comfy with their emotions.
Speaker 1:Right and the best was one for the Super Bowl. We did like a week of like. Every day for the Super Bowl I would play. I brought in like artists. Usher was the halftime show. So every single day we listened to an Usher song. And what did they do? They listened to it. They, what did they do? They listened to it. They rated it out of five stars and they wrote a rationale on why they rated it the way they rated it.
Speaker 3:They're writing you know, mary, you're a genius. A genius Teachers like this is what we're talking about. This is when we talk about bringing real world stuff in to get our kids numerically literate and literate.
Speaker 1:This is what we're talking about. Look at this. Someone who loves Taylor Swift could take her tours as an example, and they could track and graph her tours. Where is she going? Did she change time zones? How many hours in a flight? If she had this and this, you?
Speaker 3:know how many people are on her payroll? How much money does she have to make to stay in the green? What is that doing for our bottom line economy? I mean, whatever grade level you're teaching, that's how deep you go, right? Do you have a specific last, last formal question before we enter, like some fun?
Speaker 1:rapid fire round. It's already been like, yeah, it's been.
Speaker 3:It feels like it's been like five minutes. I feel the same way. Is there a student that comes to mind for you anecdotally, who maybe was struggling? Maybe maybe it was having a hard time with literacy. Maybe it was having a hard time with behavior, maybe it was having a hard time with buy-in and um, this kind of kind of switched things around for them?
Speaker 1:Um, I think there's so many, but one that sticks out to me the most is my Jets fan. He you know, being the lonesome Jets fan, he and him is his mom, and I speak about this a lot how this year has really changed his life. He struggled a lot with emotions and after going through this with the football and seeing especially because I don't know if you saw the Jets reached out to us and did something that has changed his whole, his dream became a reality this year. And so, long story short, I went for my 30th birthday to MetLife Stadium on Thanksgiving to watch Dolphins Black Friday versus Jets right, my first time going to Jets game, jets home game and they were giving out Jets towels at the game. And I'm like, what am I going to do with this towel? I'm not a Jets fan. And my brother and my mom were like, oh, you got to give it to like your Jets fan. I was like I'm going to keep this. So they both gave me their towels and I had like three towels that I blew home with me.
Speaker 1:And during that game, a Dolphins player tore their Achilles on the field at MetLife stadium and I don't know if you remember the first game of the season for the Jets, aaron Rodgers tore his Achilles at home. After the game it was in reports that already Aaron Rodgers was in contact with the Dolphins player, trying to support him through the recovery. So at first I didn't know, because I don't everything that I do, I can't just do it. I have there has to be a reason. And I was struggling with how am I going? I can't know because I don't everything that I do, I can't just do it. I have there has to be a reason. And I was struggling with how am I going? I can't just give them these towels. That's not going to make a lasting. Oh, here are some towels. There has to be a reason. And I said you know what this is going to be a lesson on sportsmanship. Yes, we talked people you're competing against to be at their best. You never wish harm on them. And even though you're not a Dolphins fan, we don't wish harm on your team. We don't wish. We're not going to talk bad about you or your team, because that's we just learned about sportsmanship. And I said we appreciate how kind you've been throughout this process, listening to us talk about and celebrate the dolphins. So then I gave him the towels and compared it to Aaron Rogers and Jalen Phillips.
Speaker 1:And then the Jets actually and this is the power of social media and the Jets reached out onto my TikTok and said that's, this is amazing, we'd love to give a little surprise. And then they direct messaged me and they sent a signed football from the jets. And it was actually funny because I I gave, so they sent him this football. He was going his first ever football game he was going to was going to be at hard rock dolphins home game versus the jets. So the dolphins will always play the jets twice Cause they're in the same division. They'll play them home and they'll play them away.
Speaker 1:I got the towels at the away game. Now they're going to play them at home. So I saved the football to get right before the home, right before the game he was going to versus the Jets. And when I got the football I reached back out to the Jets and I said he's going to freak out. He's so excited he's going to hard rock for the first time ever to watch you guys play and this is going to make his day. I'm giving it to him on Friday. And they were like oh, hold on, we'd love to do something for him. At the game At the Hard Rock Stadium he was sidelined with his dad, got to meet all his favorite players pregame and one of them sent him like a video and we're so excited to meet you and that really just that changed it for him.
Speaker 1:Yeah that everything's different. Everything changed. Yeah, everything's different. Wow, yeah, like he has just things have taken perspective with him and he's realized and he's seen all these things and now he's so excited to come and he's talking about football all the time. But he's grown up truly in this class and I attest that to what he's experienced in here and he felt heard and he felt not shunned because he was the jet fan jets man in our class but celebrated because you know we're all different and I have a, a Bills fan, in my afternoon class and a lot of people are like, how can you have a Bills fan?
Speaker 1:I said because it doesn't matter where you come from or what you support Any fan is welcome. And it's just you know, and the fact that the New York Jets knew who he was, that was it for him.
Speaker 3:So it just seems like role models on top of role models on top of role models for these kids. That's incredible. Oh my gosh. Thank you so much for sharing that story. Oh gosh, my face is red, emotional. Okay, as we wrap up, I'm going to enter into our rapid fire round. I'm going to warm you up with some rapid fire questions that, like you, can answer with a couple of sentences, and then we're going to move into one word only.
Speaker 1:I'm really bad at this, as you can tell. I ramble on and on.
