Teach Like a Pirate

My principal loaned me his copy of Dave Burgess's Teach Like a PIRATE!  Not only did Mr. Zutz have rave reviews, but he also included them in his first ever blog post.

So when it came to me, I thought I'd journal my responses to the book.  That's what you will find below.

Let me state right now, I read a ton of education and leadership and teaching books every year.  Teach Like a PiIRATE! is one of the best.  What I love about it is that Burgess includes examples of ways to make your class more engaging and interesting.

In the intro the author confesses that this is his “inspirational manifesto.”  What would we write if we all had to devise an inspirational manifesto?  Maybe that’s one reason all teachers should blog.

And this may sound arrogant or mean but if you can’t come up with an inspirational manifesto, find another line of work.  Please.

Part 1 - Teach Like a PIRATE!

Passion -

Burgess opens with a topic near and dear to my heart: passion.  But he has a disclaimer right away: you don’t have to be passionate about everything you teach. Or everything teacher related.

And I have to admit - sometimes it’s hard to get passionate or fired up about having to go to yet another meeting or try to orientate yourself to yet another grading program or - Lord help us - map curriculum.

Burgess breaks passion down into three separate areas:

1.  Content Passion

He asks the question, Within your subject matter, what are you passionate about teaching?  This one is easy: writing.  I am passionate about helping my students develop (if not discover) their voices, then help them to organize their thoughts, and eventually skillfully analyze complex issues through their own experiences.

I’m also passionate (hey, he didn’t say there could just be one thing we’re passionate about), helping students become active learners and thinkers.  I love to do this through the texts we read.  I’m constantly trying to help prepare them to not only be successful in college but to also become linchpins after college.

2.  Professional Passion

Within your profession, but not specific to your subject matter, what are you passionate about?

Oh boy! I could spend all day here: education reform and policy (teacher evaluation, tenure, liberal arts education, helping students find their elements and discover their whys, high stakes testing, student engagement, using technology effectively, classroom management, learning theory . . .)

Burgess states “on all of those days when you don’t have passion for your content, you must consciously make the decision to focus on your professional passion.”

One of my professional goals is to model what it means to be in one’s element.  Teaching is what I do; it’s who I am.  It challenges me and puts me in a zone where great things happen - not just in school but in my life too.  I am a different (happier) person because of my profession.  I have found that “sweet spot” where what I love intersects with what I’m actually good at.  Being in this sweet spot is incredible. It has opened up opportunities that I never thought possible.  In fact, I am experiencing one tonight.  I have the opportunity to speak at a community forum in Warren to parents and community members about social media.  That came about because the person saw my technology classes on the NWSC website, which I was able to do because I presented to staff members several years ago about using technology in class.  I was able to do that because of how I push myself to engage my students through technology in my classes.  I do that because of my passion and love for teaching.  It’s all cyclical and that’s what it’s like being in your element.

But modeling it is only a small step. I need to push students to find their passions and to live their elements.  This is where helping students discover their ‘why’s’ comes in.  I’m stealing this concept from Simon Sinek.  But successful people and businesses and organizations start with Why (it’s their core belief or their mission or their cause).  Then they focus on the How (how they will go about achieving their cause or mission).  Eventually they end up with the What (the result of their work).  I want my students to view their world and their work this way.

I like what Burgess states: “Professional passion is an absolute treasure chest filled with everything we need to steadfastly refuse to enter the classroom with anything less than a burning hot passion for the awesome job and responsibility that lies before us.”

3.  Personal Passion

Completely outside of your profession, what are you passionate about?

Burgess argues that the key to keeping passion alive in teaching is to bring your personal passion into the classroom.

And he’s right.  If you read my bio on social media (twitter, Facebook, blogger, LinkedIn, and a number of other places), the first thing you will see is that I’m married to an amazing woman and I am a father of four amazing kids.  I bring examples of my family life into lessons to drive home points all the time.  Or sometimes just to get the kids to laugh.

