way. I can be passionate about providing an opportunity for my students to develop and exercise their creative talents and abilities. I can be passionate about creating the atmosphere and social dynamic necessary to build rapport and a psychologically safe environment.
Professional passion is an absolute treasure chest filled with everything we need to steadfastly refuse to enter the classroom with anything less than a burning hot passion for the awesome job and responsibility that lies before us. Tap into it and feel the power surge through your soul!
Completely outside of your profession, what are you passionate about?
I’m passionate about magic. I’m passionate about sports, especially basketball and coaching. I’m passionate about my family. I’m passionate about entrepreneurship, marketing, and self-improvement.
To keep your passion for teaching alive, find as many ways as possible to incorporate your personal passions into your work. Whenever I can use magic to demonstrate a point, I absolutely do it. Not only does that help me create a more engaging and therefore memorable lesson, it also helps increase my sense of fulfillment and fun as an educator.
Almost every personal passion can be incorporated into the classroom. For example, are you passionate about art and creativity? Develop lessons that showcase your passion and allow your students to not only experience your unique strengths, skills, and imagination, but also begin to develop their own. If you are passionate about playing the guitar, bring it in and play. I know teachers who have an incredible interest in cutting-edge technology. They find ways to incorporate their tech skills into their lessons. Bringing your personal passion to the classroom empowers you to create a more powerful lesson because you are teaching from an area of strength. And bonus: it also allows your students to see how their unique skill sets and passions can be vital, invaluable, and applicable for their future.
If you’re having difficulty figuring out how your personal passion can be used in the classroom, don’t stress out. You may just need a little help in the art of creative brainstorming. Later portions of this book focus specifically on skyrocketing your creativity and mastering the brainstorming process. It’s also important to realize that unlike professional passion, personal passion isn’t likely to be something that can or should be included in your lesson plans on a daily basis. Rather, it is more like a bonus category that offers you opportunities to really ramp up your love of teaching when it works out.
By tapping into all three categories of passion—and especially consciously dedicating yourself to an increased daily focus on professional passion—you will become an unstoppable “passion monster” in the classroom. Your increased passion will sustain you through those long stretches of the year that inevitably arrive and attempt to drag you down. Teaching is a job filled with frustrations, trials, and tests of your patience. Use your passion to soar over obstacles instead of crashing into them and burning out.
Your passion will also help you become absolutely relentless in the pursuit of excellence. With a focus on professional passion, teaching is no longer about relaying the content standard…it’s about transforming lives. It’s about killing apathy. It’s about helping the next generation fulfill their potential and become successful human beings. It’s no longer about memorizing facts; it’s about inspiring greatness.
When you’re passion-filled, you also become more personally fulfilled as an educator. It’s fun and exciting to share what is uniquely “you.” Doing so makes your presentations and personal charisma almost magnetic in nature. Being in the presence of people who are engaged in fulfilling their major life purpose is almost hypnotic. There is a certain “juice,” an electricity, that emanates from those who truly love what they are doing or discussing. Others may have no particular interest in the subject at hand, but they are magically drawn to a person because of the sheer power that permeates the presentation. Passion is like an intoxicating drug but without the dangers and side effects. Use it as much as you want. Once you get a taste of it, you’ll always want to come back for more.
BIRDS, SNAKES, AND THE ART OF TEACHING
Not long ago, I was with my two kids and two dogs at a small pond in a Tierrasanta canyon when we came across a man walking his dogs and wearing binoculars around his neck. As we were sharing small talk, he suddenly stopped and whipped the binoculars up to his face and excitingly pointed out a hawk perched on top of a nearby tree. He told us the type of hawk it was, its hunting behavior, and how its feathers were specially designed for the type of flight maneuvers it needed.
I was fascinated.
Now please understand, I couldn’t care less about hawks, and I’m about as far from an outdoorsman as you will ever find. My idea of camping is a hotel room or a cruise ship cabin. So why was I drawn in by this man’s story? How did he hold my attention for thirty minutes as he discussed the entire ecosystem surrounding the pond and gave an impassioned argument for not killing rattlesnakes?
The answer is simple. This man was one hundred percent passionate about his subject. When you interact with someone who is fully engaged and filled with passion, it can be an overwhelming and unforgettable experience. There is no faking it…you can’t “Meg Ryan” that type of passion! Enthusiasm, yes…passion, no. There is a type of vibration that seems to emanate from people who are fulfilling their definite major purpose in life, and it is contagious. I still don’t particularly care about the ten types of birds he told me to watch for, but I would listen to him talk about them any day of the week. My kids talked about the man the entire way home.
People are drawn in and love to be around those who are passionate about their lives.
It doesn’t matter what subject you teach. You can become totally engaging to your audience if they can feel your passion and love for what you are doing. You will draw students in as if by some magnetic force. Passion is all about being on fire in front of your class. I’m fond of the quote, “Light yourself on fire with enthusