Welcome back to Teachers in America, where we connect with real educators and ed leaders to provide practical instructional tips and talk about the latest teaching trends to help you stay on the forefront of what’s new in education.
Today we are joined by third-grade teacher Mary Martinez Crippen, who works in Miami-Dade County Public Schools in Florida. Mary became a viral sensation when she began tracking football stats with her class and sharing their journey on social media. Throughout the football season, her students learned grit, perseverance, and other life lessons. In this episode, Mary gives advice on how to incorporate personal passions into your instruction, how to connect classroom learning to the real world, and how to include football into your own lessons.
A full transcript of the episode appears below; it has been edited for clarity.
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Jenn Corujo: From paper and pencil to WIFI and AI, education is ever evolving. On this new season of Teachers in America, we’ll keep you on the forefront of what’s new. We connect with teachers and ed leaders to talk trending topics and real issues, bringing you inspiring ideas that will influence the future of your teaching.
Today, we’re excited to welcome host Kailey Rhodes to the Teachers in America team. She’s a math teacher in Portland, Oregon, and she recently sat down with Mary Martinez Crippen, 3rd grade Miami-Dade teacher and viral sensation. You may have scrolled through social media and seen how Mary is tying football into her everyday lessons. We’re kicking off our season with advice from Mary on how to make real-world connections in the classroom. Now, here’s Kailey and Mary!
Kailey Rhodes: Mary, welcome.
Mary Martinez Crippen: Hi. Thanks for having me, Kailey.
Kailey: Oh, I’m so . . . it’s like a fan girl crush over here. I learned about you for this podcast, and I went to watch your TikTok® videos, and I just got a little bit lost in them. I just love your teaching persona.
Mary: Thank you. Thank you. It’s wild.
Kailey: My favorite is a recent one where you’re in your Christmas PJs.
Mary: Oh, yes. I think that one’s pinned at the top. It was the last preview before we went off for Christmas break or winter break, and the Dolphins® had played three games, or were going to be playing three games. So, it was three predictions we were doing. It was the last day before winter, before we were off for break. We’re all in our pajamas, we’re ready to go. But we are talking about football before we leave for two weeks.
Kailey: And they’re totally into it.
Mary: Oh yeah.
Kailey: This is the secret, right? This is the whole point of this. It’s like this evergreen theme that keeps your kids engaged.
Mary: Right. And it keeps me engaged. I’m not going to lie, this keeps me wanting to come back and puts the fire in me. And I think that’s what we all need as educators is that fire to keep going. Especially because it gets tough as a teacher. And there are days where we wake up and we’re like, “What am I doing here?” “Can I just work from home for today—just like my husband?”
Kailey: But as we head into back to school, it’s so cool that you’re going to be doing football again obviously this year. But it’s so different every year because the season’s different.
Mary: And that’s the greatest thing ever. You don’t know what’s going to happen. And that’s the beautiful thing. You teach them that life lesson throughout the way, throughout the entirety of the season. You don’t know what’s going to happen until they play the game. Because we can say they’re going to win. We can say they’re going to beat them or they’re going to lose, but you don’t know. And that’s like life. Until you try, you just don’t know.
Kailey: How do they handle the disappointment? How do you put guardrails around that, have discussions around that, really grow them in their disappointment muscles?
Mary: I really was inspired by Coach McDaniel and the way that he put it into perspective. A loss is an opportunity for growth. And especially because the way that this started was very simple. We track the Dolphins. The Dolphins win: 10 extra minutes of recess. The Dolphins do not win: there’s no extra recess.
Kailey: Oh, no.
Mary: So, we started off hot. The first three games, win, win, win. Dolphins had already given us 30 minutes of extra recess and we were hyped. And then the first loss came and instead of just putting up the L on the board and moving on, I said, you know what? I would’ve given them 10 extra minutes of recess had they had won. Let’s talk about the loss.
Kailey: Yes.
Mary: Let’s talk about what it means. Where do you go from here? What’s coming next? Well, another game is coming, whether they like it or not. Are they going to sit and sulk for a week?
Kailey: Right, right.
Mary: Or are we going to learn from our mistakes and get better? Kind of like in third grade. It’s a rigorous testing year in Florida with our cold reads. Our progress monitoring assessments.
Kailey: Yes. Big literacy.
Mary: Our portfolio assessments. Are you going to sit there and sulk in your mistakes, or are you going to . . . let’s dive in because we do heavy debriefs with our cold reads and our portfolios and everything that we’re doing to really understand what they’re asking us in these questions and how to answer it. Or are you going to take that opportunity to learn from where you went wrong?
Every week that passed and it started to become, they were telling me what the Dolphins needed to do, and I wasn’t leading the discussion. They were leading it. So, if you look at some of the beginning videos, which were . . . when I threw them up on TikTok, they weren’t as . . . I wasn’t expecting it to be as massive as it was.
Now I’ve kind of got it where I can title it and if you want to look for a video, you know which one to click. But in the beginning, all the videos look the same because I’m just standing at the board and you’re like, “What is she talking about?” On this one, you have to listen to it. But as you watch them, you see that their understanding of each passing week, what a loss means, what a win means, and even just the little things that happen in the game because now they’re interested.
Kailey: Yeah.