Another personal passion of mine is creativity and art.  Thus, I have Liechtenstein's and Rothko's on my classroom walls and I push the students to find new ways to not only express themselves but to deliver content.

Immersion -

The next chapter is dedicated to the concept of “immersion.”  Burgess states how vital it is to totally dive in (thus, immerse) yourself not only with the subject being taught but also with the students.  

Burgess gives an example about his son’s swimming lessons.  He had one instructor who coached him from the side.  Then he had another instructor who was right in the water with him.  Guess who he learned more from?  The “immersed” coach.  And it wasn’t even close.

Burgess states: “It’s far more powerful to “swim” with your students.”  How do we build moments or activities into your lessons to make this possible?

For me, it’s writing.  Whether it’s on this blog or doing the assignment with the students (which doesn’t happen often enough) or through sharing the writing process I go through when trying to get an essay published, I have plenty of chances to “swim” with my students when we write.

But how can I immerse myself in other ways?  I try and model the readings I do.  I try to model being a responsible, intellectually active, life long learner on social media.  But what else?

The problem that limits immersion, Burgess argues (and I agree), is our devotion to standards and “covering” (as opposed to “uncovering”) material.  He writes, “At some point in your career you have to decide if you care more about teaching to tests or teaching kids.  My decision was made a long time ago. I teach kids.”

Amen, amen, amen, amen!

Rapport -

Burgess makes asks a bold question - why do the trouble makers for other teachers become model citizens in his class?  Okay, maybe model citizens is pushing it, but they certainly aren’t trouble makers though!

Why? Because he builds rapport with his kids.  Burgess pours tons of time into making his lessons engaging and in being a showman.  This builds rapport with his kids.  That means they come to class knowing that he isn’t going through a cookie cutter lesson plan that came right along with the text book curriculum materials or something he just got off the internet that morning or doing the same lecture and notes that everyone else in the school is doing.

That’s vital.  And this rapport has to be cemented during the first three days of class.

Here is a quote from what happens on day three: “Every student in your class in those first few days of the semester is evaluating whether or not your room is an emotionally and psychologically safe environment.  They’re wondering if it is worth their time and effort to give school a real shot.”

When I think of it that way, man that changes how I approach class.  With that mindset, how could I walk in to one of the first days and bore them to tears with going over the syllabus.  Or reading a story and answering questions at the end of the chapter (I’m guilty of that one I’m ashamed to admit)?

I love this part from the chapter -

“I do not have a casual, nonchalant attitude about this day.  Make no mistake about it . . . I am selling! . . . By offering a powerfully compelling and engaging argument, I am attempting to fully persuade my students that they will be successful.”  I think too often I’ve stupidly been doing the opposite.  I try to shock and scare and intimidate some students (especially with the novels list for College Comp 1) rather than persuade my students into feeling how successful they can be with hard work.

Ask and Analyze -

In this chapter Burgess gets to the bottom of the issue of creativity.  He particularly attacks these six words: “It’s easy for you.  You’re creative.”

Ha.  What a crock!  First, (and I agree with him here) nothing is easy.  Not given all the trials and errors over the course of one’s career that is poured into refining lessons and practices.  Not given all the time and effort (or all the asking and analyzing to connect the title of the chapter here) put into lessons.  

As for the last two works - “You’re creative.”

Again, a crock.  Burgess argues that it’s all your mindset.  Instead of thinking about what pre-packaged evaluation or guide to assign with a story or chapter, think about how you can tailor the story or chapter to the student’s lives and experiences.  Let that guide your development of an evaluation tool instead of relying on some “canned” evaluation.

Transformation -

How can we be radically different from “school” and by “school” we mean that which “is filled with monotony, drudgery, and soul-killing suckiness.”  Burgess states “There are really two possibilities; either your class can be a reprieve from all of that or it can be a contributing factor.”

Wow.  If that doesn’t scare you, I know which realm your class falls in.

It’s easy to say that this was my favorite chapter.  First, because Burgess rips me off!  Actually, what I mean by that is he takes one of my favorite ideas and uses it to transform his class room.

For the past two years now I ask myself this question on my way to school: “if students had to go to school, but they could go to whatever class they felt the most inspired in, engaged in, and felt that what they said really mattered, would anyone show up to room 205.”  I like to think that there’d be some kids when I open the door.  Yet, there might be some classes totally devoid of students!  If that’s the case, why?  I would argue that the rapport is neither there nor is there any real transformation going on (the teacher is firmly entrenched in the soul-killing suckiness of school).

Burgess has the same idea when he asks the question “If your students didn’t have to be there, would you be teaching an empty room?”

He also asks “Do you have any lessons you could sell tickets for?”

I also interpreted this question in terms of other teachers or parents paying to sit in on and see a show, but Burgess focuses on kids.  Do you so engage the kids that - if they had to - they’d pay to attend.

That is a very interesting idea!  And what a challenge!

One of my favorite concepts covered here is called “Positioning and Reframing.”  Here Burgess  argues that we have to transform how we position and present our content.  In a flat, media saturated world, we can’t expect students to show up just because they should be there (like every generation prior to the millennials did) and soak up the knowledge presented to them.  There are just too many cool things outside of school competing for their attention.  

So Burgess challenges us to reframe our lessons and content.  How can I reframe “Young Goodman Brown,” not as a classic “must-read” for students, but how can I reframe it to connect and interest them?  How can I reframe the College Comp research paper other than “You’ll have to write these all the time in college”?

And just taking the “it might not be pleasant but it’s good for you” approach doesn’t cut it.  I love this passage: “It’s easy to see why so many teachers use what I call ‘the medicine approach’ [to presenting information].  They say, ‘I know this stuff is hard but you have to bear with me and hang in there because it’s on the test.’ ‘I know this is rough going and not exactly fun but if you don’t learn this stuff you can’t be successful at the next level.’ Talk about piss-poor motivation.”

Amen, amen, amen, amen!

And finally think of this before you assign busy work to your students -

“As adults, we don’t like to feel that our time and efforts are being wasted; students are no different.”

Again, that is a great challenge every time I walk in to 205.

Enthusiasm -

This, Burgess argues, is so vital.  He states that if you take nothing away from his book, at least rekindle your enthusiasm for your classes.  If you do just that, you’ll be making a greater impact in the lives of your students. And unlike passion (which is genuine and either there or sorely lacking) you can at least fake enthusiasm if you have to.

Part 2 - Crafting Engaging Lessons

The Third Circle -

For me this is the really vital part of the book.  For unlike many teacher texts that just spout theory, Burgess actually gets down to the nitty gritty and focuses on how to build engaging lessons.

I love this point about lesson plans: “It doesn’t matter how much material you teach, it only matters how much is received.”  That line reminds me of an article by Alfie Kohn that focuses on the issue of “I taught the lesson, but the students failed to learn it.”  Kohn, of course, argues that then you didn’t actually ‘teach’ anything!

The most vital thing that I took away from this chapter was how to transition from one lesson to another.

My transitions suck.  They aren’t seamless at all.  For example - in College Comp I when focusing on description, I like to show Dali's The Persistence of Memory up on the projector and have students describe it in as much detail as possible.  It’s a cool lesson and I love seeing what the kids ‘see’ in the painting.  I love showing them how Dali manipulates their views through objects and the use of black space.  I love revealing to them what is in the middle of the painting.  I love hearing them tell me how they described the painting.  I love using that as a springboard for analyzing the different ways we can go about describing something (order of importance, clockwise, left to right, top to bottom, randomly, and so on).

Yet, how do I structure this lesson?

I wait until every is in class and seated and I’ve taken attendance.  Then I hook up the projector and find the image on my desktop.  That’s time wasted.  Then I tell them to take out their tablets and describe what they see (inevitably having to locate a spare pencil or two while I do this).  More time wasted.  

