For my students, today is one of those days they have been waiting for since kindergarten. Today, our sixth grade takes part in the Quidditch Championship, in which all four classes square off against each other on the gym floor for our version of the magical game (the video tutorial is here). It may be no surprise in how invested my kids are in this event, which consumes the entire school for the day (other grades come to watch the games underway, cheer for teams, make signs and posters, dance during intermission, etc.)
My job as the teacher, and coach, is to keep my students positive (even if we lose), foster good collaboration and communication amongst our class, remind them of the balance between wanting to win and being a gracious loser, and working hard. Some years, that is all harder than others. Not this year. Not with this class. They have been wonderful — supporting each other, very little complaining, coming together as a single team instead of 21 individual students.
I can’t say it is all roses. One student is missing a substantial part of the day because of consistent behavior difficulties. We’ve tried to work with this student all year, but impulsiveness is their downfall right now, despite multiple warnings and smaller consequences other than losing Quidditch. Which is too bad. For a student like this one, Quidditch is the kind of event they can thrive and excel at. But in the end, logical consequences had to come into play.
Our team name is Atomic Blur and as you can see by the picture, they have been working hard at developing posters that now hang in the gym for today’s events. We’re the blue team. Yesterday, my class chose a theme song for the team. Appropriately enough, it by the band Blur. The song — Song 2 — will be playing when they enter the gym for each of the games. Whoohoo ….
Wish us luck. We’re going to have noisy, chaotic fun today.
Peace (in the blur),
Kevin