Starting the #TLAP Journey

I was first introduced to "Teach Like a Pirate" through Twitter and shortly after purchased the book.  Two edcamps later #edcampGB and #edcampmadwi  I was well underway on my journey.  When we were skyping with Dave Burgess at #edcampmadwi, he challenged all of our thinking as to how we approach each day in the classroom.  Would your students buy a ticket to come to your class if they didn't have to show up? Is each lesson that you present a "Life Changing Lesson."  He argued that we should fight to keep the attention where it matters.  As teachers, we are life changing agents.  How cool would it be to have that on your ID badge at school instead of "________teacher"

There are three parts to the lesson that he touched on: the content, the technique and methods, and the presentation.  This made me question how I show up to class everyday to teach.  I know that I'm not the most passionate about some of the things that I teach, and I could only imagine being a student sitting through that.  I'm only in my third year of contracted teaching and there have been so many other things I've been worried about like transitions and classroom management.  Dave encouraged us to create hooks in each of our lessons.  This could be a question, movie trailer, QR code, password, guest speaker etc.  I reflected upon my current practice as an educator and contemplated how I could mix it up a bit.  This was the day that my approach to teaching changed.....

"Seeking greatness as an educator is the ultimate act of unselfishness. It's where the rising tide lifts all ships. It has a life changing impact on the world."  
Quoted by: @burgessdave #tlap #edcampmadwi

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