Last Friday was his first time attending. After hearing about the club, he decided to join. Joe Hearns, another social studies teacher at Battle Creek Central, also played Magic in middle school. To make the game accessible for students, Engleman provides cards that Odyssey Games in Kalamazoo sold him at a discount when they learned about his undertaking. In the collectible card game, the player assumes a role called a planeswalker and uses cards in their personal deck to cast spells and summon creatures to attack opponents. “I thought it was cool, then got into the game.” “One day, I am delivering newspapers.I looked down and there's a magic card by my feet, just out on the road,” Engleman said. “This is something that I have an emotional attachment to that brings me back to when I was these guys’ age, and I feel like I'm one of them.” Magic: The GatheringĮngleman started playing Magic: The Gathering in middle school by way of serendipity. “It brings me a lot of joy,” Engleman said. Lawson and other alumni revisit the school to join current students. Kellogg Prep teacher, Engleman organized an after-school club at Battle Creek Central for Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons. 'And I said, ‘Yeah, do you?’ He's like, ‘Yeah, a lot of kids do.’” “One of my students comes up, he's like ‘You play Magic?'' Engleman said. One day during his lunch break, Engleman was researching Magic cards online and didn’t realize his computer screen was projected on the board. “I had no idea how popular this stuff was for students.” “I really didn't expect him to even say anything,” Engleman said.

Lawson reconnected with Engleman over Facebook and they started playing Magic: The Gathering together at Taco Bell. It felt really good to have him reach out to me after I graduated.” Engleman sent me a card called Teneb, the Harvester,” Lawson said. 'It was going to be a commander for one of my decks.

When staff and students returned to in-person learning, Engleman noticed the card still hanging in his classroom and mailed it to his former student. Then, the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered schools.Įngleman’s student, Brandon Lawson, passed the class remotely and ended up graduating high school. “I went on eBay, found a card that I knew that he wanted, and I said, ‘Listen, if you get your grade up in this class, you can just have this.’ ” “I had a student who was failing one of my classes, and one day I happened to notice he brought in a big bag of Magic cards,” said Engleman.

Middle school dungeons and dragons club