At a time when, for many of us, our kitchen tables have become our office desks and our pets are our newest co-workers, Mike Ciurzynski seems to have the right idea.
“You work with what you have,” said Ciurzynski.
That attitude has brought the Windsor Central High School ELA teacher to his basement
.
“When it became clear that we were going to be doing distance learning for some time, I knew I would need a dedicated space to work at home, and from a practical standpoint, my basement made the most sense,” said Ciurzynski.
It was a practical choice, even if it wasn’t the most conducive to teaching, until…
“Let’s face it, thanks to countless horror movies, basements have the worst reputation of any room in a house. They’re cold, dark, and eerie. They are everything a classroom shouldn’t be. I found that contrast amusing, decided to embrace the weirdness of it, and came up with the name, Creepy Basement Classroom,” said Ciurzynski.
Ciurzynski posts episodes of Creepy Basement Classroom for his students on YouTube. As the name implies, Creepy Basement Classroom features ghoulish graphics, eerie music, and that day’s lesson.
“The name reminded me of the low-budget television shows that present horror and sci-fi B movies,” said Ciurzynski. “These shows have a reputation of bizarre sets, poor production value, and terrible jokes. I quickly realized that my basement had a fine collection of unusual items for a bizarre set, my inexperience with iMovie would guarantee poor production value, and I consider myself skilled in writing terrible jokes. I knew Creepy Basement Classroom would allow me to do what I’ve done in a room full of desks for the last two decades; educate, entertain, and be myself.”
He's been successful doing all three.
“The kids are responding very well. I've had a parent tell me they insist on watching these weekly videos with their student and helping them with ELA because they are so entertaining. I have another student, who historically disliked ELA. Every assignment was an argument. But now that student completely invested and doing very well,” said high school teacher Sarah Bidwell.
In a way, Ciurzynski went to school himself. He read articles and watched videos about recording, effects, lighting, and editing, just to become good enough to make campy, low-budget episodes. He also had to learn how to structure the show so it could be an easy to follow and effective learning tool for students.
“Besides ELA skills, I hope the students that used Creepy Basement Classroom, referred to as Basement Dwellers, learn that education is a mix of hard work and fun,” said Ciurzynski.
Here are some samples of Creepy Basement Classroom: