Teach Like a Pirate

During my NYS Conference for Physical Education this past year, I listened to a speaker by the name of Dave Burgess, who is the author of the book Teach Like A Pirate. Dave provided a key note speech unlike any other one that I have ever heard, and one that really made sense to me as an educator. He was full of passion and excitement, and all about teachers getting creative and crazy to get their students involved and passionate about learning. I immediately bought the book after his talk, and read it that summer.

Over my last year of teaching, I have tried to adapt the TLAP (teach like a pirate) mindset when it comes to educating my students. I have dressed up in costumes, turned the gymnasium into a grocery store, and have created some very imaginative experiences for my students in the classroom. Not only do I enjoy stepping out of my comfort zone and having fun, I can tell that my students enjoy the process and are much more engaged in the topics that we are learning.

There are 2 statements that Dave asks the readers in his book that I would in turn like to ask you. They are:

"If students did not have to attend your class, how many of them would show up just because they wanted to?"

and

"How many tickets do you think you could sell for fellow educators to come sit in on one of your lessons?"

I try to ask myself these 2 questions when I am re-visiting one of my lesson plans, trying to put the TLAP spin on it. Dave asks the readers in the book to try starting on the lesson that you absolutely hate to teach. We all have that one subject, topic, material, or segment that we just do not enjoy teaching as an educator. I encourage you to find out what that lesson is for  you, and spice it up! For me it was gymnastics. I never enjoyed the sport when I was going through schooling, and I still to this day do not enjoy teaching in. But, last year I created "Ninja Gymnastics" and introduced a masked ninja character to my students. Students had to perform different "ninja routines" in order to earn different colored belts in class. The unit concluded with a performance in front of the ninja, where the ninja passed out the final belt to each student. Not only was it the most fun I had in my career teaching the topic, but the students absolutely loved it, and I know now I will never go back to teaching it the boring way I started off with.

What is your "Gymnastics" topic? How could you make it not only more fun for the students, but more fun for yourself? Below are a few links to some of Dave's talks as well as some of his books and resources.

Teach Like A Pirate

Ted Talk