Third-grade teacher and avid Miami Dolphins fan Mary Martinez has gotten quite the attention online, with videos going viral as she incorporates football into her lesson plans.
Teaching is a noble and honorable profession. Those dedicated men and women are literally educating the next generation as they interact and work with children daily. One teacher, as has been shown repeatedly, can make a world of difference in a child’s life.
Mary Martinez, because of her passion for teaching and her third-grade students, has found a unique way to impart important life lessons and skills to her students. She uses the game of football, specifically the NFL’s Miami Dolphins, according to a video posted on YouTube.
In the clip, Mary mentioned that she started using football in the classroom to better reach her students.
“I’ve loved sports all my life,” she said. “And as I started in third grade, I noticed that there was an interest more in sports.”
Mary understood that reaching students and imparting knowledge involves meeting them where they are and taking an interest in them.
Learning is always much easier when it’s fun and exciting!
Additionally, sports have given Mary a way to teach her elementary class about the lessons found during the tough times, in the losses.
“While I love the Dolphins and want them to be perfect like 1972, the losses are my favorite part,” she said. “Because it’s where the lessons come from. It’s where we are able to learn and to grow, and that’s such an important thing for the kids to understand.”
The videos of Mary using football to teach her classroom exploded online. It even caught the attention of her favorite team: the Miami Dolphins.
The team, as the video points out, gave Mary tickets to a Monday Night Football game.
“You can learn so much from the game,” Mary said.
Proverbs 22:6 “If a child is trained up in the right way, even when he is old he will not be turned away from it.”