Teach Like a Pirate Chapter 13-Stand and Deliver

Ah- Public Speaking. VOMIT. Dave starts this chapter by asking if you consider yourself a public speaker. I give a resounding NO. And I have to respectfully disagree that teachers are public speakers. SOME of us are public speakers in front of children only. I can teach, sing, dance, and act like a complete crazy in front of my kids. Put me in a room full of 25 adults and I.AM.DUNZO. It is all over. I panic, shake, stutter, and freak right out. BUT this past year, I sure got myself right up on stage for a TCAP pep rally with a bunch of other teachers and did all kinds of silly things. And even helped my students perform Test Me Maybe. This is something I NEVER would have done a couple years ago. So at least I am getting better. But back to the chapter and hooks...

Storytelling Hook-How can you hook students with a story? My kids are always interested in my personal life. My daughter to be more specific. If I start a lesson with a story about Payton, BAM I have them hooked.  Get really into it with dramatics, acting, facial expressions and they are all in.

Swimming with Sharks Hook-How can I enter the audience and participate in the activity? Get IN the lesson. Don't just give it, DO it. BE it.

Taboo Hook-How can I position my topic so it seems like a little known secret? Kids LOVE secrets. One year I decided to start the year by telling my kids a secret. You wanna know the secret? Come in reallll close. Ready? "You are the BEST and SMARTEST class in the entire school. BUT we can't go around telling people that. So we just have to SHOW them." Yep. They ate it up. Any time I worried about behavior (going to other classes, substitutes, etc) I just said, "And don't forget about the [whisper] SECRET" and they loved it! And believe me when I say, they did NOT tell a single peer about that secret. Another student overheard me say the shh it's our secret line and asked what it was and my kids would NOT tell. LOVE kids!

Mime Hook- How can I use silence to spark my students' engagement? This works really well during inferring and drawing conclusions. Charades and pictionary type activities would go well here.

Teaser Hook-How can I gain interest by promoting it ahead of time? This one is easy- "You do NOT want to miss this activity tomorrow." "If you thought today was fun, just WAIT until next time." Here's a blog teaser "You do NOT want to miss the announcement Jenn and I are making this week." (This is serious, there really is an announcement coming.)

Backwards Hook- Can I show the end product to help get theme excited about learning what needs to be learned in order to get to the end product? Dave relates this one to CSI. They show you the murder straight from the beginning and then work through the entire episode to get to the actual criminal. I am not sure of a good way to do this one in the class. Any ideas?

Visit the AMAZING Jennifer for today's chapter

 

And the super sweet Lynda (in my exhaustion while typing this 2 weeks ago, I forgot we had TWO amazing hosts this week!)

Teach Like a Pirate Chapter 12- All The World Is a Stage

Let me start by saying I have a love hate relationship with my classroom. Interior designer I am not. And I constantly rearrange furniture. But in this chapter, Dave is telling you how to use your room as a stage for hooks. Here are the ones he teaches about in this chapter.

Interior Design Hook- How can you change your room to create the most fascinating atmosphere for your lesson? I have not often changed the look of my entire class just for a lesson. Honestly, I think that this would work better for a departmentalized teacher who teaches one subject multiple times a day. This way you are getting to use that rearranged atmosphere a few times a day. For me, I would have to rearrange and then undo it to move onto the next lesson or work around it. And sometimes, with a bunch of 8 and 9 year olds, change like that doesn't always work. Could it work for ONE lesson? Yes. But after that lesson, I know my kids would be W.I.L.D wild.

Board Message Hook-What can you project or write on the board to get the students interested in your lesson before it even begins? Sometimes I will project a picture for my next lesson while students are preparing their materials. As soon as one student sees it and starts the buzz, everyone starts asking questions. I use this a lot to get students engaged in their own path of learning. Their questions COULD take us away from my intended lesson but that is half the fun. And if we can't get to the questions that are off the beaten path, we save them for later. The reason I actually started doing this is to get students asking better questions. Instead of just what is that I want them to question specific things. How did that man end up in the water? Why isn't he running away from the flood? Is the house on stilts? (Those are all things kids asked me when viewing different pics that related to wild weather.)

Costume Hook- Is there anything you can wear to enhance your lesson? I haven't done this one much. I want to though. The one time I did it was a sports themed test review and I wore a baseball jersey. The kids bought right into it, which made me realize I need to do this more.

Props Hook- What can I bring in or show students to gain more interest in the lesson? Anything students can hold and pass around or even just see in front of them on the table adds to their interest. You probably do this a lot more than you realize. Instead of just talking about a book, bring it and show it. Display it for students to look at when they have time.

Involved Audience Hook- How can I get the students to be part of the "show"? Keeping students involved keeps them engaged.  I need more work with this one, so if you have any examples of how you do this, please share!

Mystery Bag Hook- How can I engage them by openly hiding something? O.M.G friends THIS is the winner for my class. My kids LOVED anything mystery. We did the mystery box activity a couple times this past year and we did mystery mail 3 or 4 times. Again, it also taught my students how to ask better questions and use clues to make conclusions/infer. If you asked my students what their favorite lesson of the year was, I think these would be pretty high up there.

Stop by and visit our fantastic host Tamera (who happens to love pirates) at

Teach Like a Pirate Chapters 10&11- Long Live the Arts and What's In It For Me?

Oh the arts- certainly NOT my strong suit. But the best thing about kids (at least 3rd graders and under) they don't care how bad you sing or how awful your drawings are. They LOVE it. And even if it is a terrible drawing of an animal that looks like a blob, they will compliment it. And so, I must say that I agree with Dave when he says "Music and art can be incredibly powerful ways to engage our students and enhance our lessons." My kids LOVE to sing. So as bad as I am at it (I mean BAD- hold the windows they might break I am so bad) we will bust out in a grammar or science song any time I can find one!

Here are the types of artistic hooks:

The Picasso Hook- incorporate art- anchor charts, foldables, craftivities- those are all simple ways to incorporate art that doesn't take a lot of time or stress. 

The Mozart Hook- add music to your lessons- sing a song, have the students make up a song, use music for transitions. Jenn does this and I envy her. My kids would be crazy. I don't do that. BUT I do use some Disney music (the Good Morning song from Magic Kingdom rope drop show) to signal that it is time for a morning meeting. We also listen to instrumental music during times when they are working independently. 

The Dance and Drama Hook- acting and dancing. We love to make up dances. I never really incorporated the drama part until the end of last year. Last year when I started implementing fluency time, my kids got kinda bored of the partner skits. Until I told them to use voices and make it fun. THEY took it upon themselves to memorize the lines and come up with some acting to go with it. I was so proud of them! After seeing that, I started incorporating acting things out and writing plays into some of their choices on choice boards. They almost always chose that one!

The Craft Store Hook- WHAT Dave?! Are you giving me permission to go the craft store? Could you alert my husband?! Oh. I supposed craftivities go here. Well regardless. Get your craft on!

Another favorite blogging buddy of mine is hosting this chapter- stop by and visit Faith!

 

Teach Like a Pirate Chapters 8&9- A Crash Course in Presentational Hooks and I Like to Move it Move it

Today we are focusing on two chapters. And it is all about the hook! Dave says "Much of your success as an educator has to do with your attitude towards teaching and towards kids." Well, lucky for me, if you take away all the stress that ISN'T my kids or teaching (all the OTHER stuff), I have a fantastic attitude about those two things. He then goes on to say "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." I would give myself a B- on this one. I am always trying to find ways to engage my kids, but sometimes if the strategies are outside of my normal box, I chicken out. Why? Because I am afraid to fail. But I have to get past that, because as we found out in an earlier chapter- failure is a form of feedback. 

In chapter 8 we find out about the three types of physical hooks: Kinesthetic, People Prop, and Safari. Here is my mini rundown.

Kinesthetic- incorporate some kind of movement. Even simple gestures. Whole Brain Teaching is great for this. In the beginning of the year last year I made up some random gesture for subject and predicate. And until the very last day of school, if I asked my students what a subject or predicate was, they would use their gestures when answering. 

People Prop- Use students as PART of the lesson- props, human graphs, etc.

Safari- How can we get OUT of the classroom for any part of this lesson.

Dave ends the chapter with something very simple, yet thought provoking- "You have freedom to do all sorts of activities outside the confines of your classroom, so get outside!"  I often to try leave our classroom, even if just to do a hallway hunt or task cards in the hall. The kids enjoy it, I enjoy it, and it really is a nice change of pace. But- it is VERY rare that I ever see any other classes outside of their classroom learning.

Stop by and Visit Daina who is hosting these chapters! (Who doesn't love some sticky notes and glitter?!)

Teach Like a Pirate Chapter 7- The Third Circle

Dave says in chapter 7 "When you have crafted an engaging lesson for your material it is like coasting downhill on a perfectly tuned bicycle with two fully inflated tires."  

It is so much easier to go down the hill than up it, and even easier when the tires are the way they are supposed to be (though at this point, I would be lucky to stay ON the bike- it has been so long since I rode one). In order to coast downhill, following the ideas in chapter 1-6 are key. Those chapters are like the foundation. But putting it all together- you need to know HOW to create the engaging lessons. 

Sometimes I have some a-ha moments. Where I think, "HEY I could teach this like that and bam we have a winner". Those are the downhill rides. I don't have to work hard to get the kids engaged or wanting to learn. 

Important tips from Dave:

- sell it! You can't do it just at the beginning of the lesson. It has to be maintained the entire time.- Layer your hooks so engagement doesn't wane. After 30 minutes of a lesson, you can't get their attention again by saying "hey remember earlier when I said/did this."

- Nothing is more important that nurturing and building a love of learning.

- Key content (the most important info of the lesson) needs to be delivered at the moment of peak engagement.

- Lose the delays between hooks and delivery. 

- Worry more about lost engagement than lost minutes. 

I could really go on and on about this chapter. If you could see all my highlighting you would be shocked. But I will let you head over to Kim (another sweetheart) and see what she has to say.

Teach Like a Pirate Chapter 6- Enthusiasm

I have appropriately nicked named myself Slackers R Us...because I just can't keep caught up. This post is rather late (since it was supposed to post on Sunday), but better late than never right?

Anyways- today's chapter is all about enthusiasm. And here is my favorite line in the entire chapter...

"I will not allow that which is outside my control to affect my effort and enthusiasm." 

THIS...this is something I need to repeat to myself every single day. It is hard to be enthusiastic when you let all the OTHER stuff affect you. It can really bring you down. I can't count how many times I have had an amazing lesson planned, come out of grade level meeting (which is NEVER good times and happy endings),and bam- lesson enthusiasm is shot. I mean sometimes it is so shot, I shut down for the day. I know it isn't the best thing but I know everyone has been there. You feel so beat down that how can anything you do be worthwhile? Using this book is HOW I am going to make sure that my lessons are worthwhile regardless of all the other stuff. Even if I have to act...

Acting enough can eventually become real, especailly in the classroom. Act like you love teaching something, the lesson eventually gets more exciting for you, and all of a sudden you can't wait to teach it again!

One more thing that stood out to me...

"As a teacher, your days comprise enough positive and negative experiences to either make you feel energized and amazing or beat down and depressed. What you choose to attend to creates your reality." 

I should probably frame this one and hang it on my desk for those grade level meeting misery days.

Read more and join the discussion here on Carmen's blog (really hop over there because she is so sweet!)

And I swear, once I get caught up on some things, I will be hopping to all the posts I have missed. I haven't even read my blogs I follow in a few days. Things have just been a little chaotic here.  

Teach Like a Pirate Chapter 4- Ask and Analyze

Have you failed recently?

In chapter 4 Dave mentions that if you haven't failed in your classroom, you aren't pushing the envelope enough. Safe lessons may get the job done, but you are settling for mediocrity at best. i have taken this one to heart and am going to go out of my comfort zone to try new things in my class next year. Remember in college, when you were student teaching, you would come up with some amazingly creative lessons, and sometimes you failed (I know this can't only be me). But every time a lesson failed, you still left feeling good because the kids were engaged. I remember one of my very first lessons I ever taught- sequencing and how to carve a pumpkin-2nd grade. I thought the lesson was a hugh flop. I even cried. When I met with my professor he could not stop ranting and raving about it. It was a good lesson, and things going wrong doesn't make it a failure. And even if it is, don't we learn from them?

The first thing that stuck with me in this chapter was what Dave calls the myth of the bliding flash of light. Which is basically that there are two types of people in the world- creative and not creative, where the not creative people think the creative people are walking around and are suddenly struck with creative ideas like a blinding flash of light. Confession- I say all the time "I am just not creative" I have been waiting for the flash of light more often than not. Clearly it isn't coming. 

I want to highlight some of the sentences that stuck out with me...

"If you consistently ask questions that lead to creative and outside the box thinking, your mind will provide you with creative and outside the box answers."

