Morning After the Superbowl

Being fans of the Nation's greatest football team isn't as easy as it sounds. Especially the morning after a late night of friends and family, Superbowl snacks and a whole lot of yelling. The thought of having to teach 20 first graders this morning seemed nearly impossible... That is, until I got my 87 cent iced coffee from Dunkies! Fuel power at it's finest.

9:05 A.M.  rolls around, and the first few students came strolling in with big grins on their face. It wasn't until about 9:20 when the last few stragglers made their way to their seats that mayhem broke out, and the only conversation in the classroom was, "Oh my God! Did you stay up late last night for the Patriots?", "I watched it! They won!", "My mom and dad were screaming so loud!", "Tom Brady is the best football player of all time!", "The Patriots turned it around after the half", "I stayed up until the end and it was way past my bedtime!", "The last touchdown was the best one!" Due to their innocent (and natural) excitement, I let them be for a few minutes and simply listened. It quickly became very clear to me that most of my students had in fact watched some, if not all of the Superbowl game. Some knew exactly what they were talking about, while others just repeated the statements they heard from an adult at home, or from the Morning News. Either way, it made for a great writing assignment. Motivating young learners to write is a constant struggle, so to hear them discuss what they did for the Superbowl game, I took it and ran with it. I thought, what better prompt for a narrative writing piece than to have them write a paragraph about what they did for the Superbowl game. I provided my students with a few different prompts to get them thinking." Did you watch the game at home, or did you go to a Superbowl party? Who did you watch the game with? Did you stay awake for the whole game? Did you eat Superbowl snacks? What did you do when you saw they were losing? What did you do when the Patriots came back to win?" 

Next came the quietest 30 minutes ever! My class was so enthralled and focused on their writing, it was unbelievable. They put so much effort and detail into their work, and a few even asked if they could present their writing. Seeing their motivation truly turned my morning around. Though I was an extremely sleep deprived teacher, I suddenly got that extra boost I was looking for all morning, even after the coffee kicked in. For once, my first graders were excited about writing, and it was all because I saw and felt their excitement regarding the Patriots and the Superbowl. This enforced the idea that if you find something that your students like or take interest in, they are more likely to be motivated to want to write about it.

Yay Patriots! Thanks for a "not-so-bad" morning after the Superbowl after all. :)