Since 2019, Marshmallow Madness has been a South High tradition for teachers. But not anymore.
Marshmallow Madness is a March Madness bracket elimination tournament where teachers use marshmallows to tag each other during March-April.
This year, according to social studies teacher Drew Jennings, who runs the event, Marshmallow Madness was canceled because only 27 teachers signed up to do the event.
Art teacher Eric Ludlow said he thinks 27 participants should have been enough to host the event.
“But I’m like, ‘We could still do it!’ Twenty-something isn’t bad. You can make a bracket any size. Even a two-person bracket, right? As long as it’s an even number, you can make it work.” Ludlow said. Ludlow was the winner of Marshmallow Madness in 2023.
But why didn’t teachers decide to sign up this year? Ludlow also has an opinion on that, as well.
“I guess maybe they didn’t like it. Maybe they thought it was a distraction, right? A lot is going on. I put a lot of planning into it—I definitely lost sleep over it. And, I’ll admit, some of my tactics might have been a little… let’s just say, unorthodox,” he said.
Social studies teacher Drew Jennings talks about how planning Marshmallow Madness affected his Sociology class.
“When fewer teachers participate, it doesn’t feel like much of an event. And since I run this through my Sociology class, we don’t want to take up a lot of class time on it. The students help mostly on their own time. We spend a little class time on promotion, but when you have 60 or 70 teachers playing, you don’t need much promotion—the teachers do it themselves. You just throw a few posts on Instagram, put up a couple of posters, and it spreads,” Jennings said.
FACS teacher Ashley Winslow thinks that changing the time of Marshmallow Madness would help because during this time teachers are more stressed out.
“At the start of the year, many teachers aren’t dealing with EOC tests or preparing for end-of-year tasks. Around the time it was planned, we had ACTs, EOCs—teachers were trying to finish up curriculum. So that might not be a bad idea: changing the timing to something less chaotic,” Winslow said
Winslow also talked about how stressed teachers are during this semester.
“I think teachers are super overwhelmed. Everyone is spread thin. There have been a lot of changes—some teachers have lost their plan periods due to added duties around the school. It takes time to participate in events like Marshmallow Madness, and it’s stressful,” she said.
But there’s still a chance of the event coming back next year, Jennings talks about the possible attempt
“If it’s not going to be a fun event, and if people are starting to see it as a nuisance, then it’s probably better to step back. We’ll try again next year—maybe it’ll come back. You never know.” Jennings said.