Mary: Somebody getting hurt. A penalty. And we talked about penalties. A penalty is when somebody makes a mistake, right? When somebody does something wrong. We all make mistakes in life, and that might set us back a little bit. Just like if a Dolphins have a penalty, it might set us back a couple yards. But how do we answer that?
Kailey: Yeah.
Mary: How do we respond to that flag and that penalty? And sometimes we make big mistakes that cost us big, that cost big things. And sometimes they’re just little ones that are not that big of a deal. So, football truly is a metaphor for life in our classroom.
Kailey: Oh man, that’s sick. I just love this so much. I know I have all these questions about it. But what I want to make sure that we don’t alienate any educators. I want to make sure that if you’re not a third-grade teacher, if you’re not interested in football, if you don’t feel you have any connection to math-y, stats-y stuff, you still can do what you’ve done, which is basically bring an open-ended situation into the classroom. A real world, real stakes, ongoing kind of theme into the classroom that keeps everybody engaged. I think what I’m also hearing is that in following a team, you really create a team.
Mary: Our classroom is our team, and especially with the Dolphins, it’s our sense of community because it’s our hometown. I’ve had a lot of teachers that have reached out to me on TikTok and on Instagram saying, “I’m from Buffalo and I can’t wait to do this with my class next year in Buffalo.” And I’ve had principals reach out saying, “We’d love to do a Zoom with children from a third-grade class, from Rochester. We’d love to Zoom with you next year. Fans of Buffalo, fans of the Dolphins, just to talk about what’s different about Buffalo and Miami? What’s fandom like? Just all the differences. Even if you’re not a football fan, just try it. It’s just a sense of community that you get within your classroom, and you almost start to love it even more.
I didn’t need to love football even more, but I paid attention 10 times more throughout the week just because how am I going to apply this and teach this to my kids? Monday mornings were the best, even after a tough Sunday loss, what am I going to do now to teach my kids about this? It kept those creative juices flowing for me. And mind you, this was just our 10-minute warmup activity.
Kailey: Right. Okay.
Mary: This was not even an entire lesson.
Kailey: Yeah, that’s my question. Help an educator who’s interested in this and who maybe is thinking, “Oh gosh, I don’t have any time.” Build that up for us.
Mary: And I think for me, it started on a whim. It actually started last year when I first moved from kindergarten to third grade. I noticed the big jump and just age difference, right?
Kailey: Yeah.
Mary: Third grade is very different from kindergarten.
Kailey: Wild.
Mary: Oh, it’s like night and day. I have more energy now as a third-grade teacher, but I’m like, “Oh, let me research that. I’m not quite sure about that answer. Let me ask Google®.” But I noticed their interest in sports was tenfold and they weren’t just a fan of a team because their grownups were. They were a fan of the team because they had their own passions, and they’re starting to become their own humans in third grade.
Kailey: Mm-Hmm.
Mary: They have their own interests and whatnot. So last year is when I actually got into a little argument with a student. He was talking about Patrick Mahomes. I was talking about Tua. And that’s where I just threw up the Dolphins’ schedule on the board in the beginning of the year. And I said, “Okay, we’re going to track the Dolphins. Here’s a deal. If they win, you guys get 10 extra minutes of recess. If they don’t, then that’s it.” And then that’s how it started. Then that’s the crazy thing. It was just a W and L and then move on. Then each passing week, they started asking questions. And it just grew and it built. So when I came back for this year, I knew it’s something I wanted to do again.
Kailey: Mm-Hmm.
Mary: And it really was the community of the Dolphins that turned it into what this is now.
Kailey: Right.
Mary: I took what I did to X, formerly known as Twitter®, and one of the Dolphins’ beat reporters was like, “Oh, you should also track stats.” And I was like, “Oh, that’s such a good idea.” And then it just turned into our Monday morning, quick work. I’m telling you, 10 minutes, maybe 20 minutes tops. If there was something extra that happened . . . we were going on break and there was a three-game stretch, but it was winter break, and we could afford the 20 minutes of conversation.
Kailey: Right, right. Exactly.
Mary: We got into such a routine where it was come in and they were on time to school. They were excited.
Kailey: Yeah, that’s right. And it’s Monday. That’s hard.
Mary: I would be in my classroom because I get here early. I get here at 6:45 am. Don’t ask me why, but I do. And I would hear them arguing outside about the game or arguing about the score or who won or, no, this happened. Then they came in and their brains were already turned on because they knew the conversation that was coming. And they were already talking about their numbers that they had predicted and who was closest. So, their brains were already turning on, which is half the battle in the morning.
Kailey: Yeah, it really is.
Mary: It’s getting their brains to turn on. But I don’t have to do that anymore.
Kailey: No, and it sounds like there’s so much.
Mary: The sparks were flying.
Kailey: You teach reading, you teach ELA, your focus is literacy. But man, how can you even talk about football without talking about all these numbers? Even in these examples, you’re saying so many numbers and so I’m going to skip ahead to a question. This is so ripe for so many cross-curricular connections, especially if we have teachers who teach older subjects listening. If you’re a middle school teacher, imagine where you could go with this.
High school teacher, you could go deep. I mean, you’re into stats now. How have you been able to see . . . or maybe I can phrase this question and you can answer it whichever way you want. If you had a magic wand and you had resources, money, time, and cooperation, what would you do with the cross-curricular opportunities of a football theme?
