Three Takeaways from Teach Like A Pirate

Teaching is a great job! The rewards of teaching are plentiful! One of the great rewards of teaching is summer. I know what you're thinking, "Here's another teacher bragging about having summers off." Let me assure you, that is NOT where I am going! I love summers because they give me a chance to step back, re-evaluate, study, and improve my craft. Can you imagine if all careers gave workers a small break to catch their breath, re-evaluate what they're doing, and give them a chance to seek more training? Can you imagine how much more productive workers would be when they got back from their "break?"

My son Blain driving the boat with my cowboy hero uncle.

This summer I am taking part in a Summer Learning Series (#SummerLS) put on by Todd Nesloney (@TechNinjaTodd). Mr. Nesloney is entering his first year as a principal in Texas. The learning series was intended to be a voluntary challenge for Mr. Nesloney's new staff. However, it has transformed to a learning challenge with over 1700 teachers from 13 different countries participating! Each week throughout the summer, Mr. Nesloney sends out a challenge, and participants work during the week to complete the challenge and report back their results. A few weeks back, one of the challenges was to read Teach Like A Pirate by Dave Burgess (@burgessdave). By a stroke of luck, some leaders in my district were doing a book study on the Teach Like A Pirate book, and my Assistant Superintendent gave me a copy of the book to borrow. How lucky am I to work for a district who strives to be on the cutting edge of education, and a district who is always willing to help teachers?!?!

Now here's a treasure worthy of a pirate's quest!

From the opening page of Teach Like A Pirate, I was hooked! I learned so much from the book, and was re-inspired by Dave Burgess's energy! I can hardly wait for students to come back to my classroom! Here are my three take-aways from Teach Like A Pirate.

The first thing that I learned from Teach Like A Pirate is that I am lacking in passion and enthusiasm. Now, don't get me wrong, I have a great deal of passion for math and learning! However, I've been holding back. I haven't been very enthusiastic, and I haven't let that passion shine. I've been too shameful. I've thought, "What if my students think I'm a weirdo? What would my colleagues think if I let all my enthusiasm loose?" Dave has helped me realize that my students' futures are too important to hold back my passion and enthusiasm! I think Garth Brooks said it best when he said, "I'M SHAMELESS!" Who cares if my students think I'm crazy? I am crazy! Who cares if my colleagues hold up their nose? When it comes down to it, I think they would want their own children in my Algebra class! I need to be shameless when it comes to using my passion and enthusiasm in my classroom.

The second thing I took from Dave's book is the idea of immersion. Dave's idea of immersion is to completely give yourself up to the moment and fully be with your students. I would love to say that I am fully immersed in my classroom everyday, but I would be lying. Too often I get caught up in checking my e-mail, grading papers, or letting my mind wander. How can I expect to keep my students' full attention in class when there are times I can't even keep my own full attention on class! My students deserve my full immersion in class, and I appreciate Dave calling me out on that point.

My final take-away from Teach Like A Pirate is to not be ashamed of thinking of my classroom as a place of edutainment. I have heard teachers say, "I am paid to educate these children, and not to entertain our students." I have also heard teachers in my department say, "Math class is not supposed to be fun." I have always disagreed with those statements, but hearing those comments put a seed of doubt in my head. In his book, Dave helped me realize that I don't have to apologize for making math class fun or finding creative ways to entertain my students. In fact, separating education and fun is dangerous! When I observe my son learning, it is always while he is having fun. He learns through play; he learns through games; he learns while doing things he enjoys. Although my students are a bit older, they learn though the same processes. Along with helping me come to terms with being an edutainer, I loved the way Dave wrote about creativity. He talked about how creativity is developed through hard work (I love the growth mindset undertones). I really appreciated the advice about how to create a system to capture ideas. I am going to use my iPhone and iPad to help me capture ideas as they come to me!

I am very grateful for the opportunity to step away from the every day hustle and bustle of the classroom, and re-calibrate my classroom GPS over the summer. The summer is a great time time to examine the desired destination of your classroom and program your GPS to get you to that desired location. Teach Like A Pirate has helped me set my GPS, and I believe the payoff will be less time stopping to ask for directions once we hit the road this fall!