Hey Middle School Teachers,

I need your help.

I used to teach Grade 8 in Ottawa, Canada.

​Life happened, and now I create SEL and ELA resources for middle school teachers.

The problem: I haven’t been in a classroom for 7 years, so I don’t know what feels “cool” or relevant anymore.

I made two lessons I would teach today. Could you watch them with your class and tell me which one lands better—and why?

• Letter to Students Video (8 minutes)​
• Prove Yourself – Lyric Song Video (4 minutes) ​

I’m giving away a class party!

Engage your students with an inspiring back-to-school activity and win a $50 e-gift card for a class party.

Show two motivational videos to your class, spark a discussion about which one they liked better, and you could win a $50 “Class Party Choice” e-gift card (your choice of Amazon, local grocery, or prepaid card, in $CAD or $USD) – no purchase necessary!

How to Participate

1. Watch Two Short Videos with Your Class: Play the following videos for your Grade 5–10 students:
   • Video 1: Will You Be Average? – A witty, thought-provoking “letter to students” about goal-setting and not settling for mediocrity
   • Video 2: Prove Yourself – An original rap-style motivational song about growth mindset and resilience, packed with humor and honest life advice
2. Discuss & Compare: Ask your students which video is better and why. Encourage them to share which video resonated more and what lessons or inspiration they took from each.
3. Email Mike: Email [email protected] (using your school email) to enter the giveaway. You’ll need to provide:
   • Your Name and School: (For verification that you’re a current teacher – your school must have a public website listing you as a staff member.)
   • Grade Level(s) Taught: (Only grades 5–10 are eligible for this contest.)
   • Student Feedback: A brief summary of which video your class preferred and a few reasons why (as described by your students).
4. That’s It – You’re Entered! One entry per teacher. Entries are accepted from now until September 30, 2025. The winner will be chosen in a random draw after the contest closes.

Prize

• Grand Prize: One winner will receive a $50 Class Party Choice e-Gift Card. The winner can choose an e-gift card valued at $50 CAD (if in Canada) or $50 USD (if in the U.S.) to one of the following:
  • A local grocery store (for a pizza or ice cream party, etc.)
  • Amazon (.ca or .com)
  • A prepaid Visa or MasterCard
• Prize Delivery: The e-gift card prize will be delivered via email. No shipping required – you’ll get it online and can spend it on your class party needs right away.
• No Purchase Necessary: Purchasing any supplemental materials or products will NOT increase your chances of winning.

Who Can Enter

This giveaway is open to classroom teachers in the U.S. (48 contiguous states + D.C.) and Canada (except Quebec) who teach grades 5 through 10. You must be at least 18 years old and employed full- or part-time by an accredited public or private school in an eligible region at the time of entry. Void where prohibited by law (including in Quebec due to French-language requirements, or anywhere that requires contest registration not obtained).

• One entry per teacher. You must use a valid school-affiliated email address to enter, and your entry must include your school name and location. We will verify eligibility (i.e. your status as a Grade 5–10 teacher) by checking that you are listed on your school’s public website or via other means.
• Grade Levels: Only classes in Grades 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, or 10 qualify for this contest. Teachers of lower or higher grades are not eligible for this particular giveaway.
• Geographic Restrictions: Only legal residents of Canada (excluding Quebec) and the 48 contiguous United States (and DC) are eligible to enter. Entries from Quebec or other regions where this contest is restricted by law will be disqualified.

Contest Timeline

• Contest Start: September 8, 2025. (Entries open immediately!)
• Contest End: September 30, 2025, 11:59 PM Eastern Time. All entries must be received by this deadline.
• Winner Draw & Announcement: A random draw will be conducted on or about October 1, 2025 to select one (1) winner from all eligible entries. The winner will be notified via the email provided (so make sure you use your school email and enter it correctly!). The winning teacher’s name, school, and submission may be announced on our website’s winner page for recognition.
• Claiming Prize: To claim the prize, the selected winner must respond to the notification email within 5 business days and (if a Canadian winner) correctly answer a skill-testing question as required by Canadian law. If the initially selected winner does not meet the rules or cannot be reached/verified, an alternate winner will be drawn.

Optional Classroom Resources

(Not required for contest entry, but great for extended learning!)

If you enjoyed the videos and want to delve deeper into goal-setting and SEL (Social-Emotional Learning) with your students, check out these resources:

• Back to School 2025 Goal Setting Activities (SEL): A reading & writing activity that starts with a witty letter to get your students debating about being “average”. Perfect for the first week of school.
• “Prove Yourself” Song Lyric Coloring Pages: A set of growth mindset coloring pages and reflection prompts built around the Prove Yourself song. Students can color, reflect, and discuss themes of resilience and self-improvement.

