Teach Like a Pirate Recap
Dave Burgess presented Teach Like a Pirate to the MRVED on October 17, 2018 in Dawson-Boyd. Burgess went through the PIRATE acronym and provided educators with practice ideas they can bring back to their classroom. The afternoon was spent discussing the message from the morning and hearing more creative ideas from Burgess. You can follow along with a little challenge the elementary schools have going. Follow #mrvedtlap on Twitter to see what they are doing. If you have not filled out the evaluation for the day, there is still time to do that. Select the link below to access the evaluation
Upcoming Meetings
November 9, 2018 Joint mtg Principals’ Council
& TAC
November 16, 2018 Principals’ Council
November 28, 2018 Superintendents’ Council
December 7, 2018 Title III Teachers
December 12, 2018 MRVED Board (6 p.m.)
December 13, 2018 TAC
December 14, 2018 Principals’ Council
December 19, 2018 Superintendents’ Council
MELT Call for Networking Facilitators
MELT NETWORKING FACILITATOR SIGN UP LINK
Halloween Resources
It's always fun to incorporate holidays into your classroom. With Halloween coming up, here are a few places to find some great Halloween resources to use in your classroom.Ditch That Textbook
Ditch that Textbook Blog
Teach Like a Pirate - Part II Creating Engaging Lessons
In Part II of teach like a pirate, Burgess introduces us to the concept of the "hooks". He sets the stage as to why the hooks are one of the most important aspects to a lesson.
He talks about "The Third Circle" that nobody is talking about. Much of our professional development is focused on gaining content knowledge and learning new classroom techniques, which is true! Nobody is talking about how we present material. Presentation, he argues, is just as important as the other two. There is a small part in this chapter that talks about "everything is a choice". After reading this section, it made me reflect. Everything I do within that hour is a choice. Are the lights on or off? Is the door open or shut? Are kids standing, sitting, or moving around? Do they have paper and pencil?
It made me think about the old adage, for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Everything we do within the hour of our lesson has a reaction, whether intended or not. We simply need to train ourselves to ask the reflective questions when planning a lesson. I was taught the Madeline Hunter lesson planning format and this simply ramps up the lesson planning. It really doesn't matter what lesson planning you do, asking yourself reflective questions as you plan will only strengthen what you do.The other "aha" out of this chapter was the section on transitions. As a former high school teacher, transitions is not something I have really ever thought that much about. Burgess is correct, and I have observed it many times, and I have also been guilty of getting to peak engagement in my classroom and then have something kill that engagement. Getting out a pencil and paper, announcement from the office, turn to page ___ in your book, projector warming up, etc... Transitions have a HUGE impact on student engagement.
