#DBC50Summer

#DBC50Summer 1/50: Teach Like A Pirate

/ Alicia Ray / 32 Comments

Let me take you back…

It’s 2014 and I am attending an #edcamp where I meet my friend, Lisa Milstead, a fellow Pirate from my graduate studies at East Carolina University face-to-face for the first time!  She proceeds to tell me about this book that she’s read and is absolutely crazy about; she also has on a pirate bandanna.  After hearing her go on and on about how incredible this book is and how down-to-earth the author is, I figure I’ll order it to read on my Kindle. Then I read it, but have no one to share in my enthusiasm on a day-to-day basis.

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Moving on – it’s March 2015 and I’m at #edcampRSS with some superstars in education. One, in particular, is Sean Gaillard (remember his name, you’ll hear from him again around post 49).  As we sit in a packed classroom sharing stories from this “pirate book”, my Twitter notifications tell me that I have a message from Dave Burgess, the author, who would like to Skype in with us if we can (y’all, I’m not making this up)! After some technical difficulties with Skype, we manage to make something work and get to speak with the Captain himself. I am… (wait for it) …hooked – and still waiting on that purple #tlap shirt, HA!

 

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Let’s move forward a bit to September 2015.  At an #edcamp, I win an autographed copy of Teach Like A Pirate (I rarely win anything)!

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Present day…

I just reread the very first book in the #DBC50 – Teach Like A Pirate by Dave Burgess (website, follow him on Twitter).  This makes at least the 7th or 8th reading of the book since Lisa introduced me to this crazy Pirate World over 4 years ago.

So you may have heard about this Pirate guy, or seen the book cover that looks oddly out of place with its pirate map and treasure among all of the static, boring-looking PD books on the store shelves. Well, in this case, you CAN judge a book by its cover!  The content within this book is just as exceptional as its cover & just as different from the other books surrounding it!  You will not be bored to tears, I can promise you that! Teach Like A Pirate is an inspirational book that will get you fired up to be an educator. Dave reminds us that we are “in the life-changing business” and pushes us to “relentlessly search for what engages students, then have the guts to do it”!  You may wonder what in the world the “pirate” thing is about.  The PIRATE system is embodied in three ways.

  1. It’s about the Spirit of a Pirate, not the dictionary definition!  Pirates are willing to sail into uncharted waters with no guarantees of success.  They take risks and often pave the way for others.
  2. Pirates are known for having hooks.  These hooks are ways to draw your students in and engage them in unconventional ways.
  3. PIRATE is also an acronym.  Each letter stands for something within the PIRATE system (read the book to find out – prepare yourself for the immersion chapter).

This book is about so much more than professional development; it’s also PERSONAL development.  Reading this book helps me understand that it’s not “weird” for me to enjoy my job.  It’s not “strange” to want to get to know my students and their families outside of school.  It’s perfectly acceptable, and encouraged even, to share the story of what my students and I do inside our classroom with the world – both successes and failures!

There are TWO main questions that really resonate with me after reading the book.  It’s always a gut-check when I think of these questions that Dave asks (thanks to Dave’s wife, Shelley Burgess, for the following graphics – her name pops up again soon and it’s amazing)…

 

So think about it… are you facilitating a room of learning in a way that is so engaging that students would not only attend your class if they weren’t required, but they’d also PAY to be there?  Are you creating experiences for your students?  Or are you just making lesson plans each day?

If you are creating experiences – you should read this book!  It will empower you and motivate you to keep doing the hard work!  Dave reminds us that “it’s not supposed to be easy – it’s supposed to be worth it!”

If you are going through the motions just making your daily or weekly plans, coming to school and teaching, grading papers, and when you get home with your stack of worksheets not really sure which handwriting belongs to which student… you should REALLY read this book!  Please!  If you aren’t sure where to start, the Captain has got you covered!  There are over 30 hooks to engage your students, with over 150 questions to ask to help make the very best experience you can create for your students!

If you are a first-year teacher or a 35th year teacher, an English Language Arts, Science, Math, History, or encore/special area teacher, you should grab a copy of this book!  If you are struggling with students who aren’t motivated, those students who struggle playing the “game of school”, or desperate to find new ideas to entice the kids who “already know it all” to be excited about your class, you need to grab a copy! If you have a great relationship with every student in your classroom, or if you aren’t sure what that kid with the red hair in the back of the room’s name is… you should gift yourself a copy of this book!  Basically… if you are an educator, have been an educator, or want to be an educator, go get the book – period!

