Passionate Teaching

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Passionate Teaching and Order in the Classroom
By Michael Huggins, Sarah Jones, Alex
Kouperman, David Van Leeuwen
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Good teachers join self, subject and student in
the fabric of life.
Parker J. Palmer. The Courage to Teach Exploring
the Inner Landscape of a Teachers Life. San
Francisco Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1998.
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Objectives and Goals
What is Passion?
Passions Role in Teaching
Order in the Classroom
Keeping Passion Alive
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What is Passion?
What is your definition?
Passion is define in the Oxford Dictionary as
any kind of feeling by which the mind is
powerfully affected or moved.
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What is Passion?

• Definitions from Merriam-Webster
• intense, driving, or overmastering feeling or
  conviction
• a strong liking or desire for or devotion to
  some activity, object, or concept
• an object of desire or deep interest

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What is Passion?
Having the burning feeling in the belly, the
heart of connection, the desire to make the
difference--that is what the students remember
Can you fake passion?
Donna C Llewellyn. Tech Alumni Remember Their
Great Teachers at Georgia Tech. Georgia Georgia
Tech, 2004.
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What is Passion?
Being passionate generates energy,
determination, conviction, commitment and even
obsession in people. Passion is not a luxury, a
frill or a quality possessed by just a few
headteachers. It is essential to all successful
leadership.
Day, C. (2004) The Passion of Successful
Leadership (Nottingham, Carfax Publishing) pp. 427
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Passionate Teachers
Who was most influential in our lives?
What makes a class memorable or important?
Close your eyes and think about a passionate
teacher you had and what influence he/she had on
your own life.
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Passionate Teachers
When I ask myself what makes the greatest
difference in the quality of student learningit
is a teachers passion that leaps out. More than
knowledge of subject matter. More then variety of
teaching techniques. More than being
well-organized, or friendly, or funny, or fair.
Passion.
Robert L. Fried. The Passionate Teacher A
Practical Guide. Boston Beacon Press, 1995.
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Passionate Teachers
Whats this guy want from us nowblood?!
For eighteen years Ive done my job, and done
it pretty damn well. I not only teach them stuff,
I take the time to try to get to know the kids in
my classes. Isnt it enough to be a caring
teacher whos got the students interests at
heart, who helps them learn each in their own
way, who gives everybody a chance to succeed?
What business does anybody have asking me to be
passionate on top of everything else?
Robert L. Fried. The Passionate Teacher A
Practical Guide. Boston Beacon Press, 1995.
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Passionate Teachers
Is there a difference between a Good teacher and
a passionate teacher?
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Passionate Teachers

• Where does the passion come from?
• Passion for the act of teaching
• Passion for what is being taught
• Passion for learning

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Passionate Teachers
Is there such a thing as too much passion?
Even when the devotion has an intensity that may
make students uncomfortable, they still know its
something important. Its what makes a teacher
unforgettable.
Can passion get in the way of learning?
Robert L. Fried. The Passionate Teacher A
Practical Guide. Boston Beacon Press, 1995.
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Order in the Classroom
How controlling should you be in the classroom?
TO SURVIVE AROUND HERE, youve got to be tough
as nails. Show them whos boss right from the
start. It doesnt always work, he said, but
most kids will cooperate if you give them enough
responsibility and enough freedom. I though I
had learned that giving a class freedom could
only lead to trouble. Responsibility and
freedom seemed to go together.
Pearl Rock Kane (ed). The First Year of Teaching
Real World Stories from Americas Teachers. New
York Walker and Company, 1991.
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Order in the Classroom

• Scenarios
• Did you see order in the classroom?
• Did you see passion?
• How do they relate?

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Order in the Classroom
Structure and Passion do not have to
conflict!! As long as the teacher always has the
students best interest in mind. What is
important is how passion is transmitted.
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Keeping Passion Alive
Many disillusioned teachers began their careers
as passionate people, only to have their spirits
dampened, depleted, ground to dust.
Robert L. Fried. The Passionate Teacher A
Practical Guide. Boston Beacon Press, 1995.
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Keeping Passion Alive

• What does it look like when passion burns out?
• I feel trapped
• Im bored
• Im not the person I want to be

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Keeping Passion Alive
What causes teachers to burn-out?

• Sadly, many who entered with high hopes have not
  been able to hold onto their passion for very
  long, because of the conditions under which they
  work. Others nurse their passions quietly, almost
  embarrassed to care so much or to hold on to such
  high standards in a climate of school and society
  that looks for compromises and shortcuts. Still
  others have become embittered by the whole scene
  students who wont do any work, administrators
  who manipulate, colleagues who complain all the
  time, officials who wont provide adequate funds,
  parents who cant seem to be bothered, and a
  society that would rather blame its schools then
  fund them.

Robert L. Fried. The Passionate Teacher A
Practical Guide. Boston Beacon Press, 1995.
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Keeping Passion Alive
In the first chapter entitled The Heart of a
Teacher Palmer talks about how teachers lose
heart because they create a false teaching
identity that they use in front of the students.
This identity is used in order to shield them
from the pain that results from students being
disinterested or rejecting what theyre
passionate about. We distance ourselves from
students and subject to minimize the
dangerforgetting that distance makes life more
dangerous still by isolating the self.
Parker J. Palmer. The Courage to Teach Exploring
the Inner Landscape of a Teachers Life. San
Francisco Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1998.
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Keeping Passion Alive
Also, because we adapt. We forget what we were
passionate about because it gets lost in
everything were doing. We forget the why.
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Keeping Passion Alive

• How can this be presented?
• Call a time-out
• Find a program
• Work with a coach

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Keeping Passion Alive
It is not sufficient for these teachers to
have a passion for teaching alone. They must also
have inordinate strength of character to guard
against attack from a dismissive society and the
resilience to endure the caustic condition in
which they work. In addition teachers must
possess the vision to see above the crest of
mediocrity to what is possible.
Kamau Bobb. Teaching f(passion). Georgia
Georgia Tech, 2004.
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We all need to find something about our teaching
that matters deeply to us, get passionate about
it, and share that passion. When we discover and
explore our passions about teaching and learning
and begin to share them with others, doors are
opened, and the possibilities are endless.
(Olson, 2003)
What experiences and knowledges are most
worthwhile?
David L Olson. Principles, Impracticality, And
Passion. Phi Delta Kappan, 2003.
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THANK YOU!