Teach Like a PIRATE

Increase Student Engagement, Boost Your Creativity, and Transform Your Life as an Educator

Dave Burgess

• Publisher: Dave Burgess Consulting, Inc.
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9780988217614
• Topic: Éducation
• Subtopic: Développement professionnel

Teach Like a PIRATE is the New York Times' bestselling book that has sparked a worldwide educational revolution. It is part inspirational manifesto that ignites passion for the profession and part practical road map filled with dynamic strategies to dramatically increase student engagement. Translated into multiple languages, its message resonates with educators who want to design outrageously creative lessons and transform school into a life-changing experience for students.

Part I

Teach Like a Pirate!

1

Passion

“Only passions, great passions, can elevate the soul to great things.”

Denis Diderot

A huge secret lies deep in the heart of teachers all over the world. I know, because I am a teacher. You don’t want to talk about it or admit it because you’re fearful of the judgment of your peers. You see, you believe you are the only one who holds this seemingly terrible, ugly secret. It’s like when Betty Friedan, in The Feminine Mystique, wrote that women all over the nation were lying in bed, staring at the ceiling and asking themselves, “Is this all?” They didn’t want to discuss their feelings of emptiness and dissatisfaction with their peers because they thought they were alone and would face scorn and shame. Well, I’m hoping to be the Betty Friedan for you and I’m hoping this book will forever free you of this deep, dark secret that burdens your soul.

Here is the secret: We are not passionate about everything we teach. It’s OK! Let the freedom wash over you. Now that the secret’s out in the open, let’s talk about it.

We know we are supposed to be passionate about teaching. That’s why we feel guilty when that passion simply isn’t there. We go to seminars and conferences where speakers explain why, as teachers, we must bring passion into our work. From the stage, we hear: “If you can’t bring passion into your work then, by God, find new work!” It sounds great! We remember why we became teachers in the first place. We really want to help our students grow and succeed. For a moment, the enthusiastic messages get us excited and pumped up. But then the speakers leave the stage and we are left cold because they never explain how to find and maintain passion for teaching.

You know there are days when you look at the content standard and realize it’s going to be tough to get yourself fired up. What do you do on those days? How can you consistently bring passion into your work as an educator even on the days you’re teaching material you find boring or uninteresting?

I should, perhaps, mention there are rare exceptions…teachers who find everything about the subject they teach exciting. I call them freaks. I have one of them in my history department. He eats, sleeps, breathes, and “dresses” history on a daily basis. His house is like a museum. He is a reenactor in his spare time and has been an extra in numerous historical documentaries and movies. He, and people like him, don’t need this section of the book. Good for them. The rest of us must intentionally find ways to bring passion to our work every day.

To solve this problem, I break passion into three distinct categories: Content Passion, Professional Passion, and Personal Passion. By consciously focusing on identifying, developing, and using all three of these categories, it is absolutely possible to become a powerfully passionate teacher every day of the school year. Take some time to answer the questions listed for each of these categories. To most effectively use this section, I recommend actually writing your answers down so you can refer to them later. At the very least please take the time to mentally complete the exercise before moving on.

Content Passion

Within your subject matter, what are you passionate about teaching? In other words, of all of the topics and standards you teach as part of your curriculum, which are the ones you most enjoy?

I am most passionate about teaching the Civil Rights Movement. I love everything about it, and within that unit there are even areas I am more passionate about than others. For example, I especially love to teach the edgier side of the movement. I don’t need any extra help getting fired up when teaching about Malcolm X or the Black Panther Party. I don’t have to work very hard to energize the room when discussing the ideas of Malcolm X. I enjoy meeting that “energy” head-on to try to open the minds of my students. I also love to teach about the resistance to slavery. And the counterculture of the sixties…no problem! My students love hearing the music from that time period that I use to help deliver the content.

On the other hand, I am not passionate about railroads! I understand their historical significance, but I don’t stay up at night in anticipation of teaching about them. I’m also not real excited about the Industrial Revolution. I don’t get too fired up about military history. So what can you and I do on the days where the subject matter doesn’t fall into our content passion? That is where professional passion and personal passion come in.

Professional Passion

Within your profession, but not specific to your subject matter, what are you passionate about? What is it about being an educator that drives you? What ignites a fire inside you?

I’ll give you a hint on this one: Your answer probably consists of the reasons you became a teacher. Too often, as we manage the day-to-day stresses of the job, we fail to reconnect with the reasons we felt called to this sacred and invaluable profession in the first place. This is the all-important “life-changing” category and I invite you take the time to consider and write down your response.