Mary: That’s a loaded question. So, you’re saying if, I’m trying to get this question correct, if I had unlimited resources, what would I do with this program?
Kailey: Yeah, if you could just dream as big as you wanted, how could you get all of that cross-curricular juice out of this such a ripe field?
Mary: Well, there’s so much more, and it’s actually funny because I actually created, for this year, what I’m starting is we are moving beyond Dolphins. Something that I learned last year is because half of the battle is . . . what I learned truly this year as an educator was to listen more to them. Sometimes we can preach, and we can preach, but we need to stop, and we need to listen to the children, because they’ve got a lot to say. When the Dolphins were eliminated out of the playoffs, they asked, “Can we continue to follow?”
Kailey: Oh, wow. Yeah.
Mary: I said, “Sure.” And they were so interested in all of the other teams, the stories, the history. It was on a whim, so I taught them about Dan Campbell and the Detroit Lions®, how he was a part of their team in 2008, when the Lions® went 0-16, and now he’s returned as their coach, and he has changed this program around. Just the magnitude of Dan Campbell and his grit and what he’s done to the program, it sparked a fire in them. “Where is Detroit? What’s it like over there?”
I had a couple of them start a Detroit Lions fan club, and I was like, “What?” So this year I said, “I’m doing them a disservice if I only stick to the Dolphins.” Each of them this year, they’re going to draft their own team. I think what I’m so excited for is that we went on this Dolphins journey together. So, when the Dolphins lost, we all lost, and we talked about the loss. When the Dolphins won, we all celebrated, and we got extra recess. Well, we’re still going to do that. The Dolphins is my team. I will draft them and that will be my model on the board as I do. But each of them is going to draft their own team. They’ll pick a team out of a hat; they can choose to trade the team or whatnot. And since I have two classes, all 32 teams will be represented.
Kailey: Wow.
Mary: And maybe some double. Then they’ll get to . . . I even created, and I got this actually from my mom who created this, but I’m putting my own twist on it.
She just did it in a time where there wasn’t social media. So, they’ll follow their team, the stats, the climate, the time zones, right? And what I want to really do with them is technology literacy. Some of them just don’t use technology in the proper way. We’re going to research. We’re going to look up the official NFL® site.
This is an official website. You’re going to go to your team. You’re going to read about your team. You’re going to fill out a history report. You’re going to talk about their climate. Each week you’re going to do a report. Who did they play? How far in miles is that team from you? Did you change time zones? But then at the end of the day, when we come in on Mondays, all of them have gone on a different journey, which is like life.
Kailey: Yeah.
Mary: “Raise your hand if you won.” A couple hands will be raised. “Raise your hand if you lost. Look at your best friend. Did she win? Did she lose? Did he win?” Look, there’s going to be times in life where I win and he loses.
How do we handle that when one of us is winning and one of us is losing? It’s a lot of the social-emotional learning. How do you handle friendships when one of you is celebrating? And it happens in life, even as adults and relationships and friendships. We celebrate a promotion when somebody is mourning the loss of something.
Kailey: Right.
Mary: How do you handle those things? I’m really excited for that, just because they showed such an interest. And I still have the flags on my board. Actually, today we went through the changes, how the Las Vegas Raiders™ used to be the Oakland Raiders®. They’re just so enthralled with all of it.
Kailey: It’s amazing. Also what’s really cool is that you’ve tried something for a couple years, and teachers have this really unique ability to reset every year. That can be really boring, or it can be awesome because we get to learn and literally try again and iterate. It sounds like you’ve been trying something. You’re going to try something new. I’m so curious, because we’re heading into back to school, and I’m so curious about a year from now, are you going to be like, “I loved this. I’m going to stick with it.” Or are you going to be like, “Oh, I got to go back to the Dolphins as a team?”
Mary: Yeah.
Kailey: It’s going to be fascinating.
Mary: That’s the great thing and that’s what keeps me going because we all have a curriculum that we follow and then we can all become masters of it. But this has truly. . . It puts me to the test each and every year, each and every week, because there’s something that’s changed. It’s not the same season as it was last season. It’s not the same lessons and things that are happening, so you really have to be on your game, and it keeps you going, waking up, and it keeps me thinking about my classroom.
Whereas if I’m just teaching from the book and not adding any extra flare, I’m just waking up and teaching from the book. Whereas this sets the fuel where then after it’s like, “Okay, open up your books and let’s read our next text set.” And they’re ready to go and they take stories, and they compare characters to characters on the Dolphins. It’s just wild.
Kailey: I wonder if there’s even an opportunity, and I’m sure you have the answer for this, but reading football coverage. There’s so much copy written about football and if our focus is literacy . . .
Mary: Well, you look at their library checkout log, the pre and post, all of them now, even different teams, they’re checking out books about history of the Green Bay Packers®, the San Francisco 49ers®. I just had 10 of them return books today. Eight of the 10 of them were all football books because they want to go to the library, and they want to read about them. They want to read about these teams, and they’re interested. And it’s cool because they all find connections to these teams in different ways, whether their favorite animal is the lion or their favorite color combination. “I went to California for the first time this past summer and it was the best time ever.” So now they’re a Rams fan. Or, “My grandmother is from Green Bay, and now I’m a Packers® fan.” There’s some connection that all of them can make on so many different levels. You don’t just have to be a heart-o football fan. There’s a level and a surface for everybody, which makes football so great. There’s so many different ways to connect with it.
