The Wild Card: 7 Steps to an Educator's Creative Breakthrough

by Wade King, Hope King

The Wild Card is your step-by-step guide to experiencing a creative breakthrough in your classroom with your students.

"This book is a teacher wonderland of ideas, inspiration, and mind-blowing magic." - Ron Clark, The New York Times best-selling author and cofounder, Ron Clark Academy.

In this book, Wade and Hope King show you how to draw on your authentic self - your past experiences, personality quirks, interests, hobbies, and strengths - to deliver your content creatively. If you are a high school teacher or a kindergarten teacher, the seven steps in The Wild Card will give you the knowledge and the confidence to bring creative teaching strategies into your classroom.

You'll learn:

Why the deck is not stacked against you, no matter what kind of hand you've been dealt
Why you should never listen to the Joker
How to identify the "Ace up your sleeve" and use it to create classroom magic
How to apply the "Rules of Rigor" in order to fuse creativity with learning
How to become the "Wild Card" that changes the game for your students

Genres: Education, Teaching, Nonfiction, School, Adult, Audiobook, Self Help

229 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2017

Reviews

[Stephanie Fujii · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not sure what I expected from this book. But I didn't get it. At all.

Hope and Wade sound like amazing educators. They are super enthusiastic and give their all to their kiddos. Their school, and students are super lucky. I admire their devotion, and really enjoyed their anecdotes about their own classroom. They have a lot of ethos in this area, that's for sure.

A few things I did take away:
1. Thinking about my class as a parent. Would I want my kids to have me as a teacher? Would I feel they were being challenged, supported, and connected with? This has been something I have really been thinking about since having my second daughter.
2. Don't compare yourself with other teachers. We all have our own talents and trying to fit yourself into the mold of another educator is not the way.

I had lots of issues with the overall message and outlook of the book, though. There was some troubling messaging about what you "have to do/have" to be successful in this difficult gig of teaching. Also, they talk a lot about test scores - because they really do emphasize that you can't just do something for fun. It has to be supported by results. Kids have to achieve. I get that. But the constant test-score-dropping was a bit much for me.

It also felt like they divided teachers into two camps: those who were like them, and those who taught via worksheets. But it's just not that simple. There is a lot of in between, and honestly, a lot of great teaching happens in that in between state. They briefly mentioned/hinted at the idea that these creative ideas of theirs aren't something to do every day (otherwise it wouldn't be expected), but they glossed over that really quickly, and instead spent most of the book emphasizing the importance of this type of teaching.

There were lots of instances reinforcing super traditional gender norms. Wade would say things like "as a typical guy, I didn't know where to begin [decorating my room]" and Hope doing a really cool sounding step club for kids after school, but then also teaching them how to set a table ("because they weren't even learning that at home" - is this an important thing to know?)

Their focus really is on class transformations as their mode of creativity. Changing your space, or dressing as a character in order to be unpredictable, in a good way, and make kids curious about what is going to come next. While I think this can be really powerful, I don't really agree that it's a "must". And the authors agree, at least momentarily. They pay lip service to the idea that we all have our own strengths, and styles, but then....they get back to harping on room transformations again.

There were lots of, what I considered to be, simplistic/sweeping statements: "Rebecca came to observe our classes and our teaching methods - and things began to change. She felt a spark of inspiration, and, to her credit, she acted on it" This was just a bit braggadocios to me.
Or something along the lines of "And then, 94% of our kids met the standard in that area because of our amazing xyz" I mentioned this earlier, but there was a lot of talk about standardized tests. I wasn't a fan.
"In our workshops, we ask teachers to entertain the notion that they are, indeed, entertainers - and if they can't accept that aspect of teaching, they may want to entertain the notion of a new profession."
Yikes. I think this was kind of intense. They also talked a lot about starting things after school, or staying in with students during lunch. There was a LOT of expectations of teachers in this approach. Give and give and give of yourself - and if you're tired, suck it up. Your kids deserve your best even if you are having personal struggles, or a hard day. This is dangerous to me. It sets up an environment where students have unrealistic and inhuman expectations of their educators. Of course I'm not going to bring in my marital drama or struggles with my family into my class. But I also think that as a human being, I might give myself a bit of grace and have an off day where I'm not at my best. I come from the school of thought that when you show students that you are human, they show you that side of themselves, too.

