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RUNNING HEAD: Original

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Original Contribution
Courtney A. McGarry
American College of Education

RUNNING HEAD: Original

Contribution
Introduction
For my original contribution I chose to do a book review and analysis for the book
Teach like a Pirate by Dave Burgess and post it to my blog located at
http://courtneymcgarry.weebly.com/. I chose this book to review because it has ideas and
principles that are awakening when it comes to being an overall more engaging teacher that
creates life changing moments in a successful learning environment. Engagement is a key
element in any classroom for students to have more meaningful learning experiences. This book
delivers a message that will move anyone into become a more effective teacher. Throughout my
review I will be going over key components that I have applicable to my own teaching
experience and how I am currently doing those things or what I can do to make them occur.
Review
I was lucky enough to get to hear the author Dave Burgess speak at a special guest
speaker event through my school district last year. His speech alone was captivating and
engaging enough for me to buy and read his book. His book is divided into three key sections
called Teach like a Pirate, Crafting Engaging Lessons, and Building a Better Pirate. Throughout
these sections the author guides us into a world of engagement, high energy, positivity, and
passion. I was able to make many connections to my courses throughout my degree program

with American College of Education. These connections with my new learning has led me to be a
more effective teacher.
Teach like a Pirate
The section of the book, Teach like a Pirate, Burgess has six chapters headed Passion,
Immersion, Rapport, Ask and Analyze, Transformation, and Enthusiasm. All of which explain

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and guide the reader through Burgess PIRATE system and philosophy. While summarizing
sections of the book, I am also reflecting and connecting to my coursework and my own
classroom experiences.
Burgess is set on reminding us that we are not passionate about everything that we teach
and that is okay. However, for our students we have to make sure we develop and use content
passion, professional passion, and personal passion. Through content passion we must find what
we are passionate about teaching and on the days and times we are not teaching those things we
remember our professional and personal passions. I feel passionate about reading. I have a love
for reading and teaching my kindergarteners how to read. So when I am not teaching reading, I
remember the professional passion that lies within me and the reason why I became a teacher, to
make a difference in the lives of children and give them the foundations they need in education
in order to be successful with their lives. Remembering the importance of being a teacher and
how much responsibility we hold with the leaders of tomorrow is enough to drive us to be
passionate all the time and to search deep down for the heart and soul of our profession. You also
have to be able to include your personal passions into your teaching to keep yourself passionate
about all subject and content areas. I have personal passions for Disney, broadways, drawing,
Star Wars, comic books, movies, Harry Potter, etc. When I have the opportunity to bring those
passions into the classroom I find that I have more powerful lessons. It is just like when we try to
incorporate our students interests and passions into our lessons for their engagement. Tying
personal passions into what we do gives our students real world connections that make learning
more meaningful. It was thought that students involved in purposeful activities would be
academically engaged in a way that was meaningful (Generals 2000).

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Immersion in the classroom requires a teacher to be in the moment and truly have your
mind be with your students. Students or anyone for that matter know when you are distracted and
you are not giving them your full attention. Students need support from their teachers and for
them to be completely submerged into the class and lessons. I know this idea of immersion to be
true because any time that my attention was divided for one reason or another, my students could
tell and it caused them to not be engaged and less motivated to learn. As a teacher wanting to be
even more effective, since reading this book I have made a conscious effort to be mindful of my
immersion with my students and lessons, doing my best effort to give my class my full and
undivided attention that they so deserve. We teach for our students, so why would we want to
give them anything less than our best attention? I think it is very rude and unprofessional to be
distracted while teaching our students and it is doing them a disservice. They are human beings
with minds, thoughts, and ideas who deserve the best education that they can get in this world.
Every moment and teachable opportunity needs to be taken advantage up with full teaching
power, momentum, and skill.
Burgess encourages teachers to learn techniques and skills that will prevent you from
having any battles in class and how to avoid them all together. Building a good rapport with
yourself, students, and colleagues will yield to more meaningful relationships. Burgess suggests
for teachers to spend more time on making connections with your lessons to what students are
already interested in versus trying to get them interested. These connections create a learning
environment that allows student to see the importance of what they are learning and gives them
learning opportunities for student led instruction with long lasting effects and success. Booker
T. Washingtons ideas on curriculum reflect the belief that the personal experiences of the student
should serve as the basis for their educational experiences (Generals 2000). Spending informal

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time at school with your students and getting to know them on new levels is very impacting. I
have weekly lunches with my students and it is something that they look forward to each and
every time. This shows students that you genuinely care about them, including time outside of
academics. My students and I share a respect for each other and have relationships built on trust
and love. I am always trying to be aware of student culture and going out of my way to show my
students and parents that I know who they are, where they have come from, and that I have their
best interests at heart. The most important part of building this rapport with your students is for
them to know you care about them as people and view them as humans. They need to know that
you care about them and their wellbeing. These are things that go back to having a classroom
environment that involves students in deep levels of trust, compassion, understanding, love, and
care. Burgess even gives us his thought process and plans for the first three days of school and
you can start this environment and rapport starting on day one. Using his ideas and techniques
allows you to make meaningful connections with your students on many levels. Rapport goes
beyond just our students, it is something that is built with our students families, colleagues, etc.
My families have the trust and understanding with me that I have an open door policy where they
are always welcome in our class and school. They can come and talk to me whenever with any
questions or concerns. Frequent and heart felt communication with them on a regular basis yields
to better rapport. At my school I have built a rapport with my colleagues where we feel
comfortable going to each other for help and support. We learn from each other and it is
important to be open to our colleagues thoughts and ideas. Having leadership at my and being
viewed as a teacher leaders has also helped me to build rapport with my colleagues. Being a
teacher leader allows for me to join together with others to come up with common goals and
identify ways for us to work together to help our students in the best ways that we can.