Kailey: Yeah, that was going to be one of my questions about how do you really hook that kid that’s not that interested in football, or maybe even sports. But I’m going to segue into . . . you’re on social media. I think social media, when used correctly and sparingly is just incredible for educators because we learn so much. As you are sharing these, and connecting with other educators on social media, are you seeing other Mary Martinez Crippen emerging with their own like niches of like, “Well, I’m not doing football in my classroom, but I’m doing X.” Or have you had any other outside inspiration that our listeners could be like, “You know, maybe I couldn’t do this with football, but I could do it with something else.”
Mary: I haven’t seen it yet, and I think I will see a lot of it this year because I feel like once you get into a groove with something in the middle of the school year, it’s so hard. It’s like when the district will hand you a new textbook in December and you’re like, how am I supposed to learn and implement this new textbook?
Thank you, thank you so much. I’ll add it to the list of resources that I already have and I’m supposed to be using. And I don’t know how to fit it all in already, but thank you.
Kailey: But it’s like, talk to me in a year from now and then I’ll be able to tell you.
Mary: I have had a lot of people who have been inspired by it and want to do it in their own ways and have talked about implementing it in their own way in their own city. I’ll be interested to see how it plays out. But I think TikTok has been especially for educators, it is such a cool . . . Some of my favorite things that educators are doing now is things that I’m saving, that I’m definitely going to purchase next year for my classroom. Like timers for like the struggling student who can’t get work finished on time. It’s like one of those . . .
Kailey: Hourglass.
Mary: Hourglasses, but it has 5, 10, 15 minutes and it’s like, that would’ve been perfect for me to use. So, there’s always something to learn as an educator. And I think that by learning and collaborating with each other, that’s the best way.
And I think TikTok does a great job at doing that and facilitating that.
Kailey: Can you tell us your TikTok handle so that we can make sure our listeners can go check you out? And what I also love about your TikTok, and I want to tell our listeners this, is that you’re putting up live footage of your teaching. So, teachers are not only learning from how you’re doing and implementing the football, but we’re watching your classroom management. We’re watching.
Mary: I mean, my attempt. I’m just kidding.
Kailey: And also your patience. When you intervene, when you kind of let them like cue chaos. I think that’s really valuable. So, our listeners should go check you out at.
Mary: MaryIsBananas. M-A-R-Y-I-S-B-A-N-A-N-A-S. It was my seventh grade AIM® screen name that has never changed, and it’s my handle for everything. And now I can’t change it. It just, it cannot change.
Kailey: If you think I’m going to reciprocate with my AIM username, you are mistaken. It’s not going to happen. If you were going to give advice to listeners who want to try this . . . I’m a sixth-grade math teacher. I’ve taught eighth-grade English as well. I actually feel like if you are a teacher who teaches even twelfth grade you actually could probably pull out even more, like way more.
Mary: Are you kidding me? Probably better math than I can. Third-grade math is perfect for me because it’s probably as high as I can go without having to really study.
Kailey: Mary, I know I’m not hearing you talk down your numeracy. I know that here as a math teacher.
But if they kind of wanted to just like try. They can’t commit a whole year. What should they . . . Super Bowl®? What should they do?
Mary: I think the easiest way to try is start small. The first thing that I did was just track the wins and the losses and see what happens, and have some sort of tangible reward. Don’t spend hundreds of dollars each week if you have the Chiefs® and they’re winning. Like spending candy for these kids. Extra recess was something that I could afford in my schedule and I was willing to do for the kids on a Monday. Because it’s not like it was every day. It was on a Monday.
Kailey: Oh, good clarity.
Mary: It was just the day after the win, they would get 10 extra minutes recess. It was not the whole week, right?
Kailey: Nice.
Mary: So that was something that I could afford. Whatever your kids might be interested in. Maybe they like to eat lunch with the teacher. Maybe the day after they eat lunch in your classroom. It’s something that’s free.
Kailey: Free seating. No seating chart on Monday.
Mary: Free seat choice. Yeah. Exactly. I’d say start small, start with there, because that’s where I started when I didn’t know what this was going to be at all. I all started on a whim from my ADD. It was just like, “Well, here we go.”
Kailey: But then you pulled in your responsive teaching. “Oh, they’re interested. Cool. I’ll do this.” Whenever we as teachers hear the warm fuzzy bumper sticker advice of “Listen to your student.” That’s what it actually looks like. This is what it looks like. So, I love this advice. Start small. Pick a team.
Mary: And pick your team. Because I did my first year of teaching, very first year of teaching ever, at a charter school in Rhode Island. And I couldn’t have pulled off Miami Dolphins® in Rhode Island.
Kailey: Not quite, no.
Mary: They’re massive Patriots® fans. I mean, I used to booed at Stop and Shop for wearing my Dolphins jersey. Like there was one time after the Dolphins beat the Patriots and I went to Stop and Shop and the guy was like, “Mm-Hmm, you’re not coming to this checkout line.”
Kailey: Oh my gosh.