I liked some aspects of their book, but mostly I just kept reading because I was hoping it would give me something concrete. But that never really came.

[Megan · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's clear that Hope and Wade King, teachers at the Ron Clark Academy, are passionate about their profession. They put their heart and soul into their work, and their students are lucky to have such enthusiastic, creative teachers. That said, it seems that the Kings, not their students, are the stars of the show (a metaphor they use throughout the book).

On one hand, I really loved what the Kings had to say about building relationships with students, both in and out of the classroom. They emphasize that we teach a room of individuals, not just a "class"--an important distinction. This is really the foundation of student engagement: when students feel that they are cared for and known, they will want to come to school. I also absolutely agree that one teacher can indeed be that "wild card" for a student. Knowing that one teacher can make or break a student's academic career makes the job that much more powerful.

The Kings' classrooms sound like fun places to be, but I wonder a) who is working harder: the teacher or the students? and b) is the juice worth the squeeze? In many instances in the book, if you were to strip away all of the bells and whistles, students are still doing low-level, test-prep style work. The authors like to remind us of their awesome test scores throughout the book and use it as justification of their methods, but it comes across as arrogant. There was little evidence in the way of performance assessments. Sure students had an entire room transformation around punctuation and did great on the standardized test, but could they apply it in their everyday writing? The authors do give examples of mock trials, debates, and socratic seminars, but most of the strategies seem very teacher-centric and geared towards rote learning.

Perhaps my greatest issue with the book is the Kings' insistence that teachers are entertainers and that if you disagree, you're in the wrong profession. Quite the hot take. For a book that preaches authenticity, that's a conflicting message for those teachers who are not natural performers. The book's thesis is unclear: do I play to my strengths or do I "fake it til I make it?" At what point do all of the costumes and room transformations and themes become about me and not my students? Just think--all of the time and money that teachers spend on room transformations or costumes to deliver content could be spent planning naturally engaging student-centered activities.

[Mrs. Schuld · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book was okay. Great for inspiring teachers about engagement. They truly care about kids and go over the top to inspire and motivate them. However, I disagreed with some of their statements and ideas. While I firmly believe we can be the wild card for kids, I think it’s the responsibility of the student to be an active learner as well, and I think they missed the mark there.

[Kim Erwin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Unrealistic and authors are so self-congratulatory it was just annoying to read.

[Valerie Zink · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book says nothing new that I could not figure out myself, that I have not been there done that, heard before. Most of it is the two authors talking about themselves. Dullsville.

[Kelly Carlson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was not one I would have grabbed off of a shelf, but it was one that met the date criteria of a challenge my Academic Dean gave our teaching staff. At least in my printed copy, it met the date criteria since it was published for a second time in 2018 (wink: I may be making that up). My family enjoys card games, so it was the title that caught my attention. I wasn't sure how the author was going to connect the title to education, but right into chapter one, I got it.
The whole book is tailored around the premise of viewing life as a game (shocker): the deck is not stacked against you, don't listen to the joker, bladdy blah. Anyway, the emphasis is on the importance of creativity in the classroom. While I claim to be a pretty creative person myself, with all the moving parts of planning and implementing lessons, creativity in my classroom doesn't just naturally happen. I have to plan and think things through, which is contrary to how I typically "create" outside of the classroom. For that reason, some of the practical ideas in the appendix of this book were particularly helpful to me.
For the most part, the book seems to aim to convince anti-edutainment protesters to see the value of creativity in the classroom. The book gives creativity the credit for engagement, and while in contemplative debate, I can list many ways to engage students, creativity does seem to overarch my list. Hence, I will not disagree. However, even more than creativity, the big answer to the tiny question, "Why do I teach?" is the true power of engagement. Of all the words on the pages of this book, this question, "Why do I teach?" is my takeaway.
"Why do I teach?" Probably many of us would flippantly give the "right" answer, but the motivation to engage the students comes from the REAL answer. The STUDENTS should be the center of the answer to that question. For me, I can honestly say, the REAL answer is because I want to, more than educate, IMPACT the lives of the students I teach so they won't just remember the school stuff I taught them, but the life stuff I modeled. If the book was meant to inspire, I guess it did its job. That question continues to echo as I plan and tweak lessons for this school year.

