Teach Like a Pirate

Bibliography
Burgess, Dave. Teach Like a Pirate. San Diego: Dave Burgess Consulting, 2012. Print.
image from: http://daveburgess.com/teach-like-a-pirate/

My Thoughts
I'M SO EXCITED TO HEAR DAVE IN PERSON! He's coming to our district to start off the year. I'd seen his book circulating on Twitter last summer and had it on my virtual TBR (to be read) pile. Then....I found out he was coming to Stephenville! I ordered his book on my Kindle and started reading!

WOW!

I marked so many nuggets of wisdom/Ah Ha moments in this book. Even though I'm not in the traditional classroom anymore, I was thinking how I can apply what he writes to my life as librarian. I also thought about some of the things I did while in the classroom. Some lessons were "pirate" lessons.

In the introduction, Burgess explains why pirates ("Pirates are daring, adventurous, and willing to set forth into uncharted territories with no guarantee of success...They reject the status quo and refuse to conform to any society that stifles creativity and independence" Loc 98). He also explains that PIRATE is an acronym for his style--then he explains what he means. I'm not going to explain here because if you are a teacher or want to be a teacher, YOU HAVE TO READ THIS BOOK!

I like when he talks about creativity. I'm reframing the words I use to describe myself because of what he writes. Good point (and thinking about it, I am pretty creative. Sometimes I just have to let my brain go).

I really liked when he wrote "We always say we want [students] to be life-long learners, so we must show them what that looks like" (Loc 772).  Something else I marked in the book was "As adults, we don't like to feel that our time and efforts are being wasted; students are no different" (Loc 913). YES! As educators, we need to make the learning relevant--not just teach to a standardized test.

So, again, if you are a teacher or want to be a teacher, YOU HAVE TO READ THIS BOOK!

After Dave came: I'm STILL excited! He was exactly the same as he sounds in the book. There is definitely passion and enthusiasm!

  Oh, and he's much taller than I expected!

author fan girl moment (thanks to my friend Mindy who "made me" take this picture!)