This past weekend we had one of those weekends that are few
and far between during the summer months for us. We did not go anywhere or have anyone over. This is a rather odd occurrence for us as we
usually spend the summer catching up with friends and family or traveling to a
favorite destination. Instead we spent
the weekend at home and doing things locally. Jack learned to ride his bike, we
put together Alice’s toddler bed, went to the farmer’s market, a movie, church,
and fishing. Sounded relaxing at the
start didn’t it, well it was and it wasn’t.
By the time we got to fishing on Sunday afternoon and got the poles in
the water, I think I had barked at Jack and Liz one too many times when Jack
asked me, “are we having fun yet?” See
sometimes when I one of our kids gets frustrated I ask them, “are we having fun
yet?” So this time Jack turned the tables and flipped the question back on
me. This was a stop and think moment for
me. I needed to step back and actually
enjoy what we were doing.
This is also what we need to remember to do throughout the
school year in our classrooms and buildings.
There will be times when we no doubt get frustrated, but we have to be
able to step back and remember that if we are not having fun then neither are
our students. If we are going to engage
them and increase learning opportunities we have to try to create as many
enjoyable experiences as possible. I recently finished reading Dave Burgess’ book
Teach Like a Pirate and believe there are three major ideas we can steal
to help us remember to have fun!
1)
Just like
any good educator he states that relationships and rapport are very important
to be engage students. You have to know
what they find exciting or interesting.
They have to trust you to be able to step out of their comfort zone in
your class. When you ask them to share
and share about yourself this will lead to building some trust. As with anything you have to follow through
and deliver for that trust to come full circle. Burgess knows the tone is set the first few days, if you don’t
start to establish it then you will find it more difficult to do the longer you
wait. You can’t bore them with a
syllabus for two days and then start building relationships. It begins right away. If you really want to have fun, get to know
your students on day one!
2)
Transform
your classroom and instruction. Burgess
says, “Provide an uncommon experience for your students and they will reward
you with an uncommon effort and attitude.”
To get this generation’s attention he tells us that we
have to be remarkable. Ordinary is not
going to get it done or set you apart from other teachers. I would ask you, what will make your class
great? Similar to how Burgess asks, what
lesson could you sell tickets for? Talk
about a measuring stick! If you really
want to have fun, work to plan the best lesson you have ever taught!
3)
Always approach your classroom with passion and
enthusiasm. If you take nothing else
away from Burgess’ work it should be that students can tell how excited we are
and see right through those that are trying to fake their way through it. You have to bring it on a daily basis. Think about it, we have all sat through
terrible lectures and presentations.
Usually those people were not even excited themselves. How can we expect our students to have any
more passion than we do? If you really want to have fun, tap into
your passion, we are all creative we just have to go for it!
I hope those of you that took time to read this post will
also read this book and buy it for you teachers if you are an administrator. Books such as this inspire me to be better
than I am, and get me excited for the school year. One of the teachers I recently hired is a
veteran of 25 years. He summed it up
well during his interview when he said, if we didn’t have fun in class today,
then I did something wrong. I believe your students will without a doubt
love you for it and learn far more than you thought possible if we increase
those opportunities.
Be Great and Get Better!
Matt
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