Mary: He was kidding. But you know, you have to find that connection and start small.
Kailey: And it sounds like you could do that with any team. I mean, I’m a soccer person, so we could track an English Premier League® game.
Mary: You could. And that’s actually brought in because my second class is my ESOL class where I have, I call myself the teacher of the United Nations for my second class because they come from all over. And it’s so cool because Miami truly is a melting pot. Talking about football has gotten some of my soccer players to talk about soccer. And then I learned interests about them that I might have not even known. Yes, I knew they liked soccer, but now they’re telling me what teams. They like the Premier League and they’re teaching me about the differences because they see, “Oh, okay, like we’re talking about football.” They feel more inclined to share what they like to do. Or cheerleading or dance. So it’s just a way for them to feel comfortable.
I’ve learned so much about my students doing this just because they see me now as a human and as somebody who is going through as a fan, right? They’re not just looking at me as Ms. Martinez, Mrs. Crippen, “Oh, we need to follow her rules.” They’re seeing me as a human responding to my favorite team, their wins and their losses, and struggling with it, and we’re just able to talk. For once we’re not talking about their data and their testing and what they need to do, and all the expectations that they have this year, and how they need to pass third grade. And if not, if they don’t pass the portfolio, or the FAST, they have a possibility of getting retained. But once they’re able to put that aside and they’re able to follow a team, it’s not about their wins and their losses. It’s about the teams. And then they can take that lesson that they learned and correlate it to their own life so that when they go through those failures, because I remind them that you are going to fail.
Kailey: You are not better than the Dolphins.
Mary: 1972 Dolphins, maybe. Perfect season.
Kailey: Totally yeah. 1972.
Mary: I think, and what I would love for teachers is for somehow some way to take this program and maybe to inspire other teachers doing professional development, helping them. Because it is scary, especially as a first-year teacher, especially when you see all the expectations you have lined up. It’s scary to add new things. It’s scary to go off the rails when there’s a book and there’s a pacing guide in front of you and you have all these things that you feel like you need to do. But honestly, and I have a group of students in this past year, I truly believe because of this program, it pushed them to a level they weren’t being met at before. It allowed them to, because you know, you set the expectation high, right?
Kailey: It sounds like talking about football and watching highly paid, highly professional at the top of their game, athletes lose, drop a ball, fumble, interception.
Mary: Get injured.
Kailey: Injury, all this stuff.
Mary: Respond in a way. You’re not supposed to respond like how some students, when they’re going through their emotions and they respond in a way and they see that happen, and then they see them bring it back and pull it together . . .
Kailey: And apologize.
Mary: Right. And they’re human.
Kailey: Yeah. But I think this is what we mean by a growth mindset.
Mary: Mm-Hmm. Let me tell you this season, and that’s why I love the NFL. Because I know you talked about tracking soccer. The greatest thing about the NFL is it happens all in the same school year. I will start and finish an NFL season with the same group of kids. Whereas you won’t do that with baseball, and you won’t do that with basketball because, especially if your team makes it to the finals, you won’t get to do that because your school year has ended, and the finals are happening during the summer. So that’s the best thing about football. And it’s once a week. It’s not like these crazy. . . I mean, baseball all the time, I feel like it’s a baseball game.
Kailey: Constantly.
Mary: So there is one game, it’s very easy for them. And the perfect thing and the greatest thing that I love and that’s why I love third grade, is that right when the football season ends and the Super Bowl or cheering for it, it’s right when they’re beginning their portfolio. And the portfolio is basically kind of like a football season where it’s 17 assessments, one per week. Maybe you take two with the spring break, but it’s like a football season. So, we take those same lessons that we talked about all throughout the 17 or 20 weeks of the season, and we apply. Now is our time to shine. We use those lessons that we had and apply them to what our Super Bowl and our season is.
Kailey: You’re converting me. I don’t know a lot about football and I imagine some of our listeners are like, “I don’t even know the rules.”
Mary: You could do wins and losses.
Kailey: Yeah. You know what a W is. What an L is. Just a quick Google on a Monday morning with your 6:45 AM coffee.
Mary: Yeah. There you go.
Kailey: It’s fine. And I love, you also have this thing on your TikTok, and I would love it if you would chat to us about it, because I think it’s the perfect thing for someone who’s like, “Oh, I want to do this, but I don’t know about football.” Can you talk us to us about the snack draft?
Mary: So, after the NFL season, there is kind of an off season. But with the NFL, there’s never an off season, especially if you’re on Twitter because you’re constantly being updated on everything that’s happening, even when it’s a dull moment. The draft is when college players, like say Florida, I went to Florida State®, so Florida State football, all these players from college, the best prospects coming out of college and going into the NFL, they enter the NFL Draft®. And all teams get a pick, right? If you’re really, really bad, like the Bears® were, you get a really, really high pick. So a lot of people tank or play poorly throughout the season because they want a really, really high pick if they know their team’s not going anywhere.
Kailey: Wow. Do you talk about all of that with your third graders?
Mary: We do sometimes because, but this one was the funniest, the snack draft cracked me up. My block two I actually didn’t get to finish with it because we had a situation happen. But, so the snack draft was, we simulated the NFL Draft. And I even told them, I said, “Listen guys, I don’t know anything about the college players. I watched my team Florida State play, but I couldn’t tell you anything about any other person on any other team.”
