Teach Like a Pirate - Part 6 - Final Post

Where do I start?

The fear of reading a book like Teach Like a Pirate is that it makes teaching appear to be so difficult and we may not be sure where to begin. Burgess concludes the book with five reasons many teachers do not become great. These are five reasons we don’t jump in and try to become more engaging. Here they are:

1. The Fear of Failure

This self-defeating attitude and lack of self-confidence destroys all forward progress. You have to try, struggle and fail before you can achieve and become great. Life isn't 100% or nothing! Burgess discuss how Butler University, a small NCAA basketball program made it to the championships two years in a row. Making it there once would have been one thing, but twice? And twice in a row? Yet because they lost both games, some might have viewed this as failure. NO! They were a tiny school who had no business getting as far as they did, but with hard work they got there. That is a huge success despite not winning the final championship game. Similarly, some called the Buffalo Bills failures after losing 4 straight Super Bowl games. True, they didn’t win it all, but they made it to the biggest platform in the world, four years in a row. Perhaps this is one way sports could teach us the wrong ideals and goals.  Similarly with learning and teaching, it is not 100% or nothing. It is about slow, gradual growth. As hall of fame basketball coach John Wooden is quoted as saying, “success is peace of mind, which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to do your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming.” 

2. Believing You Have to Figure It All Out Before You Begin

Nobody has it all figured out. Teachers have to develop the ability to take leaps of faith. We have to keep trying new things and they are not all going to work, certainly not the first time. The cost of failure is far less than the cost of standing still and losing out on all the progress you could have made. Burgess makes the point, often discussed in Jewish religious theology, that Teaching is like being on a steep mountain. If you stand still, not only will you not reach the summit, but you will actually fall and lose ground. Unless you are constantly climbing and striving to move forward, you are sliding backwards. My Rabbis use to give the analogy of climbing up the down escalator. The only way to do it is to keep climbing upwards. They would say if you are not constantly growing in your relationship with G-d and in you religious practice, you are going to be falling.

3. Perfectionism

Some people don’t want to do anything until they get it down perfectly. This can be paralyzing as most of us are not perfect and so we will never try something new. Burgess makes the point that it is far more important to be prolific that perfect.

4. Lack of Focus

Time is our most precious commodity and we often fill it with the less important things in life. Subconsciously, we know if we keep ourselves busy and over scheduled, we won’t have to to the greater work we should be doing. Stephen Covey describes this as putting your big rocks (priorities) in your jar of life first. Learn to yes to the significant projects and no to the things that diminish you time and energy towards fulfilling your major purpose.

5. Fear of Criticism or Ridicule

You can fear criticism all you want, but it will still come your way. If you are trying to do new and innovative things, you will make mistakes along the way and some people will be looking at the mistakes. Ignore them! You cannot make everyone happy, so stick to your main goals and keep moving forward.

I hope you have enjoyed this series on Teach Like a Pirate. You should follow Dave on Twitter @burgessdave and email him at outrageousteaching@gmail.com with questions. Visit his website at http://daveburgess.com for more resources.

Links to Interesting Articles:

1. How to Conference Well with Student Writers
2. 5 Utterly Fascinating History Education Resources

3. 5 Ways Digital Badging Can Improve PD

4. 10 Articles Worth Reading

Links to Interesting Web Tools:

1. Alice Keeler - The Google Apps Queen
2. 40 Ways to Use Google Apps in School
3. 28 Ways Google Add-Ons Can Help Teachers

Quote of the Day:

1. "They may forget what you said but they will never forget how you made them feel." -- Carol Buchner 
2. “Good teaching is more a giving of right questions than a giving of right answers.” -- Josef Albers