What is passion? Having passion for teaching is not always a convenient thing. Sometimes it makes your life more difficult and it makes you stand out. Being a passionate teacher will get you noticed by administrators which will in turn get you noticed by colleagues. Those colleagues will not view you as passionate but rather as a “butt kisser” or worse… If you are lucky you will be surrounded by passionate teachers but I am realist and know that not everyone has the same passion for their job. I feel very fortunate to be surrounded by many passionate teachers and administrators. To me, passion for teaching has many definitions.
Passion is annoying when your coworkers are not as passionate as you are.
Passion is pushy when you are trying to get people behind a new idea.
Passion is when you are mad they called a snow day because you love going to work.
Passion is when you defend your job to a complete stranger in Great Clips because he is badmouthing teachers.
Passion is not settling for what has always been done and you search for what works now.
Passion is when you help kids during lunch time even though your union rep says it is a bad idea.
Passion is voluntarily staying up until 2am on a Saturday attending a virtual conference.
Passion is doing and not talking about making things better for your students.
Passion is loving and caring for your students like your own children.
Passion is not settling for mediocrity.
Passion is teaching beyond the bells.
Passion is not talking about would could be but rather doing what will be.
Teach with passion and please if you are not passionate about working with children, please step aside because there are many passionate educators waiting in the wings…
9 comments:
I love this. Thanks for writing it.
Have you read The Passionate Teacher by Robert Fried? It's one of my top 10 education books.
I agree! "If you are lucky you will be surrounded by passionate teachers"
Wonderful. Stay passionate! This would be a great exercise for students as they write about their passions. - maureen devlin
Great post! As a school principal, I am a proponent and believer in teachers who possess deep content-area knowledge and a toolbox full of proven resources and techniques. Without question though, passion trumps all. Always.
Keep spreading the Passion-Driven message! You might enjoy The Passion-Driven Classroom by @AngelaMaiers and @SandvoldAmyM You Get it!!!!!
I just wish there were more of us :)
I agree with your statements. I would like to add to the list: passion is giving more of yourself then you knew you had to give.
Just read this post and it filled me with the inspiration I was looking for. Thank you.
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