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Being more creative is a constant goal and aspiration for many teachers. Asking questions
yourself questions that lead to creative thinking, you will get creative answers. You have to be
open and willing to attempt to find that creativity even if it means going out of your way to do
so. Creativity is hard work and is something that some people need to strive to do better in. I find
creativity to be something that I weave throughout my lessons and classroom in order to make
things more engaging and fun for my students. Creativity is not something you are just born
with, it is hard work and takes lots of dedication and thinking. Creativity can be nurtured and
developed in teachers and most importantly our students. We have to shed light on the fact that
being creative takes a certain mindset and ethic. You have to set goals and try your best to once
again do what will engage you students and attract them to learning. All of those brilliant ideas
we come up with on the spot or think of throughout the day, find a way to write them down so
they will not be forgotten. Another mindset that I love from Burgess is to never think of
something as a failure, look at it as feedback. Feedback is what guides your teaching, allowing
you to see what works well and what needs to be changed or adapted to meet your students
needs.
Teachers have to do more than being good, they have to be extraordinary. One thing
teachers need in order to be extraordinary is the ability to see a vision for your class and to do
that you have to know where they stand. You have to be able to put yourself onto a path to live
your vision. Raising your own bar is the best way to do this. Your students need to be motivated
and be in an environment where it is impossible for them to tune you out. Connecting lessons to
the real world gives students a chance to see the importance of what they learning which leads to
it being more meaningful. Taking something that could potentially be disastrous, disappointing,
and awful and turning it into something magical, meaningful, and engaging is the magic of

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transformation in classrooms. I love grabbing students attention in this manner because it allows
them to see things in new light.
Enthusiasm is something that teachers need to have when the walk into their classrooms
in the morning and when they leave in the afternoon. The intensity levels should not decrease
throughout the day. I believe that enthusiasm goes hand in hand with passion because passion is
what will drive you to be enthusiastic with anything that you do. You have to be in the frame of
mind that will allow you to be positive and enthusiastic all day. I think that enthusiasm is
something that when it shows it can spread to your lessons, students, peers, and colleagues.
Crafting Engaging Lessons
Engaging lessons require engagement through presentation, content, and
technique/method. It is the teacher who is making the choices every second and the choices will
either make or break student engagement. Things like transitions, hooks, kinesthetic activities,
art, performance, etc. are all opportunities for engagement and it is up to the teacher to take
advantage of them and create more chances for them to be used. Burgess provides many kinds of
various hooks for classrooms that meet the needs of all learners and leads to motivation and
engagement.
Building a Better Pirate
Burgess encourages teachers to ask themselves if they want to be great. Teachers that
want to be great have to be willing to put in the time and effort. Being great gives you purpose
and motivation that is needed to keep students engaged and to keep your passions and
enthusiasm going. Throughout this book, I have realized that teachers need to be able to create
their own motivation and engagement for themselves in order to be successful in the classroom.

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Every minute, every second needs to be meaningful for you and your students. Being a teacher
leader has motivated me to drive to be great. These teachers suggest and inspire ideas and
discourse among the staff. They have positive attitudes and are willing to change. They have a
positive regard for their colleagues; they respect, trust and support them. They are enthusiastic
and highly professional, and these positive behaviors are often contagious. They draw others
upward to higher places. These teacher leaders earn respect from their students, parents and
fellow staff members with their intelligence, dedication and work ethic. They are life-long
learners and they are interested in furthering their education and learning. And perhaps most

importantly, these teachers have a belief in their students and their ability to learn (Kurtz, 2009,
pg. 12).
Conclusion
There are so many ways for us to improve ourselves professionally as teachers. Through
this book and my coursework I have a toolbox filled with knowledge and skills that I can use to
make myself become an even more effective teacher. In the end, we have to do what is best for
our students and meeting their needs. We have to be able to use higher order questioning, student
led activities, strong vocabulary, differentiation, interventions, behavior management, teacher
leadership, student needs, various learning styles, technology, English language learner
strategies, culture, assessments, etc. in order to give students an education that will last them a
lifetime. As a kindergarten teacher, I play a crucial part in my students foundation and I provide
them with the tools and stepping stones they need in order to build upon their knowledge in the
grade levels to come. Teach like a Pirate has shown me a new way to look at being an
engaging and effective teacher. For those with strength in the logical and linguistic domains,

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school often provides appropriate and rich educational experiences; but schools have an equal
duty to help those students with the other kinds of strengths to recognize and develop them
(Fernie 1992).

References
Fernie, D. (n.d). Profile: Howard Gardner. vol. 69, no. 3 (Mar 1992), p. 220-227
Generals, D. (2000). Booker T. Washington and Progressive Education: An Experimentalist

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Approach to Curriculum Development and Reform. The Journal of Negro Education, (3).
215.
Kurtz, S. (2009). Teacher Leadership. Leadership, 39(1), 12-38.