David Burgess offers Teach Like a Pirate to educators wanting to up their game and make attending class a memorable experience. He encourages experimentation and a willingness to fail in an attempt to make class entertaining and informative.
He rejects the notion that classes have to be rigorous in the strict definition of the term. These classes make learning hard, inflexible and painful. He prefers offering challenging learning experiences that engage students. He does not sacrifice content for entertainment but encourages educators to go for it and make their classes memorable and unforgettable.
This took me back to an experience in practical math during a high school vocational agricultural class. Our teacher Mr. Larson asked us to measure the height of a light pole in the parking lot. The seniors measured it by climbing up the pole. He asked us if there was a different way. I asked him if the sun was shining. He said it was. We measured the length of a the poles shadow and the length of the shadow of a shorter object of known length and used it to calculate the height of the pole. It helps negate the effect of situational dependent learning and allowed us to take mathematics into the real world.
I recently worked with our local 6th graders at JA BizTown. Each of the students in the class had to do various tasks in the town from running a corporation, a rental agency, a bank, a newspaper or radio station. Each company needed to make a profit, pay taxes, do billing, collect payments and budget for expenses. I was impressed with several of the students ability to pick up the skills, following up on unpaid bills and cleaning up the balance sheet.
40 minute discussion with the author
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