"What could I write on my board for this lesson that would spark a conversation or create a buzz even before the bell rings?" (I have to remember to do this because it is really great to see the kidsinvolved in their learning BEFORE you actually teach anything.)

"We will never see {creative inspiration} unless we actively and consistently attempt to create."

"Ideas are great but implementation is the key to results." (THIS is so big for me... when I DO have a good idea, I often don't FULLY implement it because I am worried about time constraints.)

"Create a vision of what you want and define the goals you want to achieve- and then you must start working for them."

Here is my BIG tip- carry a notebook or notepad with you EVERYWHERE. You never know when a good idea will come to you. I have ideas weitten down everywhere- slips of paper, post its, notebooks, in my phone. If you don't write it, you will forget it.

And Dave ended this chapter with the best tip of all... "Don't fall into the trap of thinking time spent developing yourself into a well-rounded person, above and beyond your role as an educator, is wasted or something to feel guilty about. It is essential and will pay dividends in not only your life, but also in your classrom."

As teachers, we could spend 24/7/365 working for our classroom and students and STILL not feel like we are done. We have to remember that it is ok to have fun, relax, and do some things for ourselves. 

To read more and join in the discussion, head over to Kate's blog

And as always

Teach Like a Pirate Chapter 3 Rapport

Are pirates ever late? Because this one is! My goal was to have this post ready to go by this morning. But here it is, 5:30 pm and I am just now typing it up. Having house guests and a 2nd birthday party has done me in! And I am drained... but I am going to give you my quick 2cents (or maybe 20 cents) on this chapter and send you on to our hostess with the mostest. (Yep- I am exhausted friends.. don't mind the quirkiness.) 

Chapter 3 is all about rapport. One of the things I highlighted really stands out for me. Dave says "...one of the big secrets and shortcuts to engagement is to spend less time trying to get students interested in what you are presenting and more time making connections between what you are presenting and what they are already interested in." Well duh right?! But really, how many times are we teachers sitting around thinking, gosh I WISH I could get these kids more engaged... and then spending countless hours coming up with "engaging" activities. When all it really takes is to use what they are interested in, in your lessons.

How do you know what they are interested in? You build a relationship with them and their parents. And you have instant material. One student "R" struggled with reading. Bad. How did I get him interested in reading... bought every footbal book I came across and yes, I even typed out some paragraphs on his favorite player. And- in one of those paragraphs, the words were tough. Tough enough that most of my 3rd graders would have struggled. And he did. But- he didn't give up. He fought through because he wanted to finish. He wanted to read it. And. I was proud. 

Another favorite line from the chapter is "Building rapport is all about interacting with your students as fellow human beings, not just as subordinates." This year, I had the BEST class ever. I mean it. I loved them more than I ever thought I would love a class (and I will honestly be sad to walk into my class in August and not have their faces looking back at me). I truly believe that is because we really worked hard to ALL get to know each other. I know J loves fashion and her mom was having a baby. I know R was really proud of his dog and his mom too was having a baby. I know R and J both loved to play school at home. H knew I loved Disney and she was sure to share stories of her vacation there when she returned. I could go on and on, but what it comes down is that my kids knew that I was not only a teacher, but I was someone they could talk to. (And talk they did... sometimes too much, but not in a bad way.) And I loved that about my bunch of kids. I was in a car accident and the first thing they said to me when I got back was "Are you ok? Was Payton in the car?" because they genuinely cared about me (and each other as well). 

Dave has some amazing first 3 days plans in this chapter... and I sure want to be able to do something similar this year. But I won't go into anymore detail... you can join in the discussion by checking out Jana's blog (where she has some really cute ideas for back to school building rapport)

And as always...

Teach Like a Pirate Chapter 2- Immersion

I am back with a little blurb on Chapter 2. Are you loving this book as much as I did? Chapter 2 was all about Immersion. And it was a short chapter. Dave starts off the chapter saying "You're about to learn the #1, top secret way to become a dramatically better lover!"

Well, while he doesn't exactly teach us that tidbit, he does grab attention doesn't he?

This chapter makes perfect and simple sense- you have to fully BE with your students. Simple enough right? Students can tell when we aren't "all there". I know my students can ALWAYS tell. If I am sick and just not all there, they know within the first 10 minutes of the day. And I know that I am not doing my best if I am not all there, whether it be from being sick or just stressed about something happening at home or otherwise.