These materials are available on TeachersPayTeachers and complement the videos, but they are completely optional. You do not have to purchase anything to use the videos or enter the contest.

Full Contest Rules (PDF)

Download the official contest rules (PDF)

Questions?

Email [email protected]

April is Arab Heritage Month.

• This FREE social-emotional learning lesson is great for those classroom cultures that are ready for it.
• The “Who is Invisible” resource doesn’t mention a specific group of people.
• Instead, students watch a series of videos and have conversations around who is included, and who is under represented or missing entirely.
• Is this conversation something your students are ready for?

Social-Emotional Learning is a long journey. It’s not a single lesson or a period once-a-week where we try to build self-awareness and social awareness.

A lot of social-emotional learning happens through teachable moments and impromptu conversations in the classroom.

Conversations around race and power are difficult.

• Sometimes, we have to decide when to have important difficult conversations, and when to let it go.
• Being assertive means picking and choosing our battles and deciding what lines we won’t cross.
• Here’s a communication unit to help students explore how to be more assertive.

I once heard someone on the internet say, “media shapes mindset”

Do you agree with that?

If that’s the case, what is media teaching us?

And, what are we doing to explore and think critically about media?

Hello Ontario Middle School teachers and friends!

I’ve got some big news to share, and I’m thrilled to have you be a part of it.

We’ve just hit an extraordinary milestone of 100,000 resource downloads worldwide!

That’s right, 100,000 downloads around the world!

Teachers in Canada, the USA, and 57 other countries are using Educircles resources to:

• Enhance Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving: The strategy-based learning approach helps challenge and expand students’ analytical abilities.
• Develop Reading Comprehension and Digital Literacy skills: The comprehension strategy lessons and differentiated reading passages provide modern, relevant content that sharpens both reading strategies and digital literacy competencies.
• Understand and Respect Everyone: A core element in the lessons is to foster an inclusive classroom environment, nurturing understanding and respect for diverse perspectives.
• Build Character and Encourage a Growth Mindset: Students get opportunities to develop resilience and adopt a mindset geared towards growth and learning.
• Develop Social-Emotional Learning Skills: Students learn about themselves, and how they interact with others and the world to survive and thrive in a changing 21st Century world!

I’m giving away TPT (Teachers Pay Teachers) gift cards to the first 100 teachers who reach out to me.

To say a huge thank you, I’m doing something special.

I’m giving away TPT (Teachers Pay Teachers) gift cards to the first 100 teachers who reach out to me. Yes, you read that right – One Hundred TPT gift cards!

Here’s how you can get your hands on one:

1. Be a Member of the Educircles Club: If you’re already part of our Educircles Club newsletter, you’re halfway there. If not, join here.
2. Email Me: Reply to one of my Educircles club newsletters.
3. Tell Me What You Bought: In your email reply, let me know which Educircles resource you’ve purchased.

Once I check and see that everything matches up, I’ll send you a $10 TPT gift card. You can use this card to buy anything from the TPT marketplace!

But wait, there’s more!

To celebrate this amazing achievement, I’m also dropping the price of the Educircles Everything bundle to just $100.

It’s the perfect time to grab all my resources for less than a dollar each!

Don’t miss out! This TPT gift card give away and the $100 sale will end on the 100th day of 2024 –Tuesday, April 9, 2024.

Thank you for being a part of the Educircles teaching community.

I can’t teach in the classroom right now. But I still want to be a teacher.

So I teach by creating the lessons I want to use with my Grade 8 students. Thank you for helping me feel connected to the classroom every time you use my lessons.

Let me know if there’s anything I can do to support you and your students.

Cheers,

Mike Fuchigami

BACK TO SCHOOL Activities Unit Plan: Get Ready for SEPTEMBER 2023!

Build classroom community and classroom expectations around a Growth Mindset. Explicitly teach Social Emotional Learning skills to set the tone for a year of learning.

STEP 1. Play human bingo activity to get your students talking.

• PRO TIP: Don’t just hand out the worksheet. (Otherwise, students will just walk around and tell people to write down their name.)

• Instead, check out this blog post for ideas on how to use Human Bingo as a communication mini-lesson.

• Take up the human bingo questions and see who in the class has already used ChatGPT or AI.

OPTIONAL: Show students how to respectfully disagree

• If you notice from the Back to School Activity (Human Bingo) that your students have trouble interacting with each other, then we need to practice respectful disagreement.