Why not limit the transitions and have the projector fired up with the image up when kids walk in?  Why not tell them write away to describe what they see in as much detail as possible?

Then while that is happening I can take attendance and all the other prep work necessary.

My transitions suck.  I need to work on them!

A Crash Course in Presentational Hooks -

Burgess lays out different ideas for hooking kids into your lessons.  He examines several ares to engage students.  I love this paragraph

Much of your success as an educator has to do with your attitude towards reaching and toward kids. The rest of your success is based on your willingness to relentlessly search for what engages students in the classroom and then having the guts to do it.

Here are the specific hooks to grab students

“I Like to Move it, Move it”

How can we get kids up out of their seats or at least re-locate them?

One thing I’m going to try and use this for is when we read “Young Goodman Brown.”  I want to take the kids over to the trails across the dam.  At least reading the story while actually “in the woods” is better than reading it in the classroom.  I may also - depending on my adventure level here - set up different “props” throughout the woods for the class to come across (a serpent snake for example, a pink ribbon, Nordine in a devil’s costume, and so on).  

I could see this working well for “The Lottery” too.  Provided we use enough Nerf balls!

“Long Live the Arts”

In this chapter Burgess analyzes various ways to use art, music, dance, and so on to engage and ‘hook’ kids.  A lot of great resources here.

One thing that I particularly like is that when he finishes a unit he has a day for students to create collaborative, non-linguistic projects to present to the class.  I really like this idea.  I’m going to work this in to a few projects next year.

“What’s In It For Me?”

This chapter focuses on hooking students’ passions and interests into your lessons.  What little I do right or well, I think this is one thing I do well.

One way I get to know my students is to have them complete a 111 Things About Me activity early on in the year.  That way I mine it for hooks and ways in to engage my students.

“All the World is a Stage”

Gulp.  The acting hook.  Not my cup of tea, but I have no doubt that I have students who would really get hooked into a lesson from this.  Time next year to step outside of my comfort zone . . . 

“Stand and Deliver”

This section focuses on the power of public speaking.  Burgess discusses how many times he meets teachers who confess they consider themselves poor public speakers!  Then what are they doing teaching where they are in front of 25 plus kids a day?  

The hook that works best for me here is the storytelling hook.  I get this from my father.  I am a storyteller.  Whether it’s the Barney story, the flying squirrel story, or my stories of my car accidents (yes, unfortunately there is more than one), I can draw students in with an engaging story.  

“Advanced Tactics”

My favorite ‘hook’ here is The Mission Impossible Hook.  I like potential of this hook: “Can they be provided a treasure map or sent on a scavenger hunt through your content?”

Of course they can!  When we do To Kill a Mockingbird, I could so easily set up a scavenger hunt (maybe a QR code scavenger hunt) where students go out into the community and find review questions or exercises as if they were exploring Maycomb.

I also like this one: “How can I design my lesson so that students are trying to unravel and solve a mystery?”

I could divide “The Lottery” up into sections and have students try to piece it back together so it makes sense.  I could do this with “The Yellow Wallpaper” too, especially since it’s written in journal entry format.

“Around the Edges”

This section is designed to put the final touches on developing a truly engaging classroom atmosphere.

What kind of review games or activities can we develop?

Burgess shares one where he makes a game of Trench Warfare towards the end of his unit on WW I (a unit I loved to teach in Brit Lit - and yet I never thought of anything like this - WHAT  HAVE I BEEN DOING? HAVE I BEEN SLEEP WALKING THROUGH MY CLASSES ALL THESE YEARS OR WHAT?)

Students can lob “bombs” (I imagine Nerf balls) at the opposing army.  But before firing a bomb, though, they have to answer a review question correctly.  Burgess also offers additional points for provocative death scenes and creative final words.

Now why didn’t I ever think of anything like that???

I know what many of you are thinking: yeah, yeah, yeah.  More of this “entertain the kids rather than teach them.”

