Ahoy matey! This was the first summer in a long time that I didn’t absolutely HAVE to do anything school-related, such as attending conferences, writing curriculum, etc., and I found myself feeling very lost. What was I supposed to do all summer? So, I decided to catch up on some reading. Instead of waiting any longer, I want to share this resource with you, my fellow educators, now in hopes of helping you find some inspiration as you are planning for a new school year. And, shiver me timbers! The most helpful book I read this summer was Teach Like A Pirate by Dave Burgess. To be honest, this book had been sitting on a bookshelf at home for quite some time. I had heard of the author, who actually dresses up like a pirate from time to time, but just assumed the book was geared more toward elementary or middle school teachers. I then found the Teach Like A Pirate chat (#tlap) as I was perusing Twitter one night, and realized the techniques being discussed each week were applicable across all grade levels and content areas. This book was a great read for a couple of reasons: (1) It was a steady reminder of my big WHY, and (2) The author provides creative lesson “hooks” that are totally doable...even in a math class! I’ll give a quick overview of Part I, and then talk about some useful lesson hooks from Part II. Part I: Teach Like A Pirate! The heart of the PIRATE system is Passion, Immersion, Rapport, Ask and Analyze, Transformation, and Enthusiasm. I will touch on each of these, but will spend the most time on passion. PASSION “We are not passionate about everything we teach. It’s OK!” Reading that statement was a very defining moment, because it’s true. As teachers, we should feel passionate about teaching, but sometimes it’s just not there. How do we incorporate passion into our lessons, even if we are not passionate about the particular day’s content? Burgess breaks passion into three distinct categories:
RAPPORT
ASK AND ANALYZE
TRANSFORMATION
ENTHUSIASM
Part II: Crafting Engaging Lessons Presentational hooks are a huge part of what makes Dave Burgess’ lessons engaging. He offers a multitude of presentational hooks to ramp up the anticipation and engagement. You will have to consult the book for all of them, but here are a few hooks from each category for some inspiration. The Kinesthetic Hook
The People Prop Hook
The Safari Hook
The Picasso Hook
The Mozart Hook
The Dance and Drama Hook
The Craft Store Hook
The Student Hobby Hook
The Real-World Applications Hook
The Life-Changing Lesson Hook
The Student-Directed Hook
The Opportunistic Hook
The Interior Design Hook
The Board Message Hook
The Costume Hook
The Props Hook
The Involved Audience Hook
The Mystery Bag Hook
The Storytelling Hook
The Swimming With Sharks Hook
The Taboo Hook
The Mime Hook
The Teaser Hook
The Backwards Hook
The Mission Impossible Hook
The Techno Whiz Hook
The Contest Hook
The Magic and the Amazing Hook
The Chef Hook
The Mnemonic Hook
The Extra Credit Challenge Hook *If your school, like ours, does not use extra credit, these techniques can be used to take students above and beyond the “required” learning.
Part III: Building a Better Pirate (pieces of awesome advice)
Teach Like A Pirate goes into so much more depth than what is written here. This blog post just touches the surface. This book has provided a wealth of inspiration that will benefit students and teachers. Thanks for taking the time to read. My hope is you will be able to find something that you can immediately begin using to make what you’re already doing in the classroom even more awesome. Until next time, Sheri
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If you've ever wondered what goes on in the minds of people who work in the field of education, here is a glimpse...
Things I wish my students knew: We don't like all this testing either. I know, we always tell you we have to have a standard way of measuring the progress of all of our students. Colleges need ACT and SAT scores to aid them in their admissions processes. But we also know you don't see the value in taking standardized tests, and would rather spend your time doing something more meaningful than deciding between A, B, C, D, or E. We get it. Really...we do. We often spend just as much (sometimes more) time doing things for you, our students, than we do for our own families. Even if we are not physically at school preparing for classes, our minds are constantly churning, contemplating how we should help facilitate a lesson, or trying to figure out how we can relate an objective to a situation you could encounter in the "real" world. And then totally scrapping our lesson plans at the last minute and going a different direction altogether. And then changing it again five minutes into class. No matter how outrageous your behavior, we know there is a reason for it. We may have to peel back the many layers of your soul to find it. And often times that reason breaks our hearts. Some of you see our tears, despite our efforts to turn away in order to pull ourselves together again. You go through heavy stuff. We wish we could make your situation better, but sometimes we don't have all the answers. All we can do is try our best to make sure you feel safe and happy while you're in our care at school. We like to laugh and be silly with you. It's good for the soul. Sometimes we silently agree with your witty, hilarious, less-than-appropriate comments. We appreciate your ability to be honest and "call it like you see it," even though we inevitably have to have a talk with you about using your filter. Sometimes we have to turn our backs to you because we are trying to regain our composure from wanting to fall on the floor laughing over something you said or did. Sometimes we don't turn our backs and just let it all out. We love cracking up with you. We worry about you. Even during breaks, we worry about you. We worry about who you're hanging around with. We worry if the progress we made during the school year is going to last throughout the summer. We worry if you're strong enough to say "NO" when the pressure is on and the line between doing what you know is best for you and doing something just to fit in with the crowd becomes fuzzy. We love you. Even on the bad days, we still love you. Even when we're all stressed, when we have too many irons in the fire and we're all snippy, we love you. Even when we're exhausted, when we're tired of each other, when home life is is hard, and when we're just trying to get through until the next break...we still love you. You are important to us. You are the reason we do what we do. Never, ever forget that. Next year when you move on to another teacher, you're still "our kid." Even after you graduate, you're still referred to as "our kid." We want you to be happy. We want you to be more successful than us. We want you to to have the ability to stand up for yourself. We want you to have compassion for others and give back when you can. We want you to dream big. We want you to leave a legacy of which to be proud. I'm looking forward to seeing old faces and meeting new faces in a few short days. I cannot wait to see what's in store this year. I look forward to the relationships we will build and the problems we will get to solve together. It's going to be different, it's going to be interesting, it's going to be frustrating, it's going to be rewarding, but above all, this year is going to be AWESOME. Get ready. The adventure is about to begin! WHO has TIME for ACTIVITIES??? Us, that’s who! Sometimes we just have to make it a priority, like Brennan and Dale in Step Brothers (hopefully with better success;). I’m going to cut to the chase, because let’s face it…we are running out of summer vacay, and we need some quick ideas to use in our classes. These activities are courtesy of John Antonetti’s Power of Student Engagement session, and this is the final part of my blog series about this particular PD day. Here we go.......... First Activity…this one is great for kids AND adults…maybe a great one for a school or district-wide PD session…
Second Activity – I’ll call this the Oddball Out.
Third Activity - The New Zoo (this is one of my favorites)…
Fourth Activity – Japanese Poster Method (This is actually a method that can be modified to an activity you already use)
Fifth Activity – Say What?
Sixth Activity – How Much Carpet?
Seventh Activity – “GRANT”ing Wishes
So there you have it...seven activities that hopefully spark some ideas about how to find ways to lead your own students into a deeper understanding and MAKING SENSE of the concepts they are learning. Thanks for sticking with me throughout this three-part series. Coming next...innovative learning spaces (including makerspaces)...and I cannot wait to share my experience (and resources) with YOU!!! Yours truly, Sheri How many times does this convo take place in one day?
