Teaching with Passion
I have been posed with the question whether I was passionate about teaching or not. This is a self posed question and I have had to think about what my answer would be. After careful consideration this is the answer I have composed.
My passion lies in the shaping of young minds. My passion lies in finding new opportunities to learn from the subject at hand and the students in my class. My passion lies in the words and art and dramatizations. My passion lies with the look in a students eye when the concept becomes apparent. So am I passionate about teaching, yes I am very passionate. However, I am struggling to convey that to my students. I think they see glimpses of my passion but I am struggling to convey this passion on a daily basis. You may ask why.
Well the reason I find I am struggling is my internal perfectionism. I am a perfectionist at heart and I do not like to lead my students down paths that are not perfectly smooth. I love presenting labs to students because it allows them to explore on their own, but if they don't get it right I feel like I have failed them. I have corrected a few labs and the students results are inaccurate or confused and now I am struggling with how I can fix this discovery to meet the curriculum goal. I struggle teaching right now because the subject matter is not the subject I am or was most passionate about in school.
Obviously it is science, which was tied as my worst subject with math, go figure right. I didn't struggle with math or science per se, I just somehow caught onto the concepts and was able to apply them over and over. Maybe my science and math was more rote memorization of formulas then actual higher level thinking which is why I did well, but did not develop a passion for it. I am trying to develop a passion for my science curriculum that I am teaching, but because I struggle with the concepts I don't know that I can present them to my students in a conducive manner.
So from the teachers out there, how do you teach a subject you are not passionate about in a passionate manner? What strategies do you employ in your classrooms that are more easily transferred from subject to subject? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
My passion lies in the shaping of young minds. My passion lies in finding new opportunities to learn from the subject at hand and the students in my class. My passion lies in the words and art and dramatizations. My passion lies with the look in a students eye when the concept becomes apparent. So am I passionate about teaching, yes I am very passionate. However, I am struggling to convey that to my students. I think they see glimpses of my passion but I am struggling to convey this passion on a daily basis. You may ask why.
Well the reason I find I am struggling is my internal perfectionism. I am a perfectionist at heart and I do not like to lead my students down paths that are not perfectly smooth. I love presenting labs to students because it allows them to explore on their own, but if they don't get it right I feel like I have failed them. I have corrected a few labs and the students results are inaccurate or confused and now I am struggling with how I can fix this discovery to meet the curriculum goal. I struggle teaching right now because the subject matter is not the subject I am or was most passionate about in school.
Obviously it is science, which was tied as my worst subject with math, go figure right. I didn't struggle with math or science per se, I just somehow caught onto the concepts and was able to apply them over and over. Maybe my science and math was more rote memorization of formulas then actual higher level thinking which is why I did well, but did not develop a passion for it. I am trying to develop a passion for my science curriculum that I am teaching, but because I struggle with the concepts I don't know that I can present them to my students in a conducive manner.
So from the teachers out there, how do you teach a subject you are not passionate about in a passionate manner? What strategies do you employ in your classrooms that are more easily transferred from subject to subject? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Comments
Post a Comment