If you have ever been on a video call with me, you know that I love music (also see my SongEDU series). My background is the fruit of years of dead format collecting and I love sharing it with anyone who jumps on a call with me. Music continues to get me through difficult days and fuel me on the good ones. So, while keeping that in mind, I wanted to develop a way for our students to share what they are listening to. I used to do this informally with students every day. “What’s are you listening to?” and they would immediately apologize, but then I would explain that I really wanted to know. Learned about some great artists that way, but I never really formalized it into a practice in my classroom.

There is a comic book store/game store near my house that I go to at least once every couple of months. Usually to check out missing issues of on going series that I need to read, but often I find myself looking for a long time at the vintage trading cards. They have this great section of vintage superhero and movie trading cards and, even though I know I don’t need them, I always pick up a pack. There was just something magical about picking up these little cellophane packages when I was a little kid and even as an adult popping those packages open is just a little too much fun. I always loved the vintage 90s Marvel cards. The artwork was always rad and before the internet it allowed me to know about all the characters without buying all the series.