I teach in Mudville.
No, that’s not the name of my community – it’s the name of my
classroom. You’re familiar with
Mudville, aren’t you? No, I don’t mean
my classroom, I mean the literary setting for the classic baseball poem Casey At The Bat. Mighty Casey?
The Mudville Nine? Sheesh, didn’t
your parents love you enough to read classic stories to you? My apologies.
Back to Mudville (the room).
When I left my longtime classroom to become our building’s Title I
teacher I moved into a place known as the “Lit Lab”. “Lit” being short for “literature”…of which
there was plenty…collecting dust on shelves.
Job number one was to get that literature off of shelves and into
classroom libraries. Job two was to come
up with a new name. Catchy alliteration
aside, Lit Lab held little meaning to kids and made no sense once the
literature left the location.
Most of the kids who visit my room find school very
difficult and not very enjoyable. I
wanted the name of my classroom to be intriguing, inspiring, unique, and
fun. I should stop calling it “my”
classroom; I share this room with a fantastic fleet of paraprofessionals, so I
wanted a name that could reflect the teamwork that occurs every day inside its
walls. It took several months, but when
I Love To Read month came along with a superhero theme our room’s name came
along with it. We became…The Bat
Cave. Batman and the Bat Girls. The Caped Crusaders of reading
achievement. I even had a Batmobile
(thanks to my blown Achilles I got to spend a couple of months wheeling around
on a knee scooter). Suddenly kids were
laughing and smiling because they “got to” go to the Bat Cave instead of
“having to” go to the Lit Lab.
A new year brought a new name. I read Casey
At The Bat last spring on the MN Twins Opening Day and instantly realized
that Mudville, the town Casey played in, was going to be our new name. My para team could still be the Bat Girls,
referring to baseball bats this time.
Kids could learn a thing or two about classic literature. The name Mudville is kind of funny, meaning
we still got smiles and chuckles from kids while they got used to the new
name. And every kid in school, every kid, knows where Mudville is, even
though most kids never use the room. I
daresay there are not more than one or two other locations in the school that
kids know so well.
Moral of the story? Find
ways to have a little fun in school. I’m
pretty serious about making kids get serious about learning to read but not so
serious to bypass opportunities to make my job, and the kids’ job, a little
more enjoyable. Fun doesn’t have to come
in explosive and loud forms; I posit it’s the subtle moments of fun that create
the strongest opportunities to connect with kids. A quick joke, a gentle tease, or an
interesting name above the door of a classroom bring smiles to faces, relax
bodies, and open pathways for learning.
Who says there’s no joy in Mudville?
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