—Mandi Tolen, math teacher, Google Certified Innovator
The goal of every educator is to enrich their students’ lives by imparting knowledge and sparking a passion for learning. Matt helps push us to slay our doubt and overcome roadblocks that may keep us from creating experiences that amplify learning.
—Lance McClard, elementary-school principal
Tech Like a PIRATE
Using Classroom Technology to Create an Experience and Make Learning Memorable
Matt Miller
Tech Like a PIRATE: Using Classroom Technology to Create an Experience and Make Learning Memorable
© 2020 Matt Miller
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing by the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review. For information regarding permission, contact the publisher at [email protected].
This book is available at special discount when purchased in quantity for educational purposes or as premiums, promotions, or fundraisers. For inquiries and details, contact the publisher at [email protected].
Published by Dave Burgess Consulting, Inc.
San Diego, CA
Library of Congress Control Number: 2020935815
Paperback ISBN: 978-1-951600-20-4
E-book ISBN: 978-1-951600-21-1
Cover and interior design by Liz Schreiter
To all the real maverick teachers, the ones who faced pressure but still did what they knew was best for kids. You’re the real risk-takers. Your students thank you. I thank you. And the world thanks you.
Contents
1. Tech Like a PIRATE, Teach Like a Maverick
3. Video (and Audio) Killed the Chalkboard Star
4. All the World’s a Game, and We Are All Players
5. From Four Thousand Miles to Four Inches
6. Brain-Friendly, Instagram-Worthy Learning
7. Charting the Course to a Learning Expedition
8. Learning with New Friends around the World
9. Slaying
Take the Maverick Teacher Creed
More from Dave Burgess Consulting, Inc.
Introduction
Reshaping the Information Economy
Urinals and toilet stalls: they have something to teach us about teaching.
In recent years, we’ve seen something new in public restrooms: advertisements. They’re on the wall above a urinal or on the doors of toilet stalls. Why? You’re a captive audience. Someone realized that your eyes were going to be fixed on that spot for a short period of time. (Unless you’re checking social media while you’re doing your business. But you wouldn’t do that . . . or would you?) So they sold a mini billboard to place there.
Restroom advertising counts on your attention. And attention is hard to get these days. Notifications keep our cell phones buzzing and dinging, begging us to look at them. Social media is designed to keep our eyes on it—and our fingers scrolling. Online videos and TV use short scenes and segments so we won’t click away.
It’s hard for advertisers and social media to keep our attention. It’s infinitely harder for us to retain attention in the classroom! I’ll bet you’ve seen the results: glazed-over eyes, easily distracted students. Plus, when teaching’s perceived as a drag by our students, it weighs on teachers. This sense of drudgery has contributed to a massive teacher shortage in the United States. “There is no sign that the large shortage of credentialed teachers—overall, and especially in high-poverty schools—will go away,” write researchers in an Economic Policy Institute study (Garcia and Weiss 2019).
This raises an important question: how can we expect students to remember what we want them to remember when class is so forgettable?
Let’s ditch the forgettable and embrace the memorable. When class is memorable, the classroom atmosphere is electric. Students enter the flow state described by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1997) where their focus causes them to lose track of time and their surroundings. Learning is fun—for students and teacher!
It’s all about the lens we see learning through. If our focus is we have to learn this or it’s on the test, it’s drudgery. But looking at class through the lens of memorable experience can transform everything! A response to a writing prompt becomes a live news report from the scene. Being asked to demonstrate your two main takeaways feels more like recording a fun YouTube video to share with friends. The question becomes: What lens will you look through today to make class memorable?
When we have our students’ full attention, they’re learning in powerful ways they weren’t before. Memorable teaching. You don’t even need to put anything in a toilet stall to get it.
1 Tech Like a PIRATE, Teach Like a Maverick
Sit down. Listen to the teacher. Do this worksheet. Read this chapter and answer the questions at the end. Some of the traditional teaching practices we’ve used for decades just don’t get the results they once did. When we add up everything we do in class, it feels like 2 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 2 = 5. It’s a lot of work without much to show for it.