And I can see your point.  But here’s the thing you have to ask yourself - are your students learning anything from your traditional “teaching” methods?  Are you doing it because it was how you were taught?  Are you doing it because it feels like you’re really teaching?  Are you doing it because you like having control?  Are you doing it because it’s easy?

I would posit that students (just like adults) learn better when entertained or engaged.  Just look at yourself during professional development days.  When the speaker or presenter breaks out the old school overhead or reads from their Power Point word for word, do you tune out?

Why should our kids be any different?

I love these lines from the book: “We need risk-takers, outside-the-box thinkers, and entrepreneurs; our school systems do the next generation of leaders a disservice by discouraging these very skills and attitudes. Instead of helping and encouraging them to find and develop their unique strengths, they’re told to shut up, sit down, put the cell phone away, memorize these facts and fill in the bubbles.”

What a crock.

As one of my favorite teachers and ed reformers, Will Richardson, says: “our kids will read the same books we read. They’re going to learn the same things we did.  AND THEY’RE GOING TO FORGET THE SAME THINGS WE DID!”

Something has to change.

Part 3 - Building a Better Pirate

Burgess starts this final section off with what he calls “The Awkward Question” - “Do you want to be great?”

This is where his earlier concepts of passion and enthusiasm come in because how much more will we get paid for our passion and enthusiasm?

Zero.

But we owe it to the future generations to do it.  If we do that, I know we can create a classroom atmosphere where - and I’m living proof of this - a Monday is never a bad day.

I love this line - “How could anyone be fired up about creating a lukewarm classroom environment where kids punch the clock, mostly behave, and then file out the door to the next class?”

Why would anyone settle for that?

And it isn’t even that hard to make an impact.

On Saturday Kristie and I went with one of her co-workers to see a band play.  As the evening wore on, I ran into several former students.  Two I asked to come in and speak to my class.  They both lit up and said they’d love to and that it would be an honor.  Now they have been out of school nearly ten years, but they still lit up when I asked them!  How awesome is that.  There is no doubt I made an impact on their lives and they want to give back.

Another former student stopped by our table to talk.  I asked her if she remembered writing two essays from my Composition class 8 years ago.  She said yes.  She even knew the titles of the papers and the exact assignments she wrote them for!  “I remember the epiphany paper on Logan,” she said.  I remembered the title but I forgot which assignment it was!  Don’t tell me we can’t make impacts on kids’ lives.

The essay was about the death of her childhood friend and how her mother broke the news to her.  The essay focused on her ‘epiphany’ that she’d never get to see him again or play with him.  And as she was talking about it, she began to tear up!  

Again, don’t tell me we can’t make an impact on the lives of kids.

Likewise, even the kids that drove us nuts can amaze us.

I ran into another student who was in a class I taught my first year.  He drove me nuts.  He was in my last hour class that year.  I still believe that class to be the worst class I ever have had in 16 years.  I dreaded it every day.  They made me dread every Monday of my first year (oh, how I would love to have a crack at that class again with the knowledge and skills I have now!).

I asked this student how he was doing and that I saw he was back in town (we’re friends on Facebook).  He talked about going back to school and how they wanted to move back to TRF because - and I am quoting this word for word: “The school system is second to none!”

I just about fell over.

Then - and he is the first student to ever do this to me - he handed me his business card!

I looked at it and smiled.  Then I thought, “If you would have told me 15 years ago when that horrible class this student was in was coming to an end my first year of teaching, that he would be the first former student of mine to hand me a professional business card, I’d never would have believed it.”

Yet, it’s in my wallet now.  And I will always treasure it.

Alright. I’ve rambled for eleven pages now.

If you care about your students and becoming a more engaging teacher, find a copy of this book.  It’ll change your life and rock your world!

Aarrggghhhhh!

Follow the author on twitter at @burgessdave .

You can also use the hashtag #tlap to see more conversations and tweets about his book.