While I am working on putting together a couple of other blog posts and am waiting to post them until I feel they are flushed out sufficiently, I thought I would share my thoughts about one of my summer reading books. I loved this book so very much and know I will revisit the ideas not only this school year, but for many years to come.
The book Teach Like a Pirate has been on my reading wish list for the past several years. I love to read books that discuss what student engagement actually looks like and how teachers can really make changes to engagement levels in the classroom. Too many books that I have perused over the last several years offer the same tips to increase engagement: circulate around the room, make eye contact, and call on students more often. These tips might work to keep students’ attention, but not their engagement. Engagement is what I am looking for in my classroom and this book did not disappoint in the ‘treasure chest’ of knowledge it has given me.
I loved the middle section of the book where all of the teaching hooks were explained in detail. There is so much information in this section that I will definitely be rereading them several times before I try any. I also plan to review the hooks I am not using on a regular basis with the plan pick out new ones to try as my class dynamics change over the course of the semester and the school year.
One of the things that kept popping into my mind as I was reading through all of the hooks was “How can I use this in a Math classroom?”. Some of the hooks will work very well, such as the Picasso Hook – lots of art is math based. Other hooks such as the Safari Hook or the Dance and Drama Hook might be more of a stretch to implement as they require venturing out to find elements of the lesson in a staged area and dancing or acting out the content. These seem like a stretch and will require some serious planning if I hope to make them work.
I worry sometimes that math teachers are ‘trained’ to think we can’t be creative or that we can’t add flair to our lessons. We teach processes and procedures and then try to apply those to real-life situations. It can seem quite dry to some people, but the mechanics of the math have to be understood in order to apply these ideas to other situations. I am hoping to be able to add some flair to my lessons and practice my creativity until it is really helping me engage more of my students. I feel at times that I am competing with the latest memes on Instagram or the various Snapchats that students send each other. My job is definitely not to just entertain my students; I need to teach them material and life lessons to prepare them for life after high school. I cannot accomplish any of this teaching if I am unable to engage them in the lessons and keep them engaged.
There were several hooks that I plan to implement in my classes during this school year. Two of my favorites are the Interior Design Hook and the Teaser Hook. The Interior Design Hook will help me take my love of decorating and arranging my classroom and give it a more useful purpose. I plan to arrange my room in different ways as well as add posters and other items to the walls. I have a range of items from brag boards to motivational quotes to the Greek Alphabet to various sets of content related posters I plan to use throughout this school year. I am blessed with one huge wall that I change the décor on to suit each unit or general overarching skills or themes I am teaching. As I was reading this section of the book, I thought about all the different word walls I can build as well as having sections to promote student movement and motivation. I can use the space in a more fluid way instead of just using it for static décor. The possibilities have been endlessly going through my mind since reading this hook. Now I just need to make the hard decision of how I want to keep the wall interesting and dynamic.
The Teaser Hook also intrigues me because I want to do a better job of building anticipation not only for coming to my class in general, but also upcoming lessons. Too many times students walk into class complaining about being there – despite the fact that they enjoy the activities I do with them and are actually progressing well in class. Students many times seem to have a predetermined negative attitude towards math. They can’t explain why, but they just don’t like math. I am hoping that if I could build some anticipation for my class with little topics teasers here and there, I can turn some attitudes around. Changing the mindset of my students before the class even begins would go a long way to more engagement and willingness to keep working when the material does become more difficult.
While I truly enjoyed reading about all of the hooks that Dave Burgess wrote about, the first and last sections of the book are the ones that spoke to me the most. When I was reading the pages in Part 1: Teach Like A Pirate, I kept having that “aha” moments that we all want our students to have with our content. I enjoyed reading about the differences between a person’s content, professional and personal passions. Those pages spoke volumes to me about how my school year mindset progresses. While I love all the math that I teach, I am definitely more excited to teach some material more than others. Reading these pages made me think about focusing more on ways to engage my students during the topics I don’t look forward to as much, as well as ways to increase the activity level during that material. My boxes of activities definitely favor the topics I really love, like solving equations and factoring. I need to use my personal passion and love of teaching to add some excitement to the sections that I am not as excited to teach, like solving systems of equations.
Another part of the first section that I really enjoyed reading was the Ask and Analyze section. A lot of that section talked about building a personal sense of creativity through the practice of creating. I am one of those people that used to assume that some people had a creative gene, and some did not. I have always felt that I am not a creative person. I have gotten better at creating activities over the years, but with math it isn’t hard to take a set of problems and turn it into a scavenger hunt. I want to design choice boards that the students will enjoy doing and be able to work on more independently then the one time I stepped out of my comfort zone and used them. I want to be able to try other kinds of assessments besides just a paper pencil test. What has stopped me before was the scared attitude towards moving forward with trying to flush out these ideas when they didn’t go as planned the first time.
My ultimate goal is to have multiple filing cabinets full of activities that I can pull out at a moment’s notice – and I don’t want to have to use Teachers Pay Teachers to make this happen. I want to be able to have a wide range of things that will suit whatever class personalities I have from year to year. To reach this goal the first thing I am going to do is to follow Burgess’ advice and ask myself questions as I am planning this year. His book is correct in that really looking at the planning process and asking yourself how you can change something is the first step to the creative process. It’s why I don’t use the exact same materials year to year but tweak them for my current students. It’s why I already have two paper boxes full of activities over three or four topics – I am in constant search of another great activity. I can do better though and really look at the details of each lesson and how I can add not only better questioning, but more chances for students to creatively interact with the lesson’s material.
The third section of the book was equally as meaningful to me as the first section. The third section talked about all of the ways that people are fearful about being innovative in the classroom. Each and every one of those fears was something that I have experienced or continue to experience when I want to try a new routine, presentation style or activity. The fear of ridicule runs deep in me and is something I have struggled with my entire life. I want to and plan to work towards moving past this fear and really focus on what I want to do to help my students learn. Outside of the box thinking is supposed to be celebrated, so I really have nothing to lose right?
The other fears that I try to work on changing within myself are the fears of failure and perfectionism. I really try to push past these two, but I feel like they are ingrained into my person. I am a notorious perfectionist and I get in my own way more times than naught. I really like the tip about creating things in quantity that are mostly good but need flushing out later. Getting in the habit of trying new activities and ideas and keeping track of feedback will really benefit me and my students. I get stuck in a pattern with class flow and activities at times, and while I long to change things up, I always worry about whether or not it will work. I need to channel my energy into making things better and trying them instead of always listening to my inner critic. If I want to accomplish big change in my classroom I have to start doing the work. As was stated in the book, the hardest thing is starting something new. Once a person gets forward momentum going, there is little that can stop the progress towards achieving a goal.
Not only was the book Teach Like a Pirate by Dave Burgess full of inspiring ideas to try with my students, but it also made me look into my teacher soul to really see what I could work on with the big picture of my teaching practice. I am a huge believer in teacher self-development, and I think that this book is a great place for me to begin another year’s journey of improving my teaching craft. Finding new ideas while looking at how to improve one’s teacher self (ie. overcoming fears) is always a great way for teachers to grow, and I am excited to begin furthering my journey.
Musing of a Motivated Math Teacher 