Classroom Cribs: Mr. Caselli

Find out how a CB English Teacher turned the old CB Theatre into a classroom of learning and fun.

Teacher Mr. Tony Caselli ’97 already has a solid reputation for being one of the coolest teachers here at Christian Brothers, winning the hearts of hundreds with his winning smile and his friendly face.

Many people don’t know, however, that Mr. Caselli is the proud owner of one of the coolest classrooms here at CB.

Room 707 wasn’t always the amazing humble abode it is now, as two years ago the room did not even exist.

When the English instructor was assigned room 707 over the summer, he knew he had a lot of work to make his room the place to be at the place to be.

“This used to be backstage to the old CB theater, so there was no way to have any windows,” he says.”I knew I had to come up with something To avoid just having just a bunch of white space.”

While he wasn’t always sure of what he wanted to do, he knew he had to bring life and color into his room.

“When I was younger I used to have a Fathead (Wall Sticker) of Homer Simpson, and so I went to their website originally looking for fake windows.”recalls Mr. Caselli. “In browsing through the site, I came across the scrabble letters and I thought it was perfect for an English Class.

Because the letters didn’t come with a board, the CB alum was faced with the task of creating his own.

“We can’t do anything permanent to the walls, so the board is all masking tape, which I then painted the tape with — It’s not a perfect grid, but that’s alright,” he says of his creation.

“I have four sets of Juniors, and they all play against each other, and whichever class wins doesn’t have to take one of the vocab quizzes, and it’s a lot of fun.”

“The book collection has just been amassing for a while, but I like the idea of having library that the kids can borrow from if they want to. It’s a very varied library… I even have some of my old yearbooks, which are fun for students to look at occasionally.”

Books aren’t the only thing in this room, as Caselli has various action figures throughout his room.

“I have actions figures in a few places, and I used to have a huge collection, but this is pretty much all I have left,” he adds.

“This corner is dedicated to Alice in Wonderland, and there will be more, because it’s my favorite book,” Mr. Caselli says. “My favorite thing is probably my framed Jabberwocky poem, from the author of Alice in Wonderland that I found in an Alice and Wonderland shop over the summer.”

The poem is incredibly unique, as the first stanza is written backwards and has to be put in front of a mirror to fully read it.

Mr. Caselli’s room isn’t invite only, as room 707 is open to anyone who wants to hang out or check out a book.

“Anybody is welcome to come whenever, and if students who aren’t my students want to hang out or borrow a book or look at the Scrabble board, they’re welcome to. It’s a geek paradise.”