My professional passion sounds like this: I’m passionate about creating lifelong learners. I’m passionate about increasing the self-esteem and self-confidence of my students. I’m passionate about having students leave my class with a larger vision of what is possible for their lives. I enjoy helping students who are apathetic about school get excited about coming to school, even if it is just because of my class. I love developing the creative and innovative spirit of my students. I am passionate about not letting them fall victim to the horrific educational trends that would have us turn children into test-taking automatons who are able to spit out facts and trivia but are unable to speak about anything of significance or meaning. I want to model and inspire a spirit of entrepreneurship and drive for constant self-improvement in all areas of life. I am also passionate about developing engaging presentations for my material.

Frankly, I could fill this book with examples of my professional passion because it is the real reason I became a teacher. Few people go into teaching because of their love for a particular subject. Not many English teachers chose their careers based on an undying passion to teach the effective and correct use of the comma. Math teachers rarely have an unnatural love of pi. I certainly was not drawn to the profession in order to teach railroads. Chances are you, like me, are a teacher because of your professional passion.

Here is the key: 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. This intentionality doesn’t come naturally, at least not at first. That’s why it is crucial to make the commitment to change your perspective and consistently focus on your professional passion. I constantly strive to include my professional passion in every lesson I teach with what I call life-changing lessons (LCLs). LCLs provide me the opportunity to attempt to transform the lives of my students regardless of my particular content standard for the day.

Incorporating an LCL, my true passion in education, also allows me to consistently “bring it.” This focus gives me the juice to light up a classroom no matter what topic I might be teaching that day. For example, when I’m teaching about Malcolm X, there’s a certain amount of factual, historical information I must deliver to my students. But I also have a hidden and larger agenda. I use Malcolm’s life story to show my students the unbelievably incredible ability human beings have to transform their lives. Here was a man whose father was killed, most likely murdered, his mother placed in an institution, and he was raised in the foster care system. He dropped out of school after having his dreams and ambitions crushed by, of all people, a teacher. He eventually got involved with the wrong crowd, was arrested and convicted for breaking and entering, weapons charges, and burglary. While serving a ten-year jail sentence, he completely transformed his life through the power of self-education. He read book after book, took correspondence courses and became a highly educated man. He joined the Nation of Islam, changed his name and eventually became a Muslim minister and the national spokesperson for the Nation. After becoming disillusioned with the Nation of Islam’s leader, taking a trip to Mecca and many other places overseas, he broke away from the organization and transformed his life and message yet again. He disavowed some of his earlier rhetoric and began delivering a new and powerful message that was more inclusive yet maintained his hardline ideology of self-determination and Black Nationalism. Just as he was refining this message and preparing to lead his new organization, he was gunned down while delivering a speech at the Audubon Ballroom. He was thirty-nine years old.

It’s difficult to get to a much lower spot in life than having your father murdered, your mom in a mental institution, dropping out of school, and sitting in prison as a convicted felon. Yet Malcolm chose to rise above those huge, seemingly insurmountable obstacles and became an inspirational leader to thousands. I use Malcolm’s story to show my students that no matter where they start in life, or how low they fall, they can still, through the power of self-education and their own efforts, rise to greatness.

A lesson on Abraham Lincoln becomes a lesson on persistence and overcoming adversity. The story of Rosa Parks shows that a single, ordinary person with strong convictions, and the courage to act on those convictions, can transform history. A D-Day lesson is an opportunity to teach appreciation and gratitude for the sacrifices made by previous generations to secure the liberties that we often take for granted today. Every lesson can include an LCL.

Professional passion can help fill the gaps you might have in content passion in other ways, as well. For example, I mentioned that I am not passionate about railroads. Fortunately for my students, I am passionate about developing engaging presentations for my material. So, although I might not be jazzed about the subject, I can absolutely be inspired and fully engaged in my attempt to present the topic in an entertaining way. I can be passionate about providing an opportunity for my students to develop and exercise their creative talents and abilities. I can be passionate about creating the atmosphere and social dynamic necessary to build rapport and a psychologically safe environment.

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. Tap into it and feel the power surge through your soul!

Personal Passion

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

I’m passionate about magic. I’m passionate about sports, especially basketball and coaching. I’m passionate about my family. I’m passionate about entrepreneurship, marketing, and self-improvement.

To keep your passion for teaching alive, find as many ways as possible to incorporate your personal passions into your work. Whenever I can use magic to demonstrate a point, I absolutely do it. Not only does that help me create a more engaging and therefore memorable lesson, it also helps increase my sense of fulfillment and fun as an educator.

Almost every personal passion can be incorporated into the classroom. For example, are you passionate about art and creativity? Develop lessons that showcase your passion and allow your students to not only experience your unique strengths, skills, and imagination, but also begin to develo...