[Jessica · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book wasn’t for me. I didn’t enjoy the style or the voice. Someone told me it would be more engaging if I had followed Hope and Wade on their journey, but I suppose what’s the point of writing a book but to attempt to reach a wider audience? Someone else said to read it with the lens of a self help book. That helped but I vehemently disagreed with some of the dispositional points so it really didn’t sit well with me. I would have enjoyed some more research based support to their tips. I would suggest just reading big magic or the artists way and call it good since that is where some of the more philosophical points are taken from. However I did find the idea of the joker helpful and the use of the previously mentioned books as tools for an educator. I have read both as tools for my creative outlets outside of education and I find I want to reread them with an educational lens.

[Monica Hills · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have been a teacher for the past 17 years. I went into teaching with the philosophy that I wanted my students to have fun and love learning. Over the years I feel like I have tried to do many of the things mentioned in this book but these educators took engagement and love of learning to a whole new level. It really is an inspiration and I love their ideas and discussion. My only complaint would be that I would love more examples of how they did things. Part of what they discussed was taking ideas and making them your own which I completely understand but I wanted more examples. The end of the book had some great ones but I would have loved even more. A great read though for any educator.

[Alex · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to love this book-- I really did. Hope and Wade are amazing, and I mean NO SHADE to them. But my grade takeaway from this book was that teachers have to do it all, be it all, and make it all work. There were a few good nuggets that I'll use in my classroom, but overall, not my favorite PD book.

[Lauren Walton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a positive and must read for all teachers!

[Dana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very motivational book to encourage teachers to find their spark! Excited to put their tips to use as I continue to develop as a teacher!

[Claire Shodeen · Rating 4 out of 5]

every teacher should read this! such cool reminders and challenging words to many roadblocks we encounter in education.

[Tammy Hahs · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a great reminder of all the great things about teaching. It gave me so much food for thought and I spent a lot of my time reading this and self-reflecting. Reading this book energized me the be the best version of my self in the classroom.

[Lindsay Wilcox · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was my school’s faculty summer reading. I was rather confused by this book. I agree with the authors that teaching and learning shouldn’t be boring, but I’m not sure that teacher creativity is the one path toward improvement. (I feel the same way about technology, and I use tech constantly.) The Kings are adamant that teacher creativity is the best way to improve student test scores because it makes the students *want* to learn. I don’t doubt that they get the scores or that the scores are important, but I’m not so sure that music, costumes, and room transformations are the way to do it. There are many references to teachers that show their creativity differently to achieve that desired end, but there aren’t many examples of those. There *are* a lot of pictures and block-quoted anecdotes, though.

I’m left with more questions than answers. What do the Kings’ rooms look like on normal days? Where do they get the money and time for all of this? (I’m glad that Wade could spend 2 weeks making decorations for a 2-day lesson; I can’t. I don’t have space to put all my desks and chairs somewhere else so we can have a picnic on the floor.) Why do they hate worksheets so much? (Few people really like worksheets, but we shouldn’t demonize teachers who use them.) I feel more frustrated and dejected than energized and inspired after reading this book. It will be interesting seeing the effect that these ideas have on my school.

[Dylan McHenry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Much of this book was helpful and part of me does feel energized after reading it. However, I wish Hope and Wade would do more to acknowledge just how hard teaching is. There was no acknowledgement of burn out and very little acknowledgement of difficult work environments.

Generally, they add to the stigma that you are a bad teacher unless you work and work and work until you can’t work anymore. I do understand that teachers must work to engage their students, but there has to be a balanced middle ground.

I look forward to using their tips to creat a more engaged classroom, but I will do it at a much slower pace. That’s the only way that feels realistic to me.

