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After watching the videos assigned this week, I spent a considerable amount of time on the website, Math Coach's Corner. It is a blog written by a Math Interventionist who highlights various helpful books. In 2013, she chose to conduct her Book Study Mondays on the Dave Burgess book Teach Like a Pirate; each Monday focused on one of the letters in the PIRATE acronym. The Burgess quote she highlighted in week she discussed Immersion spoke to me:
"I can walk by the open door of a classroom and tell you after a couple of minutes whether the teacher is a lifeguard or a swimmer. A lifeguard sits above the action and supervises the pool deck. Although he or she is focused, there is a distinct sense of separateness both physically and mentally. In contrast, a swimmer is out participating and an integral part of the action." (Burgess)
I had to ask myself, am I a lifeguard or a swimmer? Certainly both - but which is more effective? I am a lifeguard when I circulate and check on my students as they practice their typing skills. I am a lifeguard when I am editing student work from my Remote Desktop application before they present. I am a swimmer when I am seated beside a student as they are navigating a new presentation tool or in the process of researching. The advent of Remote Desktop software is a great help as far as software management, and tools like controlling, commenting, chatting and others are helpful; it is important to be mindful, however, that when using these tools and 'connecting' with students as they work, it is more difficult to build Rapport and show true Enthusiasm, as Burgess calls for in his strategies.
I am a Geek. I've always been a Geek, and have only within the last ten or so years realized it and have become comfortable proclaiming it, sharing it, and being happy about it. My students know that I am passionate about the environment, growing my own food, taking care of my bees and raising chickens (and my kids, of course). Ramirez writes, in her article for Edutopia:
"Be a passion-based teacher. Take on a new learning posture with your students by presenting a story behind the topic you are teaching, or by showing its beauty, or by delighting in the topic. Get in touch with your inner geek. When you do that, you give students permission to do the same."
When I talk about my chickens, and name them, and show them pictures on the overhead projector of them trying to get into my house or surrounding my cat on the patio, my students sit up a little straighter. They stop talking to each other, contribute to the topic, and talk about their own pets, passions, and interests. When I talk about bees and pollination and the critical state of affairs with regard to pesticides and the future of our planet's ecosystems, they can relate. Someone has a garden, someone else composts, and another kid inadvertently stepped on an entire nest of yellow jackets over the summer. Our inquiry based learning projects are very often 'choose your own topic' under the umbrella of environmental issues or something similar, and my demonstration mini-lessons always deal with one of my interests. I normally justify this indulgence by saying that I'd go crazy if I had to teach the same thing over and over, so I vary my topic according to the season or what I'm currently working on. The truth of the matter is, though, that when I am interested in a topic - when I geek out - I do better work. The quality of my mini-lessons are better. My enthusiasm is greater. And my students get more out of the content - and me - than they may have otherwise.
Ramirez, Ainissa. "Passion-Based Learning." Edutopia. . Web. 2 April 2013
"Teach Like a PIRATE: Building a Better Pirate." Math Coach's Corner. 25 Mar. 2013. Web.