Dave Burgess is the New York Times Best-Selling author of Teach Like a PIRATE, co-author of P is for PIRATE, and the president of Dave Burgess Consulting, Inc. which delivers powerful, inspirational, and innovative books, keynotes, and professional development.

I have had conversations with many of Dave and Shelley’s authors and now see that it is all about passion. I was honored and very excited to have a conversation with Dave and learn his story. Listen and enjoy.
 
You and your family
I was born and raised in San Diego, CA and live there with my wife, Shelley, who is an educator and runs our consulting business with me. We have two children. My son, Hayden, is a senior in high school, and my daughter, Ashlyn, is a sophomore. We are just getting into the college applications with our son right now. His top possibilities are University of Miami and UC Santa Barbara. He’s a big-time scuba diver and into marine science so he wants to be on a coast somewhere.

The only time I did not live in San Diego was the five years I went to school at UC Davis as a psychology major which is a great major for educators or even in business. Understanding the mind and how people think is a critical thing.
 
Your journey as a student and an educator
I was a good student and did very well in school, but I was not highly engaged in or on fire about school. I was good at playing the game of school. I knew what I needed to do and I did that. I had some good and bad teachers. I was good at jumping all the hurdles and going through all the hoops I needed to do. My gateway into teaching was as a basketball coach.
The first job I ever held was for three summers with the John Wootten’s Basketball Camps in Thousand Oaks, CA. I came out of college doing various things and different entrepreneurial ventures and then took a job as the boy’s junior varsity basketball coach at high school.
I enjoyed working with the kids so much and coaching that I went back at night to get my teaching credential. Then I became a History teacher in the social studies department at the school where I was coaching and became the girl’s varsity basketball coach. It all started with basketball. I also met my wife, Shelley, in the night classes where we were both getting our teaching credentials.
Empty Kids Into the Gift Shop: Homework thoughts from Dave Burgess https://youtu.be/3CocrqSNGNM
 
Being on Fire
I do miss the day-to-day banter with students along with the kind of relationships you can build when you see someone every day for 180 days. But I am really on fire about what I do now and going around speaking and publishing. I don’t want to go back but I do miss the interactions with the kids.
I want kids to be on fire about school and knocking down the walls to get into a class. How it all started for me as teaching like a pirate was when my department chair reached out to me about being head of professional development. He asked me to put on PD about all the cool stuff I do for kids. About all the things I do in my room that no one understands. He said something that changed my life. “I don’t think you can, because I think the success in your classroom is just you and personality driven.”
“Too many people wait until they are ready to present. You are never going to be “ready.” Take that opportunity when it comes to you and then you get ready.”
I took that as a challenge. I knew I could teach this so I told him to sign me up for one of the workshops for my peers in the district. Then I walked away thinking “I don’t have a workshop, anything written down, or organized in any way.” I got relentless about writing everything down that I thought was successful in my class. But that wasn’t good enough because that was everything that I do....