Indy and the Great Refurb

This post is inspired by my colleague and friend Chris Woodside, who made the connection between a Disneyland update and our own classrooms this year. Enjoy my deep Disney knowledge combined with his inspiration below!

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The Indiana Jones Adventure attraction at Disneyland (which I still do not particularly enjoy - read the book for more!) recently underwent a fairly lengthy refurbishment. During that time, Disney Imagineers (the coolest people on Earth - read the book for more!) did a bunch of what could only be described as little things.

-They replaced the old hydraulic ride-vehicle doors with electric ones making loading and unloading just a tad faster. (This saves maybe 2 seconds, but when you’re talking about tens of thousands of loads, that adds up.)

-They installed larger storage pouches for guest items. Now that every other person has a giant water bottle and small backpack to stow, larger bags again would save load time as they are much easier to get your stuff into and out of.

-They fixed (finally) interactive bamboo pole in the queue. This had nothing to do with ride capacity, or even the ride at all really, but helps the overall attraction feel.

-They added some more visuals, updated lighting and modernized (or outright remade, it isn’t clear yet) some of the animatronics in the attraction. Lighting, in particular, has become a simple way for Imagineers to “plus” an aging attraction as shown by the also newly refurbished Grand Canyon Diorama on the Disneyland Railroad.

None of these refurbs make for a new attraction. 99% of guests won’t even notice the changes. They will help some on the back end (ideally) by increasing ride capacity, but ultimately, they are just small tweaks to make the experience just a bit smoother for both guests and operators.

That is very much where I find myself when it comes to my own classroom Imagineering this year. I’m just not finding the motivation to make much new. I did make a couple of new lessons for Rome - a map activity and a JENGA-based story of Rome’s fall, but I’m well behind my usual pace. I’ve had a few ideas and even started a few things, but I just can’t seem to find the motivation to follow through. (Kind of like Disney and the now delayed Avatar land at DCA!)I have been creating a bunch for my AVID class, but with social studies, I’m really just doing those behind-the-scenes refurbs like on Indy. 

Every time I do a lesson, I leave myself notes. “Slide 8 is missing an animation.” “Transition from reading to activity was a bit too long.” “THROW THIS AWAY IT IS ALL GARBAGE!” Things like that.

Often, the next time I do that lesson, I go back to my notes and write the same thing again and say to myself, “Oh, I guess I forgot to do this.” The truth is, with education, our lessons really only happen once a year. It is easy to say, “Fix this for next year.” and then completely forget about it until it is too late. (On that note, I apparently had already created an entire Rome lesson based on Jenga and completely forgot about it because it was during COVID.)

So, this year, I’m making a concerted effort to review those lesson notes before I perform the lesson. This has shown to truly be one of my most brilliant ideas.

I’ve been cleaning up old links in various slide shows, brightening and sharpening old images and videos, cutting superfluous information out of lectures and tons of other small tweaks like that. My colleague Chris has been simplifying our Decision Point score sheets and adding fun sound effects everywhere he can.

As a team, we’re deeply analyzing every question on our common assessment to try to pinpoint exactly where students are most struggling. We’re using that data to adjust our lessons to target those lacking skills. Instead of tossing the whole thing out, we’re just trying to make everything work a little bit better.

Just like the Imagineers with their old attractions.

There’s certainly something to be said for taking the old and making it new (See: Overlays), but there’s also much to be said for taking that old thing and just fixing it up a bit. Some of my lessons are now over 20 years old, but none look exactly like they did even 5 years ago. Would my students know any different? Nope. I would though. I’d also be doing more work than I am now. 

These tweaks (mostly) make my job easier. When I don’t have to scramble to explain away typos or explain how to use a score sheet that is just a bit too complicated - I’m buying precious time. And, with how unbelievably s l o w students have become to complete tasks (a topic for another day surely), that time is invaluable.

So, what are your best quick tips to add “capacity” to your lessons or your daily teacher life? If you’ve got any great hacks or tweaks, send them my way. If it’s good enough for Imagineers, it is good enough for me!