Finally, Teach Like A Pirate is not only a book, but it’s a community which has created an entire educational revolution.  It’s not a one-and-done read then put the Pirate stuff in the back of your mind where the cobwebs are. You can tap into some incredible Pirate Power by searching on social media for #tlap!  Each Monday night at 6 PST/9 EST you can join the #tlap Twitter chat and be inspired.  I can’t think of a better way to end a Monday.  I also can’t think of a better way to end my first #DBC50Summer blog post, but with a picture of me and the Captain himself at a conference in April 2018 and again in June 2018 (I am that lucky)!  So thankful for this book and its author who started it all – who truly embodies the SPIRIT of a Pirate and took a risk writing this book, starting his own publishing company with his wife, and releasing Teach Like A Pirate in September 2012!

 

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Resources to get you pumped while you wait for your copy to come in:

Pirate Pedagogy with Dave Burgess: Across the Hall Episode 8

Innovator’s Mindset MOOC Event 1

Teach Like A Pirate: TEDxLitchfieldED

Podcasts: Educator’s Lead Ep74, Under the Crossbones Ep139, Vrain Waves Ep5, My Bad: What I Learned When My Lesson Plan Bombed Twice

Updated June 22, 2018: The creative genius, educator, and instructional coach from Kansas that goes by the name Andrea Paulakovich (blog and Twitter) contacted me on Twitter to let me know that she was interested in joining me on this #DBC50Summer challenge to read each DBC book!  (See her blog about #TLAP here!) I told you the #tlap community was amazing, right? She wanted to see about collaborating on Flipgrid to allow for video responses as educators across the country are embarking on this #DBC50Summer, committing to reading each DBC book!  Of course I replied immediately with a YES!!!  This is a wonderful idea, and I am so excited to partner with Andrea to provide this option for responding!  You may use the question prompts provided to respond to Teach Like A Pirate, but please do not feel limited to only answering those!  Share your thoughts by clicking this link!  The password to the Flipgrid is DBCSummer.

#DBC50Summer Book 2/50: Don Wettrick’s Pure Genius – Stay tuned; this is my FIRST reading of this book & I am pumped!  It’s been on my “to be read” list for a LONG time!

#DBC50Summer Explained

/ Alicia Ray / 8 Comments

A few years ago I started blogging to fulfill a requirement for a blogging quest chain in an incredible gamified professional development opportunity called EPIC Academy designed by Lucas Gillispie (blog, follow him on Twitter).  I had read several other blogs as part of the quest chain and found that some bloggers will do a series of blogs related to one topic.  That intrigued me, so I decided to experiment with this idea by doing an #edtechsummer series that year.  You can find those blogs here.

I learned through EPIC that I am a completionist, a gamer who attempts to complete every challenge and earn every award available within the game.  It makes sense because I am also a collector.  It started with baseball cards as a young girl, and has continued as an adult.  I always want the “full set” of everything – movies, TV series, books, etc.  That would explain why I enjoy binge watching series on Netflix, right?

Because of my desire to own “all the things” as a completionist, and the insane level of PUMPED UP I became after experiencing (there is no other word for it) Dave Burgess‘s keynote and breakout session after #PiedmontDLC in April, I decided I wanted to read all of the books in the Dave Burgess Consulting, Inc line up…in the order they were published.

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This has led me to my Blogging Summer Series of 2018, #DBC50Summer.  This is my way of keeping myself accountable for reading the books (I’m pretty sure my husband may cut off all access to our checking account before this is over, oops) and then, as Dave says, we have a moral imperative to share our most effective ideas.  Well, these are not MY ideas, but they are incredible manifestos, stories, and lessons that others have learned, written, and published!  Perhaps someone is on the fence about one of these books, or maybe isn’t aware of it.  Folks don’t know what they don’t know. If Lisa Milstead had not shared the book that started it all, Teach Like A Pirate, with me several years ago, I probably would not have known either; I only read (errrr, skimmed) the books assigned by my school/district or grad school class. Therefore, I am embarking on a quest to read all 50 books published by DBC, Inc as of today.  It seems as if a new book is coming out every week, and I’m hoping to continue the blog series as the new books come out as well.  It’s just going to take a hot minute to catch up with what they’ve published to date.  See…

So what will this look like?  I’m going to be completely transparent… I. Have. No. Idea. I will share my reflections, quotes that stood out to me (quotes to live by) from the book, perhaps link to some related podcasts/videos from the author, and hopefully, as the librarian in me often does, suggest other books to read in a “if you liked this, try this one next” format.  As most books, there is an intended audience for each book, so I may try to make a note of that as well.  That does not mean it’s not a book that ANYONE could get something out of, so take my recommendations of intended audience with a grain of salt most of the time.  It is important to be aware that throughout the summer, these are my reflections and my opinions only, and I am not being compensated by the authors or DBC, Inc.