[Ashley Barrett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Must read

Every single teacher should read this book. It can be a personal challenge or additional ideas to what you already do. Amazing!!

[James (JD) Dittes · Rating 3 out of 5]

With The Wild Card Hope and Wade King provide a nice jolt for teachers looking to add some spice to their teaching practice.

My favorite part of the book was the ways Hope and Wade put themselves into the book. It isn't just "look what I've done," although there are many fascinating and relevant pictures of the couple at work (at play?). By sharing their stories and their experiences as students, they show how closely they identified with their students--first in South Carolina, now in the Atlanta area. They aren't just throwing ideas against the wall; Hope and Wade have walked the walk.

I appreciated how Hope and Wade grounded their unique teaching practices in standards and best practices. So often teachers are tempted to "screw the tests" and go off on a tangent, but the Kings rightfully stress that their creativity--music in class for Wade, clever crafts and decorations for Hope--augments the standards. It doesn't replace them. The "Rules of Rigor" in Chapter 7 really covered this well.

I appreciated, also, the hard work that went into this book--as it goes into the lessons and decorations in the Kings' respective classrooms. The Kings are dedicated teachers, no doubt about it, but what I didn't see was reference to some of the outside time & financial factors that keep teachers from going to the Nth degree, primarily their own kids.

I know that my teaching creativity was enhanced in years before I read the Kings' book by a Nashville-area Arts in Education program, which connected teachers with teaching artists and outside practices that augment lessons and unit plans in ways similar (and complimentary to) the Kings'.

They include a Toolbox at the end with several really clever ideas. But perhaps this is a weakness of the book, I didn't really see links to expand teachers' knowledge of the tools. Still, I look forward to trying some of these this year.

[Julie Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great insight on how to make your curriculum more engaging and get students to want to come to school. Lots of good examples and ideas that you can start using tomorrow! Really great book and a great listen in the car on the way to work to get me in the right mindset to teach kiddos.

Biggest takeaway that I needed and loved was the idea that all the “excuses” for why you can’t do something, for example: large class sizes, standardized tests, etc. are just a roadblock that you need to be creative with. Stop making excuses and figure out a way to work with what you have! Loved it and needed that so much!

[Laurel Wendt · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a fairly new educator I am very passionate about my practice and am constantly looking for ways to become a better teacher for my students. With that being said, I found “The Wild Card” to be a great read that continued to spark the flame I have for teaching. I got some valuable ideas and tools that I definitely want to implement in my class. However, the authors are very adamant about student engagement and come across as if you aren’t teaching the way they suggest, then you’re teaching incorrectly and your students won’t learn, which I feel isn’t necessarily true.

[Creighton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this! I'm definitely going through this again and actively implementing the ideas and steps for creativity that they outline in here. My first read thriugh was helpful in getting the whole idea, but now I want to go back through and work on bettering my craft. The greatest thing about it all is that I think the authors are both Chritsians, which is very evident in their stories and in the way they write: with care and love for their individuals students!

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every teacher should read this book. The reason I loved it so much...they don't tell you exactly what to do. I love their "no excuses" attitude and motivation to improve as an educator. There are so many great ideas, things to think about, and reasons to refocus your "why". Start with smiling while you teach! This is a must read.

[Ems Loves to Read · Rating 4 out of 5]

The beauty of reading a book like this is that I can pick and choose what will work for me, and that's how it's intended. I didn't once feel like if I didn't do a particular thing, then I was a bad teacher. I appreciated the personal insights given, and the many ideas that I can adapt for my classroom.

[Rhonda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Similar to Teach Like a Pirate from what I remember. Lots of good engagement strategies and I agree with a lot of the points they made. Nice read to get me back in school mode.

[Angie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Here again a full review will come later.
For now ... Some interesting ideas I did like. But lame that the last 11-12% of the book was advertising.

[Alainee Simonson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this book was great and had some awesome ideas for student engagement and classroom activities. However, I was a little disappointed that real struggles teachers gave were often called excuses in the book by the Kings. It’s very discouraging and can make you feel like an inadequate educator. I did agree with a lot of the statements such as a standard eating lunch with my students at least once a week and they really enjoyed that.

