Mr. Moriarty's Ancient Civilizations Class

06/05/2026

To the Class of 2026, I wish you nothing but the best as your journey through life truly begins now.

Six years ago, you filled this classroom day in and day out with laughter and commiserating, with smiles and with tears, and, hopefully, a few life lessons alongside the official curricular lessons.

You were my first middle school group, my original sixth graders, the only non-teenagers I had ever had in my classroom. It was a steep learning curve for me, coming out of having taught at the high school level for 7 years prior. Though it wasn’t always easy, I consider myself extremely fortunate to have had you as the crew that broke me in to the world of middle school.

Our time together in sixth grade was cut short that March, as the world was turned upside down due to a global pandemic. We didn’t get that normal end of the year goodbye, and for some, that seemingly innocuous Friday in early spring proved to be the last time we’d cross paths. For some, you stopped by when normalcy began to return, we said hello in the hallways, we chatted at gas stations and drive thrus, you’ve sent me emails and physical letters, and I’ve cheered you on at sporting events.

Whether your journey since then has taken you to OHS, Bay Path, the workforce, or elsewhere, I wish you nothing but happiness and good fortune. You deserve it. Mist importantly, whatever you do and wherever life takes you, make yourself proud. You owe it to yourself, and only yourself. Each and every one of you is capable of great things — whether you had great grades in Ancient Civ or struggled to get by; whether you confidently shared out or literally couldn’t bear to use your voice.

Do great things. Be great. Live life. Carpe diem.

You’ve got this.

05/07/2026

Beautiful evening to catch a couple games at Stanley Johnson. As a baseball guy, there isn’t much better than seeing the kids take the field.

04/25/2026

I hope everyone had a great vacation week! I’m wrapping up April break with a 5K in Thompson this morning. Cool temps, a few hills, and a good reminder: progress isn’t always flat or easy, but you keep moving forward.

Now it’s back to school for the final stretch of the year. Time to refocus, reset, and finish strong. See y’all Monday!

03/28/2026

It may not be in Oxford, but it’s right around the corner. I’ll be there, and if someone needs community service hours for NJHS, NHS, StuCo, or otherwise, I’ll be happy to sign for you!

Join us this Saturday, March 28 at 9:00 AM at Bond Road Field as we get our fields ready for the season.

We’ll split into two groups—one staying at Bond Road and one heading to Center Field—to tackle cleanup, brush clearing, batting cage setup, and field prep.

If you’re able, please bring:
⚾ Leaf rakes or metal bow rakes
⚾ Leaf blowers
⚾ Clippers/brush cutters
⚾ Work gloves

We’ve got a lot to accomplish, and the more hands we have, the better it goes.

Thank you for supporting Charlton Little League—we appreciate it!

03/01/2026

Our Mesopotamian Museum artifacts now on display at school for a few weeks. Lots of great work by the kids!

01/22/2026

Today we took a look at the day-to-day problems people faced during rapid growth in ancient Mesopotamia. After brainstorming possible problems, then sorting and categorizing a number of issues actually faced, students drew or used PlayDoh to represent those problems. We’ll continue looking at those real world problems tomorrow before shifting to how the Mesopotamians dealt with those problems next week.

12/12/2025

It’s been a flurry of activity the last week or so in Room 102. Last week we wrapped up the Stone Age with a review activity in which we tossed “Stone Age Axes”, and this week we’ve moved on to the geography of ancient Mesopotamia. We looked at the land and the importance of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, which made possible the first city-states and empires in human history. We explored the maps with an Egg Dash Challenge and today built 3D maps of Mesopotamia using LEGO. Next week we move on the lives of the people living in that space a few thousand years ago!

11/17/2025

A fun update from our extension blocks: both classes have rolled out Headline Hunters, a voluntary Fantasy News League built around The World From A to Z with Carl Azuz, an unbiased, student-focused news program we watch daily during the extension block.

Students who choose to participate make simple predictions about which news segments might appear week-to-week. Scoring runs automatically through Canva’s AI coding tools, which calculate points, update a live leaderboard, and create a weekly recap. It adds a playful, strategy-based twist to our existing news routine without adding extra work or pressure for students.

Both my classroom and Mr. Ehalt’s are part of the same league, and the first live scoring session today was a big success. The students who opted in were pretty engaged with this extra layer built in.

A great way to make current events interactive, meaningful, and fun!

11/06/2025

Students have been exploring the Stone Age and this week our classroom turned into a prehistoric cave for a digital escape room challenge!

After learning about Paleolithic cave art, students worked together to “break out” by solving clues hidden among ancient drawings and artifacts. They absolutely loved the challenge and showed some grit in plugging away at it.

10/25/2025

This week we’ve segued into the Stone Age by learning about a 5,000 year old ice mummy known as Ötzi. We’ve learned about his discovery, how archaeologists and scientists have studied Ötzi and his artifacts, what we can learn about the Stone Age through him, and how to construct a hypothesis as to how he died based on the archeological evidence.

Today we did a “brain dump” to recall key facts about Ötzi, and then everyone began writing a formal claim as to how they think he died, and what evidence they can cite to support their hypothesis. First draft was done today, I’ll be taking a look at them over the weekend, and everyone will have time Monday to polish it up for a final draft.