Kailey: Mm-Hmm.
Mary: I can’t tell you. I just, I can’t, and they can’t either. I said, “So why don’t we. . . we’ll simulate a draft.” Because they were interested in understanding what it was. I said, “We’ll do a draft, but instead of drafting college players, since we don’t know, we’ll draft snacks.” So we listed all their favorite snacks from drinks, even I think some were entrees to chips . . .
Kailey: Sushi!
Mary: To candy, and we just listed them all out. Then we categorize them to entrees, to chips, to drinks, to candy, to desserts or whatever. And then we talked about positions, and I said, “Okay, what positions are like biggest?” So, we have quarterback that was one, and then we have your wide receivers and your running backs or wide receivers and tight ends. And we had our running backs. And then we had, I did our offensive line and then I did defensive line, and then secondary because [the] defensive line are like the big guys on the line. And then the secondary is like the guys that stand back and get the interceptions, right?
Kailey: Got it.
Mary: We categorized it, and now we see on our board, here’s our list of prospects. These are our NFL prospects: Takis® and Prime and Gatorade®. And they’re all looking and they’re like, we all love snacks. And I said, “Guys, this feeling that you’re feeling is what coaches and general managers get when they’re looking at the draft and they’re seeing all these future college players coming into the NFL. This is how they’re feeling about them. They’re drooling and they want them on their team just like you want this snack in your lunchbox, right?”
Kailey: You’re so good at world building, Mary. I want our listeners, no matter what you teach, no matter what you’re into building the world for a student’s mind is 80% of it. Continue.
Mary: I had my little draft picks. I put them on my little Post-It® cards and put them in a bag and they picked out of a hat and whatever team they got, it said what draft they were, what draft picks. So, if you got the Chicago Bears®, it said pick one. Round one. We just did round one because there’s a lot of picks. We’re not doing 200 set. We’ll just do round ones. That’s the most popular anyways. I put their need and I did a little research and I went to Twitter for this. It’s easy to Google because I don’t really know what the Carolina Panthers® need and I’m not going to pretend like I do.
Kailey: I didn’t even know there was such a thing as a Carolina Panther, you know? I get it.
Mary: There you go. I put their top need. For the Bears, I put quarterback. So, say if I drafted the Bears, okay, “Ooh, I got Chicago Bears and I need a QB. So I look at…”
Kailey: My entrees.
Mary: My entrees, right. Okay. So which entree is my favorite? After everybody’s got their draft pick, and some of them . . . my morning class only has 16 kids, so some of them got double . . . and then I allowed them a five-minute period to trade. I said, “You can trade teams.” I said, “If you’re not interested in trading, put your head down. You don’t have to trade. If you want to trade, now is your time to trade teams and you’ve got three minutes. Go ahead and go.” So, then you see them and they’re buzzing and they’re negotiating.
Kailey: They’re throwing in an eraser.
Mary: Yeah, I will do your whatever. Not do your homework. Just kidding. They’re negotiating and they’re saying, “Well this team, you really like this team and la la la or this team has two picks” and because I have a couple of Packers fans, and the Packers only have one pick. “So, you get to pick twice out of the snack draft if you get this team. And I’ll pick once.” So, they’re negotiating, right? And that’s a skill that they’re going to need to know, right?
Kailey: Absolutely.
Mary: It’s funny to watch them negotiate and then they get frustrated, right? Because someone tried negotiating for a team and they didn’t get the team that they want, you get the frustration. My Jets® fan didn’t get his Jets and he was a little frustrated.
Kailey: Yeah.
Mary: So, then you learn how to deal with not everything’s going to go your way. Sometimes the cards don’t work out for you and sometimes you really, really want something, but somebody already has it and you can’t force them to give it to you. It’s not the way it works. You tried and now you got to make the best out of your situation. So, then the draft started and then I reminded them that I gave them a piece of paper and I said, “Write who you would like, right? Write your prospects, right?” You have your official draft card, but that’s only going to be used when it’s your time. You’re on the clock and you’re ready to submit your pick. But on your paper, write the people you’re interested in.” I said, “Because you know, it might come to your pick at Pick 21 when you’re the Dolphins and the pick you want is taken.”
Kailey: Yeah.
Mary: “What are you going to do? Where are you going go? Are you going to stay in the same category of what you need? Or is Takis still sitting on the board and you love Takis?”
Kailey: They love Takis.
Mary: I know. I hate them. I cannot stand them. Sorry, Takis, if you’re listening.
Kailey: They’re not our sponsor. It sounds like you’re narrating, right? You’re constantly narrating every moment of, not only strategy and the way the real draft works or like imagine what coaches are feeling, but you’re asking them to be alive inside and comfy with their emotions.
Mary: The best was one for the Super Bowl. We did a week every day for the Super Bowl. I brought in artists. Usher was the halftime show. So, every single day we listened to an Usher song. And what did they do? They listened to it, they rated it out of five stars, and they wrote a rationale on why they rated it the way they rated it. They’re writing!
Kailey: Mary, you’re a genius. Teachers, this is what we’re talking about. This is when we talk about bringing real world stuff in to get our kids numerically literate and literate, this is what we’re talking about.
