Education

Calling a (fun) audible on football-themed learning … with ‘NFeLementary’ at Ridgedale School

MORGANTOWN - It's Wednesday morning in Lee Ann Harki's fourth-grade classroom at Ridgedale Elementary School and the teacher just broke huddle, in a performative way benefitting the pigskin as it applies in America.

It was a football theme on this crisp, autumn a.m., in her sun-splashed room.

That's why she called an audible - by way of a cardboard box.

"What do you guys think is in here?" the class quarterback asked with a smile, as she held aloft the vessel.

Her charges read the play perfectly.

"We know! We know! The backpacks!"

"Yep."

Inside said box were the aforementioned storage accessories, emblazoned with the logos of a lot of favorite NFL teams.

You had your Eagles and your Jaguars.

And your Vikings and 49ers, too.

Contained therein were Colts, Dolphins, Bengals and Bills, also.

A full smattering of the National Football League's melting pot, it was - representing Morgantown's melting pot at the same time.

"My mom's from New York. That's why I like the Giants," one kid said.

"We're from Florida," another Tampa Bay fan said.

It was all part of a seasonlong lesson plan blending the Xs and Os with a roster-full of learning.

Harki lifted the playbook last year with the blessing of the teacher who came up with the exercise.

Mary Crippin, a lifelong fan of the Miami Dolphins, was looking for a way to keep her students engaged in the gridiron-centric Sunshine State.

Crippen called it, "NFeLementary." It took off just like that double-reverse on third and long that no one saw coming.

Students began playing attention to rushing yards and passing yards: Math, you know.

They wrote letters to the front offices of their favorite teams - English composition - requesting the backpacks and other merch.

And they started paying attention to towns where the teams play, and the colleges where the once-and-future NFL stars came through on their way up.

Call that sociology and civic history, Harki said.

"It's fun to watch them," she said. "They're learning and having fun."

Their teacher is too.

Harki wasn't much of a football fan for last year's inaugural NFeLementary season in her classroom, she allowed.

On this particular gridiron morning at the school on Goshen Road, however, she was proudly done out in a Pittsburgh Steelers jersey - "I have to represent" - and one of the bulletin boards in her class was even festooned with ... yes ... a Terrible Towel.

Official and genuine.

"We get into time zones, geography, the whole bit," she said.

"And there are games every Sunday, Monday and Thursday, so that's a lot of learning," the teacher said. "This stuff stays with them, and it's fun."

Even when the scoreboard isn't always in their favor.

So, a guy with a notebook asked the kid from Florida: "Is Tampa Bay going to the Super Bowl?"

"I doubt it. But I'll keep cheering."

Call that a lesson on how to be a fan, the teacher said.