Читать книгу Tech Like a PIRATE - Matt Miller - Страница 9

In 2012, Dave Burgess published Teach Like a PIRATE, in which he described the success he’d had with PIRATE teaching. These six characteristics make up his method:

Passion: Feeling passionate about teaching, even if you’re not passionate about the subject you’re teaching

Immersion: Being fully present and fully at attention in the moment with your students

Rapport: Connecting with students on a personal level to build a safe, fun environment

Ask/analyze: Asking the right questions about your teaching ideas and constantly analyzing their effectiveness

Transformation: Rethinking what’s possible in the classroom to break down barriers

Enthusiasm: Harnessing this most powerful tool in the classroom to create high-impact teaching

I got my copy of Teach Like a PIRATE in 2015 as a birthday gift. (Yes, I’m that kind of teaching geek. I ask for education books for my birthday! I still have that copy—coffee stains, worn cover, damaged corners, and all.) It changed my thinking about teaching almost immediately. My brain reeled when I asked myself Burgess’s most provocative question: “If your students didn’t have to be there, would you be teaching in an empty room?”

Then there’s this line—it stuck with me the most then and it still speaks to me now: “Don’t just teach a lesson. Create an experience!”

By itself, a lesson isn’t an experience. Imagine someone says, “I want to teach you a lesson.” What do you do? Do you lean in? Or do you fake an important phone call to get away as fast as you can? We’re generally not excited about being taught a lesson. But we’re always up for an experience. An experience is memorable. It engages the senses—sight, smell, hearing, taste, touch. It piques our interest. It lets our vivid imagination take us on an adventure. An experience charges our emotions, leaving us wanting more.

I read through the stories, suggestions, and hooks for engaging teaching in Teach Like a PIRATE, and I kept returning to the same epiphany: so many of the book’s ideas could be enhanced with technology—free digital tools and tech that many schools had readily available in classrooms.

Many teachers had all the components for a memorable, techy learning experience in front of them. They just couldn’t see how to assemble them to build something bigger. Something more memorable—and more effective.

I didn’t realize it at the time, but I started writing this book back in 2015, when I first read Teach Like a PIRATE. It fit perfectly next to Ditch That Textbook, my blog-turned-book, where I write about the role of classroom tech in creating meaningful learning.