Bubba: “So what are we doing today?” Teacher: “Look at the board. Your objective is posted there, just like it is every day.” Bubba: Looks at board. Sighs. Trudges to his assigned seat, flops into his chair, and puts head down on his desk. Teacher: Looks at Bubba. Sighs. Wanders back into hallway to continue welcoming students to a wonderful day of learning. Throw in an eye roll or two, and there you have it. In Part Two of the PD with John Antonetti saga, let’s discuss how Mr. Antonetti challenges the conventional wisdom about posting daily objectives, and dig into the relevance of objectives. Objectives seem like such a small thing, but they should be a BIG thing. WHAT IF…instead of students seeing the objective posted right when they walk in the classroom (for those that actually LOOK at it), we WAITED to post the objective until we gave them an opportunity to try to MAKE SENSE (here comes that phrase again) out of a sample of what they’ll be learning that day? Here is an example: Give groups of students a normal deck of cards. Instruct students to place 17 cards in some kind of order so that the teacher will, without any shadow of a doubt, be able to tell the class what the 18th card should be. Once the groups order their cards and the teacher correctly guesses the 18th card, only then is the objective mentioned: “By the way class, we are going to explore and analyze patterns today!” The kids are already engaged, and everyone moves forward. I will be the first to admit…I have a problem with this! I’ve trained my brain to get that objective on the board first thing in the morning, no matter what. If the building is on fire…WAIT – I have to post my objective first! If a meeting is called…WAIT – not ‘til I post that objective! But, I am beginning to see the value in holding off. Should we do this every day? I don’t know. Time will tell. Changing up what we’ve always done, when it goes against our conventional way of thinking, creates unrest. It’s the common feeling when teaching an old dog new tricks. Time and time again, there are always students who enter shutdown mode before class even begins, just like Bubba did, all because the objective sounded too hard, or too boring. Antonetti suggests our focus must shift from asking ourselves, “Have we clearly communicated the objective to our learners?” to “Can our learners articulate the objective for today?” In order for this to be accomplished, the learners must PERSONALIZE the objective (Antonetti & Garver, 17,000 Classroom Visits Can’t Be Wrong, 2015). When students are able to PERSONALIZE an objective, they can go on to VERBALIZE it clearly. Articulating what you are learning is different than articulating what you are doing. Many students can tell you what they’re doing…many cannot tell you what they are learning. If the objective is just written on a whiteboard, that’s not an effective practice. If a student can explain the objective – where they are going and why they are learning it – only then will improvement take place. Can we work to help students personalize WHAT they’ll be learning, WHY it’s important, and HOW they will get there? Sure! Will we? Well… Here are some important nuggets to consider, courtesy of Antonetti, when working to make personalization of the objective happen. If your students are reading a story, can they make a personal connection to one of the characters? Does a character remind them of someone they know in real life? Can they tie that relationship to the objective to help personalize it? What about when studying a foreign language? Can you help students see any similarities between that language and the English language? Can the foreign language help students learn about the construction of the English language? For the math classroom, can we help students to see that there is a mathematical way of thinking within most disciplines, and that so many careers require people to be fluent in thinking mathematically, scientifically, socially? And if we spend time building relationships and trust with our kids, and talk about the relevance to a topic when it’s applicable (i.e., appropriate), will they will be more likely to continue to walk along with us if we are honest and tell them when something isn’t especially applicable, but they need to know it anyway as a skill-builder? I’d venture to say not everyone will continue to walk alongside us, but a lot of them will. I believe the objective is one of the most important keys to producing a successful batch of learners who MAKE SENSE out of what they’re doing. I also believe it’s one of the things we (I) don’t put nearly enough deliberate thought into; fleshing out the WHAT, the WHY, and the HOW. In closing, as panic starts to set in as we all realize it’s past the middle of July, and there is SO MUCH TO DO before the masses walk into our buildings in August, and we just sit for a second in bewilderment, asking where June went…I hope you will join me in trying to find ways to help kids articulate and personalize the things we have for them to learn this year. We can only bite off so much. If we try to start too many new initiatives at the same time, we aren’t going to do any of them well. My two initiatives are helping students MAKE SENSE, and creating an