Tech Like a PIRATE. Matt Miller

if we could flip that script? What if it felt like 2 + 2 + 2 + 2 = 13? What if we were surprised at how effective our teaching was and couldn’t put our finger on the reason?

      Positivity, emotion, and play can play a powerful role in our lives—and definitely in our classrooms. This is borne out by an expanding body of research. We’re 31 percent more productive when our brains are in a positive state rather than in a neutral or negative state (Achor 2011). Emotional events often attain a privileged status in memory (LaBar and Cabeza 2006), and, according to the National Institute for Play, “Long-term studies under way indicate that play-based learning with playful teachers heightens overall long term performance.”

      That’s just scratching the surface. Positivity, emotion, and play are at the heart of engaging students in class, and they make a statement. Student engagement isn’t silliness that defeats true academic work. It can be a catalyst to the learning of our dreams. Making learning fun can be dismissed as fluff, nonsense, or a barrier to true learning. When fun doesn’t enhance the learning in some way, it can indeed leave us spinning our wheels. But we can look at learning through a fun lens! Use a compelling story or a favorite app—anything that puts the lesson of the day in a new light will grab students’ attention. When we get the lens right, we can transform a drab, lifeless lesson into exciting territory. For instance, what would Marie Curie’s Twitter feed have looked like as she experimented with radiation? What would text messages between Brutus and Cassius have looked like before they betrayed Caesar? Would they have shown remorse afterward?

      Fun doesn’t stand in the way of learning. On the contrary, it is the path to the learning of our dreams.

      The Power of the PIRATE

      In 2012, Dave Burgess published Teach Like a PIRATE, in which he described the success he’d had with PIRATE teaching. These six characteristics make up his method:

      Passion: Feeling passionate about teaching, even if you’re not passionate about the subject you’re teaching

      Immersion: Being fully present and fully at attention in the moment with your students

      Rapport: Connecting with students on a personal level to build a safe, fun environment

      Ask/analyze: Asking the right questions about your teaching ideas and constantly analyzing their effectiveness

      Transformation: Rethinking what’s possible in the classroom to break down barriers

      Enthusiasm: Harnessing this most powerful tool in the classroom to create high-impact teaching

      I got my copy of Teach Like a PIRATE in 2015 as a birthday gift. (Yes, I’m that kind of teaching geek. I ask for education books for my birthday! I still have that copy—coffee stains, worn cover, damaged corners, and all.) It changed my thinking about teaching almost immediately. My brain reeled when I asked myself Burgess’s most provocative question: “If your students didn’t have to be there, would you be teaching in an empty room?”

      Then there’s this line—it stuck with me the most then and it still speaks to me now: “Don’t just teach a lesson. Create an experience!”

      By itself, a lesson isn’t an experience. Imagine someone says, “I want to teach you a lesson.” What do you do? Do you lean in? Or do you fake an important phone call to get away as fast as you can? We’re generally not excited about being taught a lesson. But we’re always up for an experience. An experience is memorable. It engages the senses—sight, smell, hearing, taste, touch. It piques our interest. It lets our vivid imagination take us on an adventure. An experience charges our emotions, leaving us wanting more.

      I read through the stories, suggestions, and hooks for engaging teaching in Teach Like a PIRATE, and I kept returning to the same epiphany: so many of the book’s ideas could be enhanced with technology—free digital tools and tech that many schools had readily available in classrooms.

      Many teachers had all the components for a memorable, techy learning experience in front of them. They just couldn’t see how to assemble them to build something bigger. Something more memorable—and more effective.

      I didn’t realize it at the time, but I started writing this book back in 2015, when I first read Teach Like a PIRATE. It fit perfectly next to Ditch That Textbook, my blog-turned-book, where I write about the role of classroom tech in creating meaningful learning.

      Pirates and Technology? Yes!

      In my eleven years teaching high school Spanish, English, and journalism, I’ve always looked for ways that tech could add to the learning experience. Hearing from other educators about how they’ve approached this has only confirmed my commitment to centering technology in the classroom. It’s amazing what it allows us to do:

       We can talk face-to-face with experts and other classrooms like ours all over the world with video calls.

       We can share our work widely with authentic audiences through websites and podcasts.

       We can blur the border of the digital world and the real world through augmented reality.

       We can make learning visible, showing what’s in our brains, with graphic design tools.

       We can create audio and video with superb production quality.

      When tech is centered, students still learn. But they also develop vital skills—technical skills, communication, creativity—that will serve them later, in the workforce.

      Classroom tech can help make learning fun, too. That’s the heart of this book: we can weave student engagement and tech like a tapestry to create an experience that amplifies student learning.

      When Risk-Taking Is Worth It

      Near the top of my list of guilty pleasures is Top Gun, a classic film of the 1980s. I rarely pass up an opportunity to watch it. It chronicles the journey of Pete Mitchell, a US Navy fighter pilot with the call sign Maverick. Maverick’s superior skills earn him a seat in the navy’s advanced combat fighter school, known as Top Gun.

      When Maverick arrives for his Top Gun training, the school’s instructors find that he’s no textbook-compliant student. Maverick is a risk-taker. His combat tactics are unconventional. For example, in a training flight, he battles against Jester, one of his instructors. Jester approaches Maverick’s plane from the rear, the optimal place to be in a dogfight between two planes. Maverick tries the traditional moves to shake Jester off his tail, but to no avail. Then, in the moment, Maverick imagines a move that would catch Jester completely off guard. In the middle of this high-speed pursuit, Maverick decides to pitch the nose of his plane straight up and slam on the brakes, causing Jester to pass by and put Maverick in the better tactical position.

      Now Maverick has Jester right where he wants him. Jester is scrambling for his life. When his skills can’t save him, Jester does what only an instructor can do in a training flight. He dives below the “hard deck,” the minimum safe altitude, effectively taking the competition out of bounds and ending it before Maverick can defeat him.

      Maverick, however, won’t have it. He follows Jester out of bounds, flying dangerously low into the California mountains, and takes his shot. Maverick celebrates his victory over Jester.

      When Maverick and his partner Goose reach the ground, the instructors aren’t celebrating. They chew Maverick out for breaking protocol and putting lives in danger. Maverick leaves the office with regrets.

      Among themselves, though, the instructors