Standing out from the crowd is the only way to guarantee your message is received in a culture that is increasingly distracted and where attention spans are plummeting.

Thanks to Dave Burgess for this line and others in his book, Teach Like a PIRATE.  Not only does standing out from the crowd make a teacher - a classroom - special and memorable, but it does, as Mr. Burgess explains, ensure that the lesson is delivered effectively.  I have found this, over and over, to be true.  In a world that is increasingly engrossed in electronic screens at every turn, the effective teacher will only reach his students by standing out.  I know I write about this all the time, as if it is my mission in life, but if all I do as a teacher is read the script from a teacher edition, I can only expect to be as good as the teacher in the next room, the teacher across town, and any teacher reading the same script from the same textbook.  Need to see more from Burgess?

Too many schools are filled with brown cow classes that blend into the background.  I am relentlessly focused and immersed in the orchestrated effort to be the antithesis of the brown cow.  I want entering my room to feel like entering another world.

Chretien!  Ce ne fut point Montcalm et la prudence,
     Ces arbres renversė, ce hėros, leur exploits,
Qui des Anglais confus ont brisė l'espėrance;
     C'est le bras de ton Dieu, vainqueur sur cette croix.

Christian, behold!  Not all the care that Montcalm took,
     Nor this fearsome abatis, nor all our heroes' feats
Have stunned the English here, have shattered all their hopes;
​     Instead the arm of God prevailed, the victor of this cross.

Dave Burgess writes about Six Words that bother him:  "It's easy for you.  You're creative." While I see colleagues spending money on Teachers Pay Teachers and looking for lesson ideas in the Teacher Edition, I have always done better by making lessons myself.  I will curate ideas and materials online and from a variety of sources, but I seem to require taking "ownership" before something works for me.  That means I have to be creative in the way I put things together. "It's easy for you.  You're creative."  Yeah, I've heard that several times from several people, but I've never thought of it the way Burgess presents it in Teach Like a PIRATE.

It's easy for me.  Really?  So with four words she dismissed sixteen years of had work!...Sixteen years of failures and lessons that blew up in my face.  Sixteen years of fine-tuning ideas and making adjustments because what I thought were great ideas went completely wrong.  Sixteen years of having to abandon lessons part way through the day in order to salvage something useful.

...It wasn't easy when I started, it wasn't easy last week, and it won't be easy next week either.  It's not supposed to be easy - it's supposed to be worth it.  You can build something incredible if you put the effort in on the front end, and then keep putting the effort in until you turn the lights off and close your door for the last time.  But it won't be "easy."

Dave Burgess authors a section of Teach Like a PIRATE that deals with the topic of passion in educators.  He writes about different ways to find the passion, even when the teacher is not happy with a topic, a standard, or a method. After that, he talks about being with the students and not standing on the sidelines.  He demonstrates this by telling about his son's swimming lessons with two teachers.  One stood on the sidewalk and hollered instructions to the boy, but the other was in the pool, swimming alongside the youngsters.  The latter, he writes, was more effective.

Well, here's what I say:  At some point in your career you have to decide if you care more about teaching to tests or teaching kids.  My decision was made a long time ago.  I teach kids.  Don't let the current overemphasis on standardized test scores lead to the loss of the teachable moment.  Having the right structure and using your time in the classroom effectively allows you the flexibility to let "the moment" happen without any sense of guilt.  Sometimes we need to just "be" with our students and take the figurative walk through the canyons with them.

Wednesday, November 13, 2019:  Fort Loudoun Since my study of the French and Indian War has focused on locations further north, closer to the Canadian border, our first scheduled virtual field trip to Fort Loudoun in Tennessee intrigues me.  Hopefully this experience will add to our understanding of this prelude to the Revolution.  Fort Loudoun describes this hook-up like this:

During the French and Indian War (1754-1763), the British Colony of South Carolina felt threatened by French trade activities in the Mississippi River Valley. To counter this, the colony sent the Independent Company of South Carolina to build and garrison what became Fort Loudoun in 1756. Located in present-day Tennessee, this post acted as a deterrent to the French and temporarily strengthened ties between the British and Overhill Cherokee. However, this alliance would fall apart in 1759, leading the Cherokee to besiege and capture the fort in 1760.

This lesson will introduce participants to the complex diplomatic relationships between the English and Native people of the South Eastern United States through the story of Fort Loudoun. Participants will interact with staff dressed in 18th-century clothing, learn about the different people who lived at the fort during its four-year existence and discuss the life of a soldier in the king's service during the French and Indian War.

Last year, we took advantage of the opportunity to visit Thomas Jefferson's Monticello.  We were able to ask questions about artifacts and architecture, and our tour guide was very knowledgable.  Here is how the folks at Monticello describe this virtual field trip:

Monticello was the home of Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence and 3rd president of the United States of America. The revolutionary ideas of this man of the Enlightenment were instrumental in the creation of the United States. His home in Charlottesville, Virginia, is an architectural icon, with its neoclassical design drafted by Jefferson himself. But Monticello was also a working plantation, and the home to hundreds of enslaved people. The Founding Father who wrote “all men are created equal” was also a lifelong slave owner. Using images, props, and Google Streetview, a Monticello educator will introduce students to Thomas Jefferson’s world.