I tried to do a little bit of research into the Kings to see if these two had children, and could not find anything but every time they discuss these elaborate transformations and things all I could find myself thinking was, “man they must not have any kids.”

There are some things I would love to do with my students in a classroom however coming back from Covid I feel like there are more behavior struggles and ever before and it’s taking a lot more classroom management, and trying new classroom management skills. This is also impacting the flow of things so even if we were to try fun things it can be difficult. Don’t get me wrong, I love the Classroom Transformation‘s I love all the fun things, I think it’s phenomenal they’re doing these things for their students, but as I was reading I just felt like a failure as an educator and found myself wishing I had the time to do all these things. While they say this can be used as an excuse, the only way I could actually accomplish some of these things would be to not spend any time with my own children or stay up way past bedtime so I turn into a neurotic lunatic running on zero sleep.

I completely agree that we are the wildcard for kids, as teachers going up for me were the wild card since I did not have a very great childhood, but I’m really struggling right now with finding engaging activities with scripted curriculum, and using that creative flex.

I think that this book has excellent ideas for educators, however, don’t go into it feeling bad if you cannot do some of the things listed immediately. As a teacher I have never felt more like I am in survival mode than I have this year.

[Temple · Rating 3 out of 5]

For some reason I found this book disturbing. it seems shaped by the culture of social media where a fan base is built from interesting photos. These room transformations photograph well but what is the pedagogical basis for spending that amount of time and money on creating what is essentially a cute/themed room outfit? What about opportunities for student initiative and genuine problem solving? What about real world applications? To me it’s like turning a lesson into a themed birthday party. It just seems wrong somehow. There is one thing they said that I use this year while teaching. It’s the comment about asking simpler questions when a child is struggling until you guide them towards the answer. I also like what they said about smiling more and conveying joy. In the end though I just don’t agree with their basic philosophy about teachers being entertainers. I want to inspire my students to believe in themselves even more than they believe in me. I think things like project based learning or service learning do the best job of that. The child has to solve the problem and add all the sprinkles to make it palatable, not the teacher. This is a strange educational trend. However, it was definitely interesting and easy to read.

[Lynnae Andersen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book as part of a district Twitter chat. As a new teacher in this district and still a green teacher only in my 5th year, I was excited to participate and converse with other teachers about our craft.

Initially, when I read the prompt, I was disappointed. Creativity is my THING. I love taking an old or boring lesson, flipping it on it's head and doing something fun: especially for my middle and high school students (elementary shouldn't be the only ones having fun). Needless to say, I didn't start off with a good attitude. In fact, rather arrogantly I thought, "what am I going to learn from this?"

Then I read the introductory chapters and, well, God smacked me. I changed the inflection of my question from negative to positive. Will reading this book result in an overhaul of my teaching methods? Probably not. Do I still have things to learn? Absolutely.

[Mark NP · Rating 4 out of 5]

Practical steps to achieve inspired and creative outcomes. It's fine. I do have some criticisms. The authors insist on teachers using their own money to fund their creative lessons in their classrooms, which sucks. I get their point, but I don't appreciate the idea that if you're not spending your own money on school supplies then you're not being a creative teacher. These two are members of the Ron Clark Academy, a school that I think exists to serve the egos (and sell the books) of its teachers--there is a big sage on the stage vibe coming out of that place. The authors' underlying assumption is that teaching is your career because you want to be doing it, you want to get better at it, and that your job is your primary focus. They obviously don't have kids. If all that's true for you, then this book might be good for you, too.

[Tiffanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was not a fan of this book. It's great that it inspired others to try new things, but how many of us can actually afford room transformations? As an introverted teacher, a lot of suggestions were just not for me. Also, some things they talked about, like teaching etiquette to just the girls and having the boys learn manners that were more "manly" didn't sit right with me.

[Mary Ellen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book. I know it is inspirational to a lot of teachers and as a teacher AND theatre degree holder, you would think that I would be 100% for this type of education. My own children are not extroverts. They neither thrive on people constantly talking nor teachers putting up so many anchor charts and decorations that they cannot concentrate.