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What Teachers Can Learn From Billy Mays
TV pitchman Billy Mays poses with some of his cleaning products at his Palm Harbor, Fla., home. O'Meara/AP
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Tom DeRosa
Tom DeRosa, known to his students and colleagues as “Mr. D,” has taught middle school social studies and middle through high school math in public, charter and alternative school settings. In 2008, he published Ten Cheap Lessons: Easy, Engaging Ideas for Every Secondary Classroom, his highly adaptable teacher resource book. He continues to share ideas, inspiration and resources to help teachers on his blog I Want to Teach Forever.
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Tom DeRosa | TheApple.com
Of all the celebrity deaths over the past few months, the one that hit me the hardest was TV pitchman extraordinaire Billy Mays. Mays was the one who I always thought had the most to teach us, because when you break our profession down to its core, we are all salespeople. The only difference is that instead of selling OxiClean, Kaboom, or Mighty Putty, we’re selling linear equations, Shakespeare and the Civil War.
There’s a reason that Mays quickly outgrew his infomercial roots and became a celebrity, and that’s because there was an equal mix of sincerity, enthusiasm, and volume behind every product he was given. Mays believes in these products, I thought, and he just reaches out and grabs you through your TV. I thought I might be crazy until my suspicions were confirmed by watching him on his tragically short -lived reality series, Pitchmen. The lessons for those of us in the classroom were crystal clear:
You have to believe in what you’re selling.
You have to use it, know it, understand why it’s important and worthy of someone’s attention. You have to be willing to do crazy things to prove what you say is true.
You have to present it to them with a high level of enthusiasm.
You have to be willing to poke fun at yourself.
And finally, you have to project everything clearly in your teacher voice!
What unlikely source have you learned a professional lesson from?
kimtaylor
about 1 month ago
258 comments
I agree, I was disappointed when he died too (although I was also disappointed to hear it was drug related- I though Billy Mays was better than that!). He did have a contagious charisma. Interesting insights into the association to teaching!
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tarihardy
about 1 month ago
80 comments
I've always said that a good teacher has to be part song-and-dance man, and part magician. We have to hold our students' attention, provide them with meaningful information, and help them make an emotional connection to that info. The more tricks we have up the sleeve, the better our success will be.
TheMadman
2 months ago
52 comments
Could not agree more!!! Like I tell and have always told my students, colleagues, friends, and family, a teacher is three things: an advertiser, an actor, and a salesperson. Glad to finally know I am not the only one who thinks like that!