I’ll admit, I was skeptical of “black light dodgeball”. The parent in me started wringing my hands with “can everyone see enough” or “we’ve got really hard throwers” and “what is someone gets hurt?” The jock in me is flexing thinking, “Dude, that sounds freekin’ awesome” and “how hard can I throw this without getting in trouble?”
#dual personalities #thestruggleisrealjustaskmywife
But, as I walked into the gym, I was pretty well slack-jawed at what I saw:
We were able to purchase one black light spot light, and a number of smaller black lights along with reflective tape and dodge balls. The result is what you see in these pictures (with really don’t do this justice at all). The kids walked in the same way, with a gasp and a “whoa, this is cool!!” So, we played dodgeball, we played whiffle ball, the kids used high lighters and decorated themselves, which popped in the black light. Our science teacher had picked up light up wristbands after Halloween for cheap, so everyone had one of those, just in case their clothing didn’t reflect well. We had malts and hot chocolate during break times.
The best part, we had a mini read-in as well. Two hours of uninterrupted (as well as 8th graders can do) time to just read. A majority of our student read for a solid time, but we’ll talk Tuesday after Easter about how they have to develop that stamina to read. Many of them have the attention span of a fly, and reading for more than five minutes is a hard task for them. Watching this group, high school will be difficult because they don’t have that reading ability.
Anyway, the only complaints we had: not enough time to do things, too many people in certain activities, and more food (laugh at this one). Otherwise, the kids were TIRED but smiling on their way out.
#Iloveitwhenaplancomestogether
March 28, 2018 at 1:35 pm
This is so fun! Congrats on a mostly successful execution!
March 28, 2018 at 1:53 pm
Okay, that looks amazing. And I laughed at the jock in you flexing.
It might be cool to challenge the students to read during SSR. Like, maybe start them with five minutes and then increase it by a minute each week and then at the end of the year, they’ll be reading like pros. Maybe? Hopefully?
March 28, 2018 at 2:38 pm
The problem is, we have 50 minute classes and zero time for SSR. Next year, the classes will be longer, but I won’t a literacy teacher so who knows how to change this problem. 😦
March 28, 2018 at 2:43 pm
Ah, boo. The last two districts I lived in had block scheduling, so I didn’t even consider the 50 minutes thing.
March 28, 2018 at 2:30 pm
Sounds like a great time for the students…and you rascally teachers squeezed some reading time,, too. 🙂
March 28, 2018 at 2:37 pm
Ha ha!! We used to have a fun day read-in that was the best day of the year. Sadly, it’s fallen by the wayside of “honoring our classtime”……:(
March 29, 2018 at 7:53 am
So much of the ‘fun stuff’ that made learning cool and fun has unfortunately fallen to the wayside. It is sad. I remember fighting tooth and nail to hang on to a few of those in my own class even though the school discontinued… it was hard. Hopefully it won’t take long for the pendulum to swing back that way again. 🙂
March 29, 2018 at 9:14 am
That’s what one of my teammates says, the pendulum has to start swinging back. 🙂
March 28, 2018 at 3:00 pm
Love the black-light games as I’m sure the kids did. Love how excited you got about it (still a kid yourself). Frowned at your last line: “honoring our class time”….. Bah! Everyone just needs to break free once in a while. I have that kind of bs!
March 28, 2018 at 7:08 pm
Love it when a plan comes together. Sounds super fun.
March 28, 2018 at 9:00 pm
I was hoping you would get back to blacklight dodgeball. That is definitely “freakin’ awesome!”
March 29, 2018 at 9:15 am
It was so cool, and the students had so much fun as well! 🙂