Mary: I mean, someone who loves Taylor Swift® could take her tours as an example and they could track and graph her tours. Where is she going? Did she change time zones? How many hours in a flight if she had this and this?
Kailey: How many people are on her payroll? How much money does she have to make to stay in the green? What is that doing for our bottom-line economy? I mean, whatever grade level you’re teaching, that’s how deep you go.
Last formal question before we enter like some fun rapid-fire rounds.
Mary: It’s already been . . . it feels like it’s been like five minutes.
Kailey: I know. I feel the same way. Is there a student that comes to mind for you anecdotally who maybe was struggling. Maybe was having a hard time with literacy. Maybe was having a hard time with behavior. Maybe was having a hard time with buy-in and this kind of switched things around for them?
Mary: I think there’s so many, but one that sticks out to me the most is my Jets fan. Being the lonesome Jets fan, his mom and I speak about this a lot, how this year has really changed his life. He struggled a lot with emotions and after going through this with the football and seeing, especially because, I don’t know if you saw, the Jets reached out to us and did something that has changed his whole . . . his dream became a reality this year.
Long story short, I went for my 30th birthday to MetLife Stadium® on Thanksgiving to watch the Dolphins, Black Friday versus the Jets. My first time going to a Jets game, Jets home game. And they were giving out Jets towels at the game. And I’m like, “What am I going to do with this towel? I’m not a Jets fan.” And my brother and my mom were like, “Oh, you’ve got to give it to like your Jets fan.” And I was like, “Oh, I’m going to keep this.” So, they both gave me their towels and I had three towels that I flew home with me. And during that game, a Dolphins player tore their Achilles on the field at MetLife Stadium. And I don’t know if you remember the first game of the season for the Jets, Aaron Rogers tore his Achilles at home.
Kailey: Oh, no.
Mary: After the game, it was in reports that already Aaron Rogers was in contact with the Dolphins player trying to support him through the recovery. Everything that I do, I can’t just do it. There has to be a reason. I was struggling with, I can’t just give him these towels because that’s not going to make a lasting [impression]. Oh, here’s some towels. There has to be a reason. And I said, you know what? This is going to be a lesson on sportsmanship.
Kailey: Yes.
Mary Martinez: We talked about how Aaron Rogers and Jalen Phillips are not on the same team, but it doesn’t mean they wish ill will on each other. Everybody wants everybody to be at their best, and you should always want the people you’re competing against to be at their best. You never wish harm on them. And even though you’re not a Dolphins fan, we don’t wish harm on your team. We’re not going to talk bad about you or your team. We just learned about sportsmanship and I said we appreciate how kind, you’ve been throughout this process, listening to us talk about and celebrate the Dolphins. So, then I gave him the towels.
Kailey: Mm.
Mary: And compared it to Aaron Rogers and Jalen Phillips. And then the Jets actually, and this is the power of social media, the Jets reached out onto my TikTok and said, “This is amazing. We’d love to give a little surprise.” And then they direct messaged me and they sent a signed football from the Jets. And it was actually funny, they sent him this football and he was going to his first ever football game. He was going to be at Hard Rock®. Dolphins home game versus the Jets. So the Dolphins will always play the Jets twice because they’re in the same division. They’ll play them home and they’ll play them away. I got the towels at the away game, now they’re going to play them at home. So, I saved the football to give right before the home game. Right before the game he was going to versus the Jets. And when I got the football, I reached back out to the Jets and I said, “Oh my he’s going to freak out. He’s so excited. He’s going to Hard Rock for the first time ever to watch you guys play. And this is going to make his day. I’m giving it to him on Friday.” And they were like, “Oh, hold on. We’d love to do something for him at the game.” So then at the Hard Rock Stadium®, he was sidelined with his dad. Got to meet all his favorite players pre-game. One of them sent him like a video, “We’re so excited to meet you.” And that really just, that changed it for him.
Kailey: Yeah, everything’s different.
Mary: Everything changed and so many of them felt that because of just in different levels. But for him, there was like a before and an after with him where even me and my co-teacher, my partner teacher, the math teacher, we talked about it and we’re like, “Holy cow.” Things have taken perspective with him and he’s seen all these things, and now he’s so excited to come and he’s talking about football all the time. But he’s grown up truly in this class and I attest that to what he’s experiencing here. And he felt heard, and he felt not shunned because he was the Jets fan in our class, but celebrated because, you know, we’re all different. And I have a Bills® fan in my afternoon class, and a lot of people are, how can you have a Bills fan? I said, because it doesn’t matter where you come from or what you support.
Kailey: We’re football fans.
Mary: Any fan is welcome. And the fact that the New York Jets knew who he was, that was it for him.
Kailey: It just seems like role models on top of role models on top of role models for these kids. That’s incredible. Oh my gosh. Thank you so much for sharing that story. Oh gosh. My face is red. I’m emotional. Okay. As we wrap up, I’m going to enter into our rapid-fire round. I’m going to warm you up with some rapid-fire questions that you can answer with a couple sentences and then we’re going to move into one word only.
Mary: I’m really bad at this, as you can tell. I ramble on and on.
Kailey: This is going to be great. You’re ready? You’re ready. Okay, so our first sentence, rapid round question. What’s a rookie mistake that you made your first year of teaching?
