Passion
Burgess breaks passion for teaching into 3 categories:- Content Passion
- Professional Passion
- Personal Passion
Content Passion
Content passion is that piece of our curriculum that we love to teach. What is it about elementary ELA and/or Math that you enjoy the most? You might even have particular PA Core standard that you enjoy to teach.
Professional Passion
Professional passion is the reason you became a teacher.
"Too often, as we manage the day-to-day stresses of the job, we fail to reconnect with the reasons we felt called to this sacred and invaluable profession in the first place." (5)Even on the days we can't feel passion for what we're teaching, we must always try to remember why we're teaching and keep that in front of us.
Personal Passion
This is what you care about most, completely outside of your profession. Think of the saying "if you do what you love, you'll never have to work a day in your life."
"To keep your passion for teaching alive, find as many ways as possible to incorporate your personal passions into your work." (9)Burgess notes how he will try to use magic whenever he can to make a connection to the content that he is teaching. Show your students how you relate what your most passionate about "allows your students to see how their unique skill sets and passions" can be used to meet their life goals.
Discussion Questions
- How do the three areas of Passion relate to the grade level you teach?
- How can you find ways to allow your students to bring their personal passion to the classroom?
Don't forget to respond to at least one one other person's comment.
ANSWER:
ReplyDelete1. I believe that content passion, professional passion, and personal passion all work hand in hand. When one is lacking, the other takes control. For me, the longer I teach, the more content passion begins to develop. As a third grade teacher, you are covering a wide range of material. When you're truly passionate about what you're teaching or talking about, students know, regardless of their age. I feel like my personal and professional passion are very closely related... which makes "work" feel so much less "work like". I love being able to apply my passions for art and creativity to my teaching of the content I love (and even the content I know I "have to teach"). As the first tested grade, I feel that pressure forces me to produce more content passion to engage all learners.
2. I feel that giving students a multiple intelligences survey/quiz is an easy way to allow my students to bring their personal passion into the classroom. Once I know how they learn best, I can meet their needs as learners. Also, t here are easy ways to make connections with students... starting with just listening to them! Finding out what students are interested in, and connecting it to the content I'm teaching, is a simple way to begin to incorporate their personal passions!
Molly, I agree that all three content, professional and personal passion do go hand-in-hand. It is easy to get bogged down with focusing on just one area, causing the others to suffer. I believe listening will always be the best way to find out about a student's personal passion.
Delete1. In first grade, I believe content passion plays a more significant role for students. That being said, I try to bring professional and personal passion into the classroom to help students realize the importance of what they are learning...the why. The longer I teach the more I understand that what I am teaching is not about test scores but what is necessary for my students to succeed in life. First graders make good pirates, they want to take in all the treasure (knowledge) they can but they know when the captain is lacking passion. I have found that bringing in my personal passion helps in keeping my crew interested in learning.
ReplyDelete2. Listening provides the best way to learn about their passions. Sometimes this listening happens in a an answer to a question or on the playground or as they come in the door or at the end of the day. I have had students share their personal passions and it has had a ripple effect through out the whole class for the whole year. The one year it was a new student who was named after an explorer, he started the class on wanting to learn about explorers and history.
"...But they know when the captain is lacking passion." Yes, yes and yes. So how do we keep that passion for what we do going when it feel like the weight of the world is sometimes coming down on us.
DeleteI remember hearing once about letting everyone in your class be in an expert in something that they're passionate about. So say I'm an expert in soccer. Anytime we discuss a new topic, be it Math, Science, Social Studies, Literacy, my job as the soccer expert is to explain to the class how how our topic of study relates to soccer. I'd love to have the opportunity to try this in a classroom. I think it is a way to keep students passionate about what they're learning and give them the "why" when it comes to why is it important.
ReplyDelete