For those of you who have been following my blog, I spent quite a bit of time in the early part of this school year reviewing the book, “Learn Like a Pirate,” authored by Paul Solarz. I now turn to a partnering book that came out a few years earlier called, “Teach Like a Pirate,” authored by Dave Burgess. The focus of this book is strategies and concepts to help increase student engagement, boost teacher creativity and transform your life as an educator. The next few blog posts will focus on this excellent book.
What is the connection to pirates? Burgess explains that teaching like a pirate has nothing to do with the definition of a pirate, but rather with the spirit of a pirate. Pirates are daring, adventurous and willing to set forth into uncharted territories with no guarantees of success. They refuse to conform to societal norms that might stifle their creativity and independence. They are entrepreneurs who take risks and are willing to travel long and far to find what they value. This is the type of attitude Burgess says we need in education.
The book is divided into three sections: 1. Teach Like a Pirate, 2. Crafting Engaging Lessons, 3. Building a Better Pirate. The next few posts will focus on Part 1 - Teach Like a Pirate, which is divided into six areas: Passion, Immersion, Rapport, Ask and Analyze, Transformation, and Enthusiasm.
1. Passion
Burgess starts with the need for us all to realize that we are not passionate about everything we teach. We know we are supposed to be passionate about teaching, but we have to be realistic that we are not naturally going to be passionate about every subject or lesson we teach and we will also have hard days when we are not passionate about anything. The key is what to do then? What do we do to make ourselves passionate? That is the key. Burgess discusses three types of passion: Content passion, Professional Passion and Personal Passion. If we focus on these three types of passion, we can be passionate in the classroom every day. Even if we don’t feel the passion for the content, we can be passionate about our professional calling or other personal passions. To accomplish this, ask yourself the following questions:
- Within your subject matter, what are you passionate about teaching? In other words, which parts of your curriculum do you enjoy teaching most?
- Within your profession, but not specific to your subject matter, what are you passionate about? What drives you as an educator? Consider why you became a teacher?
The point here is that one those days when you don’t have passion for your content, you must consciously make the decision to focus on your professional passion. This won’t come naturally; you need to work on it.
c. Completely outside of your profession, what are your passionate about? Everyone has personal passions. Burgess is passionate about magic, basketball, coaching, family, marketing and self-improvement. The goal should be to incorporate your personal passions into your teaching as much as possible.
2. Immersion
The secret to being a great teacher is total immersion.This is the ability to completely give yourself up to the moment and fully “be” with your students. You want your students to be able to say about you, “When she is teaching, she isn’t doing anything else.” On the flip side, your students will know it the minute you are distracted and not totally into your lesson.
Burgess contrasts a lifeguard and a swimmer. The lifeguard focuses and watches over the pool carefully. However, a swimmer is totally immersed and one with the water. When you walk into a classroom, one can observe the teacher who is sitting above the action, supervising the pool deck; he is like the lifeguard. Other teachers act like swimmers, actively part of the lesson and part of the action.
3. Rapport
In the ancient Chinese military book called “The Art of War,” Sun Tzu writes, “one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the most skillful. Subduing the other’s military without battle is the most skillful.” Teachers can learn a lot from this quote in that ultimately we don’t want to develop techniques to win behaviour management battles with our students, we want to develop techniques that allow us to avoid the battles altogether.
Burgess discusses why some of the biggest trouble makers in school could also be the best students in his class. Thee key is engagement; engaged students are rarely a behaviour problem. Misbehaviour usually indicates boredom, overwhelmed or lack of connection to the material being covered. The second half of this book will discuss strategies to increase student engagement, but we first have to build up a rapport with the students. You need to find out what the students find engaging. One of the biggest secrets for teachers is to spend less time trying to get students interested in what you are presenting and more time making connections betters what you are presenting and what they are already interested in.
We need to find out what hobbies our students have? What music do they listen to? What movies or TV shows do they watch? What sports they play and follow. This kind of information can be used as great hooks to bring the students into the learning.
Burgess also suggests spending informal time with your students. Use the time between classes, before and after school, lunch and recess to connect with your students. Stop and talk to your students in the hallway. Try to attend their extra curricular activities and sports games. Building rapport is all about interacting with your students as fellow human beings, not just as subordinates. Kids can tell the difference between teachers who only seem to care about them when they are sitting in the classroom, and those whoa see past the “student” to the unique person who resides inside.
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Quote of the Day:
1. A Key to Growing as a Teacher...
2. The Essence of Teaching is...
3. The Dream Begins...
1. A Key to Growing as a Teacher...
2. The Essence of Teaching is...
3. The Dream Begins...
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