About

Kingdom of Zaccaria

The Kingdom of Zaccaria was forged and founded by a Zachary Deschamps. In the beginning, Zaccaria was a thriving Republic that was a beacon to the world for civil rights, political freedoms, and democratic keepings, all of which were aligned with the life-views of founding President Deschamps. As time passed, outside forces tried to destroy Zaccaria and its values, forcing the peaceful Zaccarians into military action. Zaccaria's territory expanded under new leaders, slowly eliminating the oustide threats to the peace that Zaccarians came to know and love.

Goeller Cup

The Goeller Cup is the trophy given to the winning French class at the end of the year and the last class remaining in Monsieur Bracken’s Goeller Cup Playoffs. The cup was created in 2019 for the conclusion of the 2018-2019 school year and is named for Mr. Bracken's co-teacher during his teaching internship at Penn State, Madame Brogan Goeller. She was his mentor teacher during his final semester of college teacher training and thus is why this trophy bears the name "Goeller."

The Défi ClassDojo, now known as the French Class League, is a French-class classroom management competition where students earn points that they can use to buy rewards, prizes, and bonus points. It includes the final phase leading to the crowning the Goeller Cup Champions at the end of each school year via the Goeller Cup Playoffs.

Goeller Cup | How does it work?

The exact format can change year-to-year during the "regular season" but the main idea and concept is always the same. During each class, students can earn (or lose) points based on their in-class performance. Students can earn points for various things like participating, working together, staying on task, and using French, just to name a few! A few ways you can lose points are by talking excessively, using your phone, being disrespectful, or using profane language. As a class, students earn points and are ranked in monthly or quarterly competitions. Classes are ranked in the standings before the start of the Goeller Cup Playoffs.

In 2023-2024, the regular season saw a major overhaul that led to the creation of an NFL-style 15-week schedule that would see each class battle in weekly competitions against every other class period 3 times. The class with the most points at the end of the week would win. Wins earned two points in the standings and ties would earn one point. Points in this format were awarded primarily for attendance and grades but Mr. Bracken could award discretionary points for things like class participation, winning classroom games, or using French.

FORMAT & RULES

The "Regular season" is defined as any period during the school year where the French Class League/La Ligue de la classe de françiais (formerly called Défi ClassDojo) is happening outside of the playoff format. It can start as early as August or as late as March. Generally speaking, the regular season is comprised of the first three marking periods/quarters of the school year. Each quarter would be considered its own competition where students in all classes competed generally against everyone else, with the goal being to accumulate the most points during that quarter. At the end of the quarter, the class in first place would receive one victory point in the standings. Classes were ranked first by victory points, then by total accumulated points throughout the regular season to determine their ranking and seed for the playoffs.

In 2022-2023, the format was changed to monthly competitions that started at the beginning of the second semester in January instead of a year-long competition. The points system and ranking system for the playoffs remained the same.

In 2023-2024, the format was again changed to resemble an NFL-style schedule where each class would play a specific opponent each week. The "regular season" was comprised of 15 weeks, allowing for each class to play every class 3 times. These 15 weeks were spaced out over the second and third quarters leading into the playoffs, which start at the beginning of the 4th quarter.

For the first semester of the 2024-2025 school year classes competed in the French Class Olympics where classes earned medals individually which were then used to create wins, losses, and ties in the standings. Starting in January of 2025, the format returned to the NFL-style schedule that was implemented in 2023-2024, just with 5 fewer weeks of competition.

In 2025-2026, the Kingdom of Zaccaria was born and the scoring systems again changed with classes competing as "Houses" and earning activity points for the regular season before eventually being ranked for the 2026 Goeller Cup.

How are the Playoffs different?

The Goeller Cup Playoffs essentially follow the same classroom management tactics as the regular season ("Défi ClassDoJo"). The difference now is that they are ranked and placed into the Bracken Bracket and have a specific class opponent. Against this foe, classes compete in five points categories and must win a majority (3) of the categories to advance to the next round. A class must have the advantage in each category after a set number of class days - typically 5 - to win the category, needing to win at least three categories to avoid elimination. A set of tie-breaking rules exists and is modified at the beginning of each school year as necessary to ensure that there are no dead-even ties in a series.

The five playoff points categories where students compete are:

Overall class points
Average points per student in the class
% of positively awarded points
% of points awarded for speaking/using French
Highest earning student in the class

On occasion, some categories have been modified for specific classes to compete. For example, in the 2022 Goeller Cup Playoffs, Mr. Bracken's study hall class ("Trail Time") was entered into the competition, but since they weren't a French class, their French % points were calculated from a different points category.

New in 2025 are matchups for 3rd and 5th place so that all classes are involved in the playoffs through the entire duration of the 4th quarter.

PLAYOFF TIEBREAKERS

OVERALL CLASS POINTS: If teams are tied in total points, the tie will be broken by the “participation” point percentage. If still tied, then the tie will be broken based on total semester class tardies, with the class having fewer tardies winning the tie-break.
AVERAGE POINTS PER STUDENT: The class with the fewer total students will take the point. If the classes are even in number, the student with the least amount of points between the two classes will cost their team the point. If still tied, the class with the best attendance record during the round will win. If needed to break further, attendance will be checked by month, quarter, semester, and so on to find a winner.
POSITIVE POINTS: The percentage of positive points will be calculated based on the total points given and taken away, down to the smallest digit necessary to find a winner. If the percentage is too difficult to find, the least number of negative points given will break the tie. If two classes are tied at 100%, the tie break will be awarded to the class with the highest grade average for all students in the class.
FRENCH SPEAKING PERCENTAGE: French-speaking point percentage will be calculated by dividing the total number of points for “parler en français” into the total positive points, calculated down to the smallest number needed to break the tie. If still tied with the same percentage of points for using French, the next step will be to take the total number of points awarded for speaking/using French. If that number is tied, the class with the best lowest score on their most recent summative grade will earn their team a victory in this category.
HIGHEST-EARNING STUDENT: If two students in different classes are tied, the tiebreak shall be based on the number of students with the highest point (ex. 2 students with 29 points versus 1 student with 29 points). If there are an equal number of students tied for first, the tiebreak will then be based on the second-highest earning student(s) then third, fourth, fifth, and so on.

Updated for the 2025 Goeller Cup Playoffs

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