Passionate Teaching

Passionate Teaching.....Do you have the PASSION?

While I am off on maternity I thought about using some of  my spare time to create.  

Spare time?  What is that?  

 I personally create many items in my classroom, share them and use them again.  I enjoy creating, brainstorming and seeing how it turns out with my students.

This past week and a half I have tried to expand some of my creativity to a primary french resource.  I thought to myself...hey...no problem....you speak french....you have taught primary.....how hard can it be?

Wrong. It took me soooooooo much longer to put together the ideas.  Seems silly when you think about primary and the concepts are relatively easy. I should be able to put together a little booklet no problem!  I couldn't believe that I was having this road block.  

Was this mommy brain I was facing?   I love to create right?  So, why then was this so difficult?

One word.  

PASSION!

I have no passion for primary. I don't do cutsy in my creations and I struggled with now adding the cute clip art, fonts and details.  I struggled with creating something that would be "out of the box". Is this creation of mine even useful to a primary teacher? I will get back to you on that as I have a classroom trying it out in the next couple of days.

I enjoy the teenage years.  I like the challenge of engaging them with technology or other creative ways. I enjoy thinking outside the box to reach students who at times don't want to be at school, don't have the materials they need or the motivation to finish a project to the end. That is my passion.  That is what gets me thinking.  

This ties back to the thought of the genius hour.  If it took me, an adult and a professional an extra week to find motivation to do something that I am not passionate about then just imagine what it is like to be a thirteen year old and trying to complete something you hate.  I realise we all have to do things we don't like at times but it gives me the motivation to try and find ways to motivate students.  

Are you passionate about your teaching?  Are you passionate about something in your life?

Yes! I am.  

I believe the next step would be to share your passions with your students.  Show them that you are human and have a desire to continue to learn, grow and create.  This too might motivate the students to learn outside of school and in school.  

Last year before my baby was born I decided that I wanted to learn to crochet. I watched a ton of you tube videos and taught myself some of the basic stitches.  I shared this little secret learning with one of my students.  She herself, laughed when she heard of my struggles with the tutorials because she could crochet.  She then opened up and shared with me that she had researched in her own spare time some art concepts and tutorials with youtube.  It was an amazing moment between teacher and student about learning.

Passionate learning takes time!

Here is a beautiful picture of my start of crochet experience.  It took a while to figure out how to crochet...straight.  

I persevered and I can now say I know a few basic stitches and how to crochet in a reasonably straight line.  Here is my finished blanket.

Finished product! A baby blanket for our new baby.

  

This learning did not occur in school.  It occurred outside of school, in my spare time about a topic I was passionate about. 

Could you just imagine what we would inspire students to do if they had the choice and the freedom to explore their own passions?

I get the goosebumps just thinking about it!