I look forward to reading on plane rides. I have family on the West Coast so I fly frequently and like to make use of air time. This summer, one of the books that renewed my motivation the most was Teach Like a Pirate by Dave Burgess. His candid, honest passion provided the perfect prelude to begin the new school year.

While I never had the honor of meeting and attending one of Mr. Burgess’s seminars, I imagine he writes like he speaks because the book reads as if he were standing in the room enthusiastically cheering on his readers. I bookmarked, highlighted and noted a number of his sentences that I’ll undoubtedly refer to throughout the year ahead.

The book is divided into three parts: In Part I. Burgess defines his philosophy, what the difference between passion and enthusiasm is to him, and how teachers can best utilize both to motivate students to learn. In Part II, Dave offers hooks to add to any content to raise student interest along with brainstorming questions to help teachers elevate engagement for even the most mundane lesson plan. In Part III, final instructions and thoughts are given to translate the words in this book into our own classrooms.

One thing that Dave Burgess advocates is to incorporate your personal passions into the classroom as much as you can. This got me thinking, “What am I already doing to share my personal passions to model learning enjoyment, and what more can I do for students to see that class content connects to real world interests?”

Supplementary text, articles, videos and artifacts I am constantly on the lookout for new supplementary material for my students to study in conjunction with our main curricular units. Common Core advocates the use of mentor texts, and I cannot agree more. I recently started new Diigo and Feedly accounts to help me curate and keep track of resources.

Blogging in the classroom. I enjoy blogging as a venue to share my own writing. This year, in fact, I was hired by my podiatrist to write professionally on his website. In class, this will be the fourth year incorporating blogging into the curriculum for my students. Each school year is a bit different, depending on the kids and what we are reading, but students always appreciate and benefit from writing for authentic audiences along with gaining those digital skills. See a previous POST on my blogging in the classroom experiences.

Fitness: I frequent the gym five or six times a week, and believe mental cognition is connected to our motor abilities. I sometimes have my students stand up and warm-up with arm circles, knee steps, even jumping jacks to get the blood and brain waves flowing as we begin class. I also use ‘building brain muscle’ analogies frequently as we learn new ideas. Here’s a post I recently wrote about “Fitness for Educators.”

Cooking – Preparing new recipes in the kitchen is therapeutic to me, and I read cookbooks from cover to cover as if they are novels. Over the summer, I purchased an Easy Bake Oven that looks very different from the one I owned as a child. I’m either giving it to my five-year old niece OR – if I get brave enough – bringing it to class to bake cookies during writing or reading sessions, to give students that fresh-out-of-the-oven comfort as they work. I originally spotted this idea in Alice Keeler’s blog post, “10 Easy Things to Try in Your Classroom in 2015.” Alice Keeler is a professional development educator I connect with on my PLN.

These are just a few of the many new ventures I’d like to try this year. Reading Teach Like a Pirate renewed my sense of wonder and excitement as I contemplated new things to try in class to continually improve myself as a teacher. Educators, if you are looking for a book to renew your inspiration or energy, this is the one to read. I have yet to read a professional development book as passionate as this one. Go ahead, dare to walk the plank and teach like a pirate! The water below is with a school of eager souls who truly WANT to learn and be inspired.