Top 10 New Lessons of 25-26

10. The Story So Far - The biggest challenge I faced this year was a lack of very basic skills in students. I literally had kids who wrote on the wrong side of their paper all year long. This was... draining. I spent more time on those basic executive skills than I ever had before. While I would usually come out swinging after a long break like Christmas and just dive back into content, I knew this year I had to take some time to remind them of all we'd learned and practiced before the break. I put together this set of mini-activities themed to each of our history topics from first semester to review those basics. It went well and students enjoyed it. It also helped point out to them, again, how silly it was that they weren't doing simple things like writing complete sentences. 

Plus, it gave me an excuse to play with a new AI voice clone tool I found. Not my favorite lesson, but one of the most important.

9. Awards Show - Another challenge this year was getting kids to think in more than 2-minute chunks. They seemed to, more than ever, immediately forget what we did. Early the year, one girl told me she didn't remember what we had done last week. With admitted exasperation I asked, "You don't remember digging the rainbow chips out of a cookie?!" She, with all sincerity, said "Not really." Yikes. If that experience didn't stick, what hope did I have? I realized more reflection would be needed this year. I designed this simple award show themed lesson to use as a unit recap. Students would briefly summarize each activity then select winners for various awards. This served as a content reminder (if not full on review) and helped them see the sequence of activities more clearly.

Unfortunately, due to the intense lack of memory, the activity took WAY longer than it should have. I made some adjustments to it throughout the year that picked up the pace, but ultimately I just ended up only using it with my honors students. That said, I still think the activity is good, and I'll try it again next year.

8. Castle Storm - Keeping with the challenge theme for this year; listening to directions. While this is always an issue with middle school, this year was on another level. My colleague came up with the idea of an assignment where students follow simple oral instructions to create something. We combined that idea with my old "Castle Builder" lesson and came up with this new one. He came up with the hilarious narrative set up of a king wanting to survey his new castle by flinging one of his knights over it with a catapult. He'd look down and then, upon landing, recount all he saw.

Students would then design their castle by following that recounting. The more they followed them, the stronger their castle would be. It was strikingly simple to put together and the students absolutely loved it. Plus, it had the added benefit of them realizing how ridiculous their work looks when they ignore instructions. Even better, it allowed us to cover content that we often skip for time. We had a distinct reason to teach Medieval siege techniques and the various aspects of defense found in castles. 

The lesson, born out of frustration and necessity, was so good that I knew I had to do something like it again!

7. Aztec Engineers I Student Sheet- So, a few months later, I did! I wanted a lesson that highlighted the achievements of the Aztecs. The engineering of Tenochtitlan always interests students, so that was my target. I came up with a lesson where students would "design" the island by adding on various Aztec technological adaptations. They were given a blank island and a series of events to which to respond to (rising water levels, lack of food, etc.) then added the items to their island maps. The students, once again, really enjoyed it. I definitely need to work on the closing, as some debate among the groups as to which adaptation which best solve each challenge would be beneficial, but this is a great core that I'll happily use again. 

So much so, that one of my Summer projects is to create an engineering design lesson for each unit. 

6. Profit or Patronage? I  Score Sheet- My Rome: Provide or Conquer? game is always a hit. I have another for the American colonies that students also love. So, why not make more? I've long felt that the concept of patronage has confused my students. Some years ago I built a virtual tour of Florence today to show many of the buildings the Medici helped finance. That helped, but I wanted more. I really wanted them to understand that Patronage of the arts was not just altruism, but a path toward respectability for the non-noble Medici.

Given that we'd already done a game like this, I wanted to add a new mechanic. To help better fit the competitive feel of Renaissance Florence, I added a Family Choice at the start of the game. This would function similarly to the location choice in the colony version of the game. Teams could play as the Medici, Pazzi or Sforza family - each with different bonuses. It ultimately didn't impact the game very much, but the illusion of choice is a big tool in a game designer's toolkit! Students deeply identified with their chosen family, which even stuck for some of them many days after we'd played the game.

I also made a cool new video intro, using the same music and text-over-cool-video motif of the Rome version of the game. These videos set up the story and build hype. The students loved the game, again, and absolutely understood the concept, and purpose, of patronage more than any of my students had before.

In fact, it was so good that I immediately started talking to my team about what our next This or That? could be. Join me for part 2 to find out if that worked out!

Now, a quick aside about "entertainment" in the classroom. I feel like we've gone full circle in the last 15 years. Many teachers were moving past the "I'm not an entertainer" mindset for a time. We were starting to embrace the research that shows how effective learning through play is. In the last two years though, I feel like we've fully regressed to that old mindset. Play is powerful. Play is educational. These games have students thinking about historical events with "real" stakes. Hearing them argue with one another with comments like, "No, remember when we learned the Medici started low class?!" is awesome. Can those moments happen without the lesson being entertaining? Sure, but I know they happen, and far more often, when the brain is excited.

Entertaining lessons are a powerful tool and we shouldn't just throw them out because we're not "entertainers."

In part 2, I've got more fun lessons to share, and also a few that are just straight up meat and potatoes. Yes, those still matter too. Hope you'll come back for the rest!