I think this man needs to present to the education law makers... especially when he said this... "At some point in your career you have to decide if you care more about teaching to tests or teaching kids.... Don't let the current overemphasis on standardized test scores lead to the loss of the teachable moment." 

To read more insight on this chapter and join in on the discussion, go to Marie's blog...

Teach Like a Pirate Chapter 1- Passion

"Light yourself on fire with enthusiasm and people will come from miles around just to watch you burn." ~Dave Burgess, Teach Like a Pirate

It's time friends!! We are kicking off our Teach Like a Pirate book study today! Have you purchased and started reading your book yet?

Chapter 1 is all about Passion. And my favorite line... 

     "We are not passionate about everything we teach."  Whew! Doesn't it feel good to just admit that?

Dave discusses the three different areas of passion- Content, Professional, and Personal. 

My content passion- my favorite IB unit is our Sharing the Planet unit/conservation. I love reading but struggle with the best ways to teach it. But because I love it, I am always willing to work harder on it. What I hate- rocks/minerals and pretty much most other science. So, what do I do when I have to teach the things I hate?

Move onto my professional passion- My big one is the lightbulb moments. I may not like what I am teaching but I will work my hardest to see the lightbulb moments in my students. And I enjoy hearing my kids say they don't want to go home, they want to stay in third grade, they don't want me to be out, etc because they truly enjoy my class and coming to school. THAT is what teaching is all about. Not the test.

And the last area- personal passion- I don't know of a single student who doesn't want to get all up in your business. The more I incorporate my personal passions into my lessons and class discussions, the more intrigued the children are. If you love being crafty, incorporate arts and crafts into your lessons. My students are always interested in stories about Payton, so any time I can throw her into a lesson, I immediately have their attention. Even just starting a lesson with a simple- "Payton was coloring Easter eggs last night.." bam- I have their attention and all of a sudden we are sequencing and Payton is no longer involved. By adding personal passion into your lessons, it helps YOU to stay engaged and motivated as well.

Utilizing all 3 areas of passion is what is going to get us through the parts of the year that draaaag- you know, post spring break when there are NO.MORE.DAYS.OFF until summer. Passion. It will keep you sane. (Or as sane as a teacher can be post spring break.)

In the introduction to the book, Dave mentions that pirates are "daring, adventurous, and willing to set forth into unchartered territories with no guarantee of success."... They are "willing to travel to the ends of the earth for that which they value." Aren't those the types of characteristics we need to have as teachers? Have you lost that drive? Pick up this book and try to get it back!

Why did you go into teaching? I know it wasn't because you were so excited about THE TEST. I am guessing you went into it to change lives and make a difference. Focus on professional passion, be that teacher that you want to be, and

"Light yourself on fire with passion...and don't worry if it's not a controlled burn." 

For more information and to join in on the discussion from chapter 1, click the button below

Aaargh You a Pirate?

I am so excited to announce this amazing book study with you. My friend Jenn from Rowdy in First Grade and I are cohosting the book study on Teach Like a Pirate. Have you heard of this book before? Read it? It is a really good book. And we have gathered some FANTABULOUS bloggers to join us and lead discussions on each chapter. Each chapter (or set of 2 chapters for some) will have a host (or two) that will post their in depth thoughts about their chapter. Jenn and I will post little blurbs about each chapter, but to get to the really good stuff and the discussion, you will want to head to the blog host for that chapter. Since there are a lot of amazing book studies going on this summer, we tried to make ours last only a month, so there will be posts on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays. Here are the blogs you will want to follow.

Chapter 1- (June 11)

Chapter 2- (June 13)

Chapter 3- (June 16)

Chapter 4- (June 18)

Chapter 5- (June 20)

Chapter 6- (June 23)

Chapter 7- (June 25)

Chapter 8&9- (June 27)

Chapter 10&11- (July 2)

 

Chapter 12- (July 4)

Chapter 13- (July 7)

and

Chapter 14- (July 9)

Chapter 15- (July 11)

Chapter 16- (July 14)

 

Chapter 17- (July 16)

Chapter 18&19-(July 18)

and

If you have read the book or are planning to read the book and want to join in the discussion and posts, we would LOVE to read your thoughts. We are going to have a link up where you can add a link to your posts for each chapter. If you link up, make sure you put your blog name AND which chapter the link will take readers to. This way you can link up multiple times. Make sense?  

So what do you say? Aaargh you a pirate?