This book was inspirational, makes me want to listen to kids, change the way I teach, and make learning exciting! Wow.. that’s pretty impressive for just one read, right? Combined with reading Teach Like a Pirate last week, it seems like I am doing everything wrong! No, I take that back. I feel like I am doing everything “average” and can take some amazing steps to make my classroom not just good, but GREAT!
Have you ever felt like you aren’t “normal” sometimes? As Minor describes “not normal” he refers to school as a dystopia. He compares the power in people of how our world looked like 100 years ago. We need a change, right? Yes. We need to begin to listen to our students and understanding what they need in order to succeed. We need to listen to what is important to them, what they are telling us, what maybe they aren’t telling us, and making time to share with one another. He says how he really listens to kids, “So much work goes into listening. It does not start at the site of the conversation. It starts when you work toward creating the context for rich dialogue to happen. You need to create and maintain the kind of community that will help kids feel safe enough to be honest with you”. One of the most rewarding parts of his book is when he explains that we need to connect what we are teaching the kids to why they would use this in the outside world. They need to understand that what they are learning is valuable and we aren’t just doing it “because we have to”. A powerful quote stated, “...I want to build a bridge for children- a bridge between what we are doing in class and we the lives that they lead outside of class. I want to be able to show kids how each skill I teach in class makes life right now better outside of class”. Another strong point Minor explains is that the teacher/student relationship isn’t what it should be. Teachers are aren’t talking about KIDS anymore, we are more just teaching and worrying about what is on the test, what our teacher manuals say, or what is required of us by the standards. “The ability to listen will not make teaching easier. It will not take the painful parts away, but listening can give us our children back.” There is so much “extra” going on in the world of education. We are worried about PLCs, IEPs, meeting goals, curriculum, standards, funding, schedules, and SO much more. We are guilty of worrying what is going on the “outside” of our classroom, and not what is going on with our own students sitting in the desks in front of us. Minor explains that we need to be ourselves and just be “people”. If we can be people together, and know that we are all in this together, life will be so much easier. Teachers naturally have the want to be the best. So when we have our students take standardized tests and see that they don't succeed, we immediately think “we did something wrong” or “we didn’t teach them what we should’ve”. We have to get rid of those thoughts and understand that students aren’t just data points. We are not superheroes who can make each student score 100% on their MCAs. We have the superpower of “listening”. He explains that we need to take a step back and listen to the kids. We should open our ears & hearts to way they need in order to be successful. The final part of his book “Do your Homework and then Go for it” explains why it is important why change needs to happen. He also emphasizes how important it is to get others on board and realize the importance and significance for it to happen in schools. WE are the start of the movement of change. We can transform teaching, our team can transform the school, and the school can solve community problems!
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Have you ever read a book, listened to a lecture, or saw a movie that gave you that “I need to change the things that I do” feeling? Well, I had that moment while reading Dave Burgess’ Teach like a Pirate. He makes his readers realize their potential within their classroom and ways teachers can make school one of the most exciting places on earth. Teach like a Pirate is a system of six points P- Passion for education I- Immersion in the moment R- Rapport with your students A- Ask & Analyzing Questions T- Transformation of your expectations E- Enthusiasm to plan and teach He begins his book discussion how that your lesson planning and teaching is like a Venn diagram. It consists of content, methods, and presentation. He explains how that when teachers are giving a lesson they tend to focus too much on the content their are teaching and not enough on the presentation. A big part of Burgess’ message throughout this book is to explain how important engagement is to be a part of our day, lessons, and attitude. Here is a little about each of the pillars of his theory. P Passion True story.. We aren’t always passionate about everything we teach. Burgess makes sure we understand that it’s OK! We need to look into the content we are teaching, our professional passion, and what we are personally passionate about. Content- What subject matter do we love to teach? Find that and make it GREAT! Professional- What made us become a teacher? What are the reasons we are here today? Personal- What are we passionate about outside of our school? Use those passions and bring to your classroom. I Immersion “Be with. Be in the present. Be aware. We need to think of ourselves as part of the classroom. We need to be with our students instead of just watching. This sometimes brings up that we need to stop teaching tests, but start teaching kids. R Rapport Have any of you had a student who is “that student”? The one who is a constant behavior. It is most likely that this student is acting out because he/she has no connections in their life. Dave explains that the students that other teachers had problems with, didn’t have problems in his class. Why? Because he built relationships and rapport with his students. From the first day of school we should be working to build relationships with our students. We should be spending informal time with our students to get to know them on a more personal level. Knowing their likes, dislikes, their home life, their hobbies, etc. A Ask & Analyze Do you ever think about the power of your questions? I didn’t until I read this book. We need to remember that the quality of the question determines the power of the answer. We also need to ask ourselves questions that can take our lessons to the next level. “Where can I take my class to get this lesson better?” Always push to attempt something new, push to new heights! T Transformation Students are hit with so much information throughout the day. How do we make our lesson stand out above the rest? We need to make our lessons remarkable. Being good doesn’t cut it most of the time. We need to be extraordinary! Burgess wants his students to walk into his room and feel like they are entering another world. Can you imagine if we had that mindset each day we went to work? We wanted our students to be WOW’d? I envy his enthusiasm and I strive to be half as good as teacher as him. E Enthusiasm This word is probably the biggest take away from my experience with Burgess’ book. I finished this book and said to myself “I need to have more enthusiasm within my classroom”. He made a great point that this is the only day and time in combination these students will ever have. We need to treat every minute like it is going to make a lasting impact. We can also remember that by “lighting the fire” under these students, they may continue to light the fire of other people around them. “When we model enthusiasm it rubs off on everybody around us; it is absolutely contagious”. This is something I am really going to take with me each day. We think that our students can’t tell when we are having a bad day? They are looking at us for 7 hours a day, they absolutely know when things aren’t right with us. We need to remember they are sponges and what we do each day makes a lasting impression! TED Talk: Dave Burgess
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