Mary: Trying to do everything. Trying to be everything, I think. I think trying to be the most organized, trying to be the most enthusiastic, and not just letting myself be me. It’s okay that I’m not organized. I’m very type B and I think I felt like I had to be the perfect teacher. Which meant lesson plans on your desk. Perfect. Every week. Organized. File. I still can’t. I change my data system every year because it’s like, nah . . .
Kailey: It’s not working.
Mary: And this one didn’t even get finished halfway through this year, but that’s okay. As long as you know.
Kailey: Are you describing me? Yeah, that’s me. That’s me.
Mary: There’s a lot of us out there.
Kailey: All right. Describe your pre-school morning routine. Your AM morning routine, including your go-to teacher outfit.
Mary: Okay. Pre-morning routine. Wake up around 5:30. Sometimes I will go for a run, but I haven’t done that in a while, just because it’s very dark outside right now. Drink some coffee. Shuffle around in my slippers. Get into the car, plug in the music, pump myself up with some jams. Anything all over the spectrum. I get to school ridiculously early at 6:45. I live in a one-bedroom with my husband right now, so I need my space to turn on the lights to feel relaxed. So, I get in here at 6:45. It’s funny, my teacher bestie gets here at seven and she comes in, she’s the PE teacher, so she doesn’t really have a classroom. She comes in, and I’m doing my stuff while we’re debriefing about our day and our week.
But my teacher outfit is definitely my Nikes®. Joggers or jeans. Luckily, I’m fortunate to work at a school that they allow you to be casual and comfortable. I’m not going to be rolling up here in pajamas. And if I’m wearing joggers, well, my joggers are like nice joggers. If I wear a hoodie, I’m making it cute. You know? I got a cute hairstyle with cute shoes on. I’m not schlepping around to school, you know? Maybe the last day of school, but . . .
Kailey: Our jobs are active, man. Let us wear active wear.
Mary: Right. So it’s always sneakers. I cannot, there is one teacher at my school who is dressed to the nines every day, and I have never seen her repeat an outfit. And I aspire to be like her, but I know I never will because I cannot teach in high heels or even open toed shoes because I get cold.
Kailey: I can't teach in flats. They're not comfy. There's no support.
Mary: It's sneakers. Every day or my Doc Martens® in the winter. It's only my Doc Martens.
Kailey: You know, I'm, I'm wearing my teacher fit pants and shoes, so I'm going to show you my shoes and then you show me your shoes. You ready?
Mary: Yeah.
Kailey: Okay.
Mary: Yeah.
Kailey: Okay. This is what I'm wearing. These are my teacher shoes. Oh hey! What's up? We're caszhing it up over here.
Mary: I got my joggers.
Kailey: I see those joggers.
Mary: I got them [from] Old Navy®.
Kailey: I'm elastic waistband-ing right now.
Mary: Yep.
Kailey: Right now. All right. The last longer answer, and by long, you know . . . Any favorite teacher shout outs you want to give?
Mary: I think my favorite teacher, shout out, Coach Sundry. My coach in elementary school who saw the athlete in me and always encouraged me to continue playing sports and encouraged me to compete with the boys. Just because I was a girl. I mean, I selected PE all throughout middle school when all the girls chose dance because I was encouraged as an athlete, and as a person. And my fourth-grade teacher, Ms. Fererra, who I was terrified of. Because my mom taught for 37 years and I went to the elementary school she taught at, and my mom put me in her class. But it was for a good reason. Because I needed the toughness and I would stay after school and have to write and finish assignments because I didn’t get to finish them during class. But, she worked with me and I was, I have diagnosed ADD. So, I felt heard, and I think that was a pivoting moment for me, having that tough teacher that I couldn’t just slide by with.
Kailey: You hear it here teachers. Be tough. It works. All right. You ready for the rapid fire? One-word answers? Okay. All right, here we go. Fill in the blank. I want my lunchbox to be packed with ____. I do not want it to have a single ____.
Mary: I want my lunchbox to be packed with a Pub Sub®.
Kailey: Mm-Hmm.
Mary: I do not want a single item I have to heat in the microwave.
Kailey: Pub Subs all day. I’m from Georgia, so I get it.
Mary: Oh, you guys have Publix®?
Kailey: Yeah. Yeah, we do. We do. Favorite school supply?
Mary: Pens.
Kailey: All right, last question. What football position would you play?
Mary: Wide receiver or cornerback.
Kailey: You want to run?
Mary: I actually played those positions.
Kailey: Mary, thank you so much. We have had the best time talking to you. You are such an inspiration. Our listeners need to go follow you and emulate everything about you.
Mary: Thank you guys. It’s been a pleasure.
Kailey: Alright, Mary, thank you so much.
Jenn: If you or some you know, would like to be a guest on the Teachers in America podcast, please email us at shaped@hmhco.com. Be the first to hear new episodes of Teachers in America by subscribing on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you enjoyed today’s show, please rate, review, and share it with your network. You can find the transcript of this episode on our Shaped blog by visiting hmhco.com/shaped. The link is in the show notes.
The Teachers in America podcast is a production of HMH. Thank you to the production team of Christine Condon, Tim Lee, Jennifer Corujo, Mio Frye, Thomas Velazquez. and Matt Howell. Thanks again for listening.
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