I will suggest that you purchase

every

single

book

not based solely on my reflections in this blog series, but because I believe that these authors are amazing humans and educators; I believe they will inspire you as they have inspired me. Basically, you should read the book yourself & get active in the social media communities that surround these books!  So…. we will begin with the beginning, the book that started it all…. Teach Like A Pirate by Dave Burgess.

While waiting for that post to be published, you may want to check out the background story of DBC, Inc by listening to a terrific podcast where Dave joins Don Wettrick (remember that name, you’ll hear more of him soon) in #StartEDup episode 128.  The link to Dave’s blog post that includes a link to the podcast episode can be found here.  Enjoy!

How I Got My [Educational] Groove Back

/ Alicia Ray / 4 Comments

It’s been 8 long months since I’ve been inspired to write a blog post.  I’ve been saying that I’ll get motivated and I’ll write, but it’s just not happened.  So many blocks, so many doubts… until I attended #PiedmontDLC hosted by Gaston County Schools last weekend.

I’ll be honest; I wasn’t looking forward to getting up early to drive down to Gastonia.  The school was a little over 90 minutes from my house.  I was excited to see my edu-friends from across the state.  I was honored to be asked to present at this event and looking forward to learning with others!  I was stoked that Dave Burgess, author of Teach Like A Pirate, would be in attendance giving the opening keynote and invitation only workshop (which I was invited to – woo hoo!), but even all of that wasn’t enough to make me jump out of bed on Saturday morning.  I even joked with an educator friend of mine that he had lost his educational “mojo” and we were going to spend the day at this conference getting it back.  I had no idea that the one who’d lost their “mojo” was me.

Upon arriving, I sought out the room I would be presenting in (I’m a planner like that), and began to prepare myself mentally to share with those who would attend my session.  I double-checked my materials and presentation, then meandered in to the opening session and keynote only a few minutes before it began after visiting with educator friends from across the state.  I had no expectations of the opening keynote, but I knew I had enjoyed the book Teach Like A Pirate when I read it several years ago.

In November 2014, I read the professional development book once on my Kindle upon the recommendation of a dear friend Lisa Milstead, agreed with the content that was written, and then moved on.  Then as a door prize at an edcamp in 2015, I won an autographed copy of the book, and read it again (careful not to mark in it because – hello – it was autographed!).  I was much more intrigued the second time I read it – I bought in to what this Pirate Dave fellow was selling.  I suggested a book study to my administrator who told me to run with it!  After contacting Dave and Shelley, we purchased books for each teacher in our school, including a copy that I marked up with highlighter and notes in the margins.  That year the theme in the media center was “ARGH you reading?” and every reading reward party was pirate themed (Pirate Party, Shipwreck Party, Sunken Treasures Party).  We even used the acronym PIRATE to encourage diversity in reading selection – Pick Interesting Reads And Try Everything.  I was energized!

Then… I fell overboard, so to speak.  I still agreed with the ideals and philosophy, the basic principles within the book, but didn’t practice them regularly.  I couldn’t find my enthusiasm, my passion.  I tried rereading the highlights and notes from the book study, and I tried following along with the #tlap conversation on Twitter.  I read a few of Pirate Dave’s blog posts, but I just couldn’t duplicate the energy I had found during my second reading of the book.

And then… Piedmont DLC happened.  The captain himself, Dave Burgess, shared his story.  I have never heard someone speak so fast in my life, with so much energy and enthusiasm, so much passion and excitement.  I was torn between rolling my eyes (hey, I teach middle school now – I’m a bit more cynical than I used to be) and being on the edge of my seat.  I was captivated by what Dave Burgess had to say.  I remembered reading the words, but this was a whole new experience.  In fact, I tweeted that I felt as though I’d been to church or something.  Here are some Twitter highlights from the keynote:

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After sitting through the keynote, I was so pumped.  I was determined to be the magic in our media center.  The creativity workshop he did with us later in the day was just as fabulous, but the keynote is what got me amped up.  It reminded me of my why – why I got into teaching almost 13 years ago.  It reminded me what is important – and to remain optimistic and passionate about my work.

If you’ve ever seen Dave speak, you know what I’m talking about; you know that church of the south altar call, hallelujah feeling I experienced.  If you’ve not ever seen him speak, get to a Pirate Keynote ASAP!  As for me, I’ve got a renewed sense of passion and enthusiasm for the work I do.  I’m asking more creative questions as I plan for lessons with my students and workshops with my teachers.  I’m working harder to reach every kid, wanting to do everything I can to help them love school & engage in conversation.  I’m reflecting on the experiences from this year, and asking for student evaluations, to make next year better than ever before.  So, Dave Burgess, here’s to you.  Thanks for helping me find the mojo that I didn’t realize I’d lost and for helping me get my [educational] groove back!

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