• Check out these fun, high-interest Classroom Citizenship Debates to set up rules for conversation. Students get to work their way through “easy” topics to more “challenging” topics.

STEP 2. Have a classroom debate: Should ChatGPT be allowed in Schools?

• Use this ChatGPT lesson to introduce critical thinking.

• Set up a classroom community where the expectation is to think critically and look for high quality information to test our assumptions / bias.

STEP 3. Explore 21st Century Learning Skills. Give students a common language to view academic and life challenges during this school year: Character, Citizenship, Collaboration, Communication, Creativity, and Critical Thinking.

• The world is always controversial and changing: Covid, the war in Ukraine, ChatGPT, Black Lives Matter, Global Warming, etc.

• The problem with ChatGPT is not that it’s a cheating tool. (Well, it is the ultimate learning / cheating / biased tool rolled into one big temptation.)

• The problem is that ChatGPT represents change. And change is hard and controversial because there are many perspectives, strong feelings, and winners / losers.

• ChatGPT is simply the next opportunity for us to explore 21st Century Learning Skills / Social Emotional Learning through explicit instruction.

• Do we cheat by using ChatGPT to generate the answers? Maybe. Maybe not. What choices do we make when no one is looking? Self Awareness. Self Management. Social Awareness. Responsible Decision Making. Relationship Skills. (Hello CASEL 5 SEL!)

• Use this Back to School Learning Skills Challenge Task to have students learn about Growth Mindset / 21st Century Learning Skills while trying to stay in a Growth Mindset and use 21st Century Learning Skills.

PRO TIP: If you want to do these 3 steps and explicitly teach students how to use 6Cs / 21st Century Learning skills, then you want the Back to School 6Cs Growth Mindset Bundle. Save time and money by getting 90+ lessons that you can use throughout the year to help students with Social Emotional Learning.

Hey Middle School and High School teachers,

For those of you who are done the school year…

• I hope you have a fantastic and restful summer vacation.

For those of you who are still teaching…

• Here’s a free video lesson to keep your students engaged with lively debate. Should ChatGPT be allowed in schools (or is this cheating?) The video literally tells you when to pause for class discussion.
• Need something more pen-and-paper? Grab the free Reading Comprehension passage below about comedian Jerry Seinfeld.

NEW RESOURCE: “Stand-up, Sips, and Seinfeld”

High-Interest SEL Differentiated Reading Comprehension Passage about comedian Jerry Seinfeld.

Seinfeld worked hard to perfect his craft. He’s now worth over $950 million.

• What can we learn from his comedic process?
• How did he tinker with a new web series format (Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee), until he cracked the code to success?
• During the first ten episodes, even Seinfeld wasn’t sure it would work. But, he kept going.
• What can students learn from the creative learning process Seinfeld used to succeed?

Here’s Educircles Club Freebie #15:

• Click the red button to immediately download the attached article, SEL lesson and discussion questions (6 page PDF).
• The article goes over two Tinkering Social Emotional Learning Ideas: 1. Going through a lot of stuff and 2. Watching, Wondering, Trying, and Tinkering until you reach your goals

• If you already have the Everything Bundle, you get this resource for free. Click here to immediately download the full resource. (Make sure you are logged into your TPT account or the link won’t work.)

EARLY BIRD THANK YOU!

As a special thank you to those of you who opened up this email right away, the full resource is free until Fri Jun 9, 2023 at 11:59 PM (ET.)

The full resource includes 4 different reading levels, perfect for students above, at, or below grade level.

You also get a 6-page worksheet and 12-page answer key to help you lead powerful discussions. (Plus, there’s also a 3-page bonus answer key to help you show students how to repair comprehension as they read.)

Get the FULL RESOURCE

SPECIAL (TEMPORARY) PRICE DROP! SAVE $82.30

I have a 6Cs Critical Thinking bundle that includes $100 of resources (including the ChatGPT stuff.)

TPT limits the discount I can offer to 50%, so the bundle normally sells for $50.

I’ve temporarily “hacked” the price of the included resources to offer this bundle at $17.70.

(Read more about the 6Cs Critical Thinking Lesson Plans.)

Why the special price drop?

Because my court case against the Ontario College of Teachers is this week.

I believe in Active Citizenship and Critical Thinking.

Check out this video at 17:02 to see why I’m taking the Ontario College of Teachers to court.

Questions? Feedback? Suggestions? Collaboration ideas?

Let me know what you think by replying to this email!

Cheers, Mike

Michael Fuchigami

[email protected]