innovative learning space just for them (I’ll explain all about that journey VERY soon…maybe after my stomach stops doing flip-flops!). And those activities I’ve been talking about from Antonetti? Those are coming next…stay tuned. He’s got some good stuff out there. Yours Truly, The Bubba-Melissa Sue Hybrid You knew I would eventually get to the educational stuff. So here we go, swan-diving in head-first, hoping there are no sharp rocks at the bottom. If you’re not in the field of education and you’re still reading this post…good for you! Keep reading! This blog isn’t just for educators. Fair Warning: This is the first of a series of three related blog posts. The Blog Mafia would hunt me down and chop off my fingers if I tried to put EVERYTHING I want to share about my most recent PD experience in only one post. If you ever have the opportunity to hear John Antonetti speak in person, RUN toward it…even if you have to dodge all the orange barrels in downtown Kansas City rush hour traffic…even if you have to sit in an 85-degree classroom on the fourth floor of Union Station on of one of the hottest days of the year because the air conditioner decided to take a vacation…DO IT. He is an engaging speaker who has many nuggets of wisdom to share. Totally worth it. Here are a few thoughts from his session, "The Power of Student Engagement." Let’s talk about a character Mr. Antonetti calls “Melissa Sue.” Say her name fast and with a great amount of energy and excitement…because that’s how she says it. Melissa Sue is, by some standards, the “perfect student.” She’s the first to volunteer. Her hand is constantly raised. She always answers the question. She’s the one who is compliant…the people-pleaser…the one who wants to know exactly what she should do to get an A. She’s the one who asks a question right before the bell rings that causes the teacher to hold the rest of the class back while answering it. Melissa Sue is book smart, but boy, she lacks in the common sense department. She gets good grades by being compliant, but may not be great at “making sense” of content. Got an image of Melissa Sue in your head? Good. Let’s move on to Bubba… "Bubba" is the exact opposite of Melissa Sue. This kid is street smart. He has common sense pouring out his ears. Book smart? That’s not important to him. He wants the easy way out. If you give him a math problem about a guy who buys 1,000 watermelons, he will stop you before you finish reading the problem and say, “What the %*$# does anybody need with a thousand watermelons?!” Bubba is not afraid to think differently and challenge the status quo…mainly because he doesn’t like fluff. Keep both of these characters in mind, because they will show up from time to time… Mr. Antonetti took us on a roller coaster ride of activities, which I will share throughout this three-part series, but here is one that helps us see how kids (and how we ourselves) think. Read these sentences: There was a boy. The boy was small. There was a pond. The boy fell. Now, write one sentence that describes what is going on in the above passage. Got it? We know kids can’t be grouped into only two categories…however, you’ve probably already grouped your students (or your family members, or friends) into one of two categories: Melissa Sue, or Bubba. Here is Melissa Sue’s thought process and response: Well, the small boy fell, but gosh! There’s a pond! Maybe he fell IN the pond? I don’t know…but the pond is there so I HAVE to include it in my answer, right?! So here goes: “The small boy fell in the pond!” That’s my answer, Teacher! Is it right? Well…is it??!? Here is Bubba’s thought process and response: What the %$*& does a pond have to do with this story? Why do I have to say anything about that stupid pond? Here ya go, Teach: “The little boy fell.” Who is right? Is Melissa Sue’s answer better than Bubba’s? Is the reverse true? The beauty in this activity is, there is NO one correct answer. This activity shows how we think and MAKE SENSE of information. The process of showing the thinking and justifying the answer is what we want to see. Our job as educators is to get the Melissa Sues and the Bubbas, who think quite differently, to become engaged and start MAKING SENSE of what they are learning. We have to look at something, and keep looking at it until something MAKES SENSE. For example, you look at a problem until you find a pattern that allows you to MAKE SENSE of the problem. It’s not an easy task, especially if you have students who haven’t learned how to persevere. In order for any of us to fully develop meaning and MAKE SENSE of a concept, three things must come together:
Let’s talk engagement for a sec…WE DON’T PAY ATTENTION TO BORING THINGS! Even if it means telling a funny or memorable story at the beginning of class that doesn’t relate to content…tell it! If kids cognitively engage during the first five minutes of class, they will continue to engage on a higher level the rest of the class period. Speaking of TIME spent being engaged… Did you know…humans cannot be engaged 100% of the time? If you disagree, think of your spouse or significant other, or a relative, or a good friend. When the two of you are together, are you 100% engaged with each other every second? Do you hang on his or her every word or action for hours on end? NO. How do you think wives get husbands to agree to painting the cabinets next weekend, or double-dating with the dreaded sister-in-law Friday night? Women catch men at their most vulnerable time (i.e., when they are less engaged…while watching a football game, for instance), and then move in for the kill. Husbands don’t remember agreeing to anything…so the wife pulls out her iPhone where she replays his recorded response from earlier to have proof. (I may have exaggerated this just a little, but you get the point). 100% engagement all the time just doesn’t happen! Even 80% is a ridiculous amount of time to expect someone to be fully engaged! Mr. Antonetti said – and here’s what blew my mind – we are doing well if kids are engaged 21% of the school DAY. That’s not 21% of every hour, folks…that’s 21% of the school DAY. Wow. And a side note: the practicing of “skills” is NOT engaging. This is where the road gets rocky for two subjects that are heavily skills-based: Mathematics and Foreign Language. Students practice skills to become better or faster at a process, but that’s not where the heart of the meaningful learning kicks in. Antonetti suggested we send skills practice home (these are levels 1 and 2 if you are on a 4-point rubric, or as Mr. Antonetti says, “someone else’s thoughts”), and leave the tasks that require students to apply and evaluate (levels 3 and 4, or “my [students’] thoughts”) to be done at school. Antonetti’s take: our job is to get kids to a 3. If they go above and beyond to a 4, excellent. Make that 21% engagement time count. One thing that can totally derail engagement is a stressed brain. Stressed brains do not, will not, and cannot learn the same as non-stressed brains. Stress is a major distractor. If you yell in exasperation at Bubba in front of the rest of the class for not having his homework done and he gets embarrassed, it’s going to take at least 20 minutes for his brain to start producing serotonin again. Engagement is not going to take place during that 20 minutes because he will be too busy re-hashing the situation in his mind and trying to calm down from the stress. Again, this works the same way with most adults. Another teaching technique that can derail engagement is asking questions and allowing the class to respond verbally as a chorus. When we do this, our level 2 or level 1 tasks could actually become level zero. If Melissa Sue always belts out the answer before anyone else, the rest of the class gets a free pass and disengages, because they’ve learned they can rely on her to answer for them. What motivation do they have to pay attention? One final thought…make sure to let kids explore. Don’t squelch that natural instinct. We are born being explorers. Somewhere along the way, many of us stop. Mr. Antonetti told a story about his tenure as a kindergarten teacher. His class was outside for recess, and the kids knew they weren’t supposed to go near the fence at the edge of the property. Two boys headed straight for the fence anyway. Mr. Antonetti called for them to come back, and they waved him over to the fence. They were watching a beetle, and were so excited. They said, “Mr. Antonetti! Watch!” The boys both took turns yelling at the beetle. “Arrgh!” “AYYYYY!” “AHHHHHH!!!” The beetle kept walking. Then, they took turns stomping their feet near the beetle. The beetle stopped walking each time the boys stomped. Mr. Antonetti wondered, “What’s the point of this?” One boy explained, “When you yell at the bug, it can’t hear you. But when you stomp, it can feel the vibration!” What a powerful learning moment for a kindergartner! In closing:
Yours truly, Sheri P. S. - I think I finally figured out spellcheck!! Confession: I'm sitting at my desk, rolling my eyeballs and laughing at myself, because it took at least 10 minutes and a live help chat with a nice guy named Andrew for me to figure out where my text box wandered off to in order to start this blog post. This isn't how I envisioned blogging (insert the winking-tongue-sticking-out emoticon here, because that's what I call it).
What you will find here is real, sometimes real and funny, and dancing on the fine line between "professional" and "Did she really just say that?" I love kids. I love education. I love being part of a network of professional learners who fail, succeed a little, fail again, fail better, and finally succeed greatly. I have so many things running through my head that I'm anxious to share with you, and I want to know about your experiences and learn from you. In my upcoming posts, I want to talk about innovative learning spaces. I want to talk about makerspaces. I want to talk about what you do to engage your kids (a.k.a. students, but like many other teachers, I call my students my "kids," however unprofessional that may be). I want to tell you about my experience at ISTE2016, and if you attended, I want to hear about yours. But for right now, I'm going to hit the "post" button, cross my fingers, squint one eye (maybe stick out my tongue), and hope that this obligatory first blog post actually shows up for the world to see. Stay tuned... P. S. - Is there a spellcheck on this thing? |
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