d + d

Today was kind of awesome. I started a Dungeons and Dragons club in my school and today was the first meeting. I really started this for Henry. It is a great interface with other kids at school, and its something that he really enjoys. Also, he got to invite one of his best friends that goes to another middle school in our district to be a part of the club with him. Pretty awesome. To be honest, I loved playing this when I was younger and I just started playing again with a group of my own close friends this summer. So there is that... but starting a club is a pretty big endeavor. Even picking the time to do it in is crazy. Jenny's schedule is hard. She works alternating days that don't alternate regularly. So, I never really know far in advance if I will have to be home to get Nora off of the bus or not. Clubs usually meet from 3 to 4, but Nora gets out of school at 3:30. So, after a lot of consideration, I chose to make this grand event happen from 4:00 to 5:00 one day a week. This allows me to get Nora and bring her back to school with me if I need to before the club starts. 

And it did start. First let me say that I never interact with sixth graders, and they are like shiny, little, tiny, adorable puppies compared to eighth graders. At 3:40 the vice principal called my room and said that she had a student that needed to come up because he was pacing all over the place and just couldn't wait for my club to start. I had some 9th grade girls that had come back to visit, visiting with me at the time (something that I completely love) and this guy just burst into my room: "Hi! I am here for the Dungeons and Dragons Club!! What can I do to help!" No shame. No fear. I don't think he even noticed the three girls in the room. They laughed and said they would come back later. A few more of these tiny middle schoolers stumbled their way into my class, all smiles and dimples, and I went to make some copies of some character sheets. I didn't know in advance how many students were going to show up. I was hoping for somewhere between 6 and 10. When I came back into my class I had twenty students from all three grades gleefully waiting for me. 

Let me just put a plug in here for starting an extra-curricular club. Students are made to behave a certain way during the school day. It is a pretty strict behavioral norm that is enforced, and I definitely am part of that enforcement. The line between order and anarchy in middle school is a thin one, and once it is broken it is pretty hard to put it back. I am pretty relaxed as a teacher, but I won't tolerate behavior that detracts from learning in my class at all. Extra-curricular clubs are a chance to get to know these students outside of those limitations. They aren't badly behaved, just differently behaved, and it is wonderful to see... jokes and laughing, their guard is let down and it is all just plain good natured fun. I really love it. It keeps the jaded side of the teaching experience in check. Teacher friends, trust me, it is totally worth the extra time put in. 

So, twenty or so faces all looking up at me. Only two had played D&D before, so a pretty inexperienced bunch. But they had heard rumors of the game and wanted to learn. I kid you not, I was handing out character sheets for them to begin to learn how to fill in and I heard from somewhere over my left shoulder, "Oh my god... character sheets. I have dreamed of this day!" No sarcasm, just sixth grade, Christmas-morning-like, unadulterated joy. We only made it through an explanation of class, and race, with a quick caveat about spell casting. They wrote like three things down and rolled some stats, but I rarely have seen a more satisfied group of kids leaving my classroom. There are going to be a few tough things to deal with: There are too many kids in this group for a D&D campaign so I am going to need someone else to DM, or I am going to need to split the group and do one every other week. 5:00 is a long day to be around tons of kids. There is a lot of prep work that goes into putting a group through a module. I get cranky around 4:00 without a snack. But the look on Henry's face when he came home and started pacing around the entire house, smiling ear to ear, was completely worth it.