Speaker 3:It's going to be great. You're ready, you're ready. Okay, so our first sentence, rapid round question what's a rookie mistake that you made your first year teaching?
Speaker 1:your first year of teaching, Trying to do everything, trying to be everything, I think. I think trying to be the most organized trying to be the most enthusiastic, trying to, and not just letting myself be me Like not, it's okay that I'm not organized, I'm, I'm, I'm very type B and I think I felt like I had to be the perfect teacher, which meant lesson plans on your desk, perfect Every week, organized File, like I still can't.
Speaker 1:I change my data system every year because it's like, nah, it's not working, and this one didn't even get finished halfway through this year, so it's like but that's OK, as long as you know so.
Speaker 3:Are you describing me? Yeah, that's me, me, that's me. There's a lot of us out there. Hey, all right, describe your pre-school morning routine, your am morning routine, including your go-to teacher fit okay.
Speaker 1:Pre-morning routine wake 5.30. Sometimes I will go for a run, but I haven't done that in a while, just because it's very dark outside right now. Drink some coffee, shuffle around in my slippers, get into the car, plug in the music, pump myself up with some jams anything all over the spectrum. I get to school ridiculously early, at six 45. I live in a one bedroom with my husband right now, so it's like I need my space to turn on the lights to feel relaxed. So I get in here at six 45. It's funny, my teacher bestie gets here at like seven and she comes up. She's the PE teacher, so she doesn't really have a classroom. She comes in Um and I'm doing my stuff while we're debriefing about our day and our week. But my teacher fit is definitely my Nikes, joggers or jeans. I'm fortunate to work at a school that they allow you to be casual and comfortable Like I'm not going to be rolling up here in pajamas.
Speaker 1:And if I'm wearing joggers, well, my joggers are like nice joggers, but if I wear a hoodie, it's like I'm making it cute. You know, I got a cute hairstyle with cute shoes on, like I'm not schlepping around to school. You know, maybe the last day of school.
Speaker 3:But our jobs are active, man, let us wear, active wear.
Speaker 1:Right, so it's always sneakers. I cannot. There is one teacher at my school who is dressed to the nines every day and, man, I have never seen her repeat an outfit and I aspire to be like her, but I know I never will, because I cannot teach in high heels or even open toed shoes, because I get cold.
Speaker 3:I can't teach in flats. They're not comfy, there's no support.
Speaker 1:It's sneakers every, or my Doc Martens in the winter. It's only my Doc Martens.
Speaker 3:You know I'm wearing my teacher fit pants and shoes, so I'm going to show you my shoes, then you show me your shoes, you ready? Okay, this is what I'm wearing. These are my teacher shoes. Oh hey, what's up?
Speaker 1:We're cashing it up over here, I know, yeah, and I got my joggers on. I see those joggers.
Speaker 3:I'm elastic waistband panning right now, right now, all right, and then last longer answer. And by long you know, any favorite teacher shout outs you want to give.
Speaker 1:I think my favorite teacher shout outs about Coach Sundry, my coach in elementary school, who saw the athlete in me and saw, you know, always encouraged me to continue playing sports and encouraged me to compete with the boys. And just because I was a girl, and always I mean, I selected PE all throughout middle school when all the girls chose dance because I was encouraged as an athlete and as a person. And my fourth grade teacher, ms Ferrer, whoi was terrified of cause my mom taught. My mom taught for 37 years and I went to the elementary school she taught at. My mom put me in her class but it was for a good reason, because I needed. I needed the toughness and I needed and I would.
Speaker 1:I would stay after school and have to write and finish assignments because I didn't get to finish them during class. But you know, she worked with me and I was. I haven't had a diagnosed ADD, so it was like you know, I felt I felt heard and I think that was a pivoting moment for me was, you know, having that tough teacher that I couldn't just slide by with?
Speaker 3:You hear it here, teachers Be tough, it works. All right, you ready for the rapid fire? One word answers Sure, all right, here we go. Fill in the blank. I want my lunchbox to be packed with blank. I do not want it to have a single blank.
Speaker 1:I want my lunchbox to be packed with a.
Speaker 3:PubSub.
Speaker 1:I do not want a single item I have to heat in the microwave.
Speaker 3:PubSubs all day. I'm from Georgia, so I get it.
Speaker 1:You guys have Publix yeah yeah, we do.
Speaker 3:We do favorite school supply pens. All right, last question what football position would you play?
Speaker 1:wide receiver or cornerback. You want to run cool, I actually played those positions.
Speaker 3:Mary, thank you so much. We have had the best time talking to you. You are such an inspiration. Our listeners need to go follow you and emulate everything about you.
Speaker 1:Thank you, guys, it's been a pleasure.
Speaker 2:If you or someone you know would like to be a guest on the Teachers in America podcast, please email us at shaped. At hmhcocom. That's S-H-A-P-E-D. At hmhcocom. Be the first to hear new episodes of Teachers in America by subscribing on Apple Podcasts, spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. If you enjoyed today's show, please rate, review and share it with your network. You can find the transcript of this episode on our Shaped blog by visiting hmhcocom. Forward slash shaped. That's hmhcocom forward slash S-H-A-P-E-D. The link is in the show notes. The Teachers in America podcast is a production of HMH. Thank you to the production team of Christine Condon, tim Lee, jennifer Corujo, neil Fry, thomas Velasquez and Matt Howell. Thanks again for listening.