A PASSION FOR TEACHING EVOKES A PASSION FOR LEARNING
Passion is an important yet often underused word. Don’t we want our kids to feel passionate about what they do? Too often, the reason they don’t is because they don’t see us model it. Again, remember the zeal and zest your best teachers exhibited, and how that made you feel during their class. “Why is Mr. G. jumping on that desk to make that speech?” “Why is Ms. L. running around the room” rather than staying in front of the room like most teachers?
Good teachers make the classroom a place where humor is the norm. They make a room “ours,” not just his or hers. They make it a place where everyone can safely be themselves. They make rooms where mutual respect is the norm. They make rooms where students are not afraid to try. They know it is ok to give a wrong answer, not because it will be accepted, but because it (not they) will be corrected without fanfare. It’s just normal trial and error. If at first you don’t succeed. . . .Develop more of those classrooms, and watch kids soar.
This one day, I was working with the defensive linemen on stance and start drills, the football equivalent to the most basic reading or math skill, necessary for everything else to work properly. One of my charges (I’ll call him Ray) was a big, fast kid who had been continually frustrated by players of lesser ability blocking him. On this day, one of his first with me, I kept making him do the drill over and over again, so that he would get it right each time on his own, without prodding. After having been told to do it again, after more times than he had ever been urged to do it, he turned to me and, in a frustrated voice, asked, “What do you want from A PASSION FOR TEACHING EVOKES A PASSION FOR LEARNING | DCGEducator: Doing The Right Thing: