The third book in the Dave Burgess Consulting, Inc line up was written by the Pirate Captain AND his wife, Shelley!  This picture book may look like it is meant for children, but it’s not.  This inspirational alphabet book is written by the Captain and his First Mate for educators! Follow along with each letter of the alphabet as Dave and Shelley Burgess encourage educators to embrace the calling that is teaching in P is for Pirate.

One of the treats within the pages of this short book is the Hidden Treasure!  Sure, the treasures lie within the words themselves – the inspiration the reader pulls from the text – but y’all, there is also real pirate treasure hidden in each page!  I love the idea of a treasure hunt in a pirate book!  How cool!

There are several names within the book that are recognizable to anyone who has followed the DBC line up!  It’s little things like that – seeing how far back the connections really go – that get me excited about reading these books in the order they were released.  How cool to see names pop up that are now soundly anchored to DBC! See what I did there?!  Anchor?! *Also, a little squeeee moment for me was seeing my friend Lisa Milstead‘s contribution in the second part of the book!  Within the second part of the book is also contributions from the Pirate Kids – Ashlyn and Hayden when they were 11 and 13, respectively.  Pretty awesome to see a family of Pirates come together in one book!

Even though this is the shortest book currently published by DBC, this book is FULL of quotes that should be put on posters and placed around every single workroom and teacher’s lounge!  Lucky for you… Shelley Burgess worked tirelessly to make this happen for us!  If you sign up for Dave’s email newsletter at the top of his webpage, you will receive these posters in a Google Drive folder!  Notable quotes from P is for Pirate and Teach Like A Pirate are connected to beautiful imagery to create printable posters!  Simply print the ones you want to a color printer and place inspiration everywhere you go!  Voila! a little Pirate makeover for your school!  Thanks, Shelley!

My biggest takeaway from this book originates in the letter “G”!  This is your GPS – “to get where you want to go, you need a precise destination,” says Shelley and Dave.  The challenge issued on this page made me stop in my tracks and carefully consider my answer.  It is written in Teach Like A Pirate, but really resonated with me from this third book.  Are you ready for the challenge?

If your students had to describe their experience in your class using only five words, what would you want those words to be?

Whew… that’s some heavy stuff for a picture book, right?! What words would you WANT students to use?  In reflecting on the space in which I’m the primary adult (I hesitate to call this my space because it really belongs to my students), I want the media center to embody these five words.  These five words are my GPS for the culture that has been created in that space, the experiences my students have every time they step into the doors whether it’s for media class or for a co-learning experience or for independent or small group work, and even the moments they step in just to say hello between classes (and sometimes during classes when they have confiscated the bathroom pass as an opportunity to pop in for a quick visit).  I hope my students would choose these five words, or something synonymous.  In fact… this would be a great reflection activity for my 7th and 8th graders at the beginning of the year, and my 6th graders at the end of the year (as they are learning the ropes, so to speak).  Hmmm… I’m looking forward to their answers in the Fall.  Perhaps I will remember to blog about them.

Anyhow, my five words are as follows (and in no particular order)…

• welcoming
• safe
• exciting
• memorable
• uncommon

I want my students to always feel welcome in the media center.  It is their space.  I want them to own it and feel that they are always invited and welcomed with open arms, whether they come once a year, or once a day.

In the same vein, I want them to feel as though they are safe and accepted there.  I want them to feel physically safe, but also emotionally safe.  I want my students to feel as though they can share their soul without fear of judgment when they step into their media center.  If they have no where else to turn, I want them to know they can always come to me.  They never have to fight their middle school battles alone.  These battles are sometimes bigger than you or I could ever imagine and would break our hearts.

It is my desire that they feel their media center is exciting!  I want them to be pumped up when they see the note on their classroom door saying to report to the media center!  I want students running into the media center rather than running out.  I love when they come in asking with enthusiasm what we’ll be doing that day!

When students reflect on their middle school years, I want them to remember the experiences they had while in the media center.  I want them to have positive memories of literacy, technology, and the thought-provoking activities we did throughout the year.  I want the space and their experiences to be memorable!

Finally, my goal is to be uncommon!  I want students, teacher, parents, administration, and community members to know that something about this media center, these experiences, and this teacher is different from the ordinary.  I want them to wonder why I’m so enthusiastic about teaching students!  I want them to be curious about where I get ideas for experiences for my students.  I want them to see that I am willing to go the extra mile to make learning fun again.  I want to be uncommon!

What are your five words?  How do you want the experiences, the culture, the vibe you create to be described?  How do YOU want to be described?  If you aren’t living up to those five words every. single. day… you should be reflecting and revising.  Share your five words and any other reflections you may have from P is for Pirate using the Flipgrid co-piloted by Andrea Paulakovich (blog and Twitter) and myself (Great idea, Andrea! We are #BetterTogether!). You can access the Flipgrid here and use the passcode DBCSummer to share your five words for the GPS challenge!

Check out the video below from Dave where he issues the GPS challenge to you himself!  You may also use this link!

Book 4 is coming up next!  Prepare to read the first addition to the “___LAP” series!  While Dave taught us to Teach Like A Pirate, Paul Solarz brings us a different perspective in Learn Like A Pirate!  He changes up the acronym to meet the needs of the student, and I’m so excited to share this book with you as I finish up rereading book 4/50! The blog is coming to you very soon!

As an aside… DBC keeps releasing books as #DBC50Summer continues!  The 51st and 52nd book were released this week on Amazon!  I will continue to refer to this insane adventure as #DBC50Summer, even though Tara Martin (the creator of #BookSnaps) has released her book Be Real (#REALedu) and Mandy Ellis‘s book (the second of the LeadLAP guide books) Lead with Literacy has also been released! Wow, two books in ONE week; I’m going to need DBC to slow down just a tad so I can get caught up….. or not!  I can’t wait to read, reflect, implement, and blog about these two additions to the DBC line up!  I plan to continue these blogs no matter what the DBC number and regardless of the season!  I’m so excited that others have joined in the fun and are pushing themselves, committing to reading each of the DBC books and reflecting on them.  I certainly never expected anyone to really read these blogs, much less join in, and it’s so amazing to see others come on board! (Yep – Pirate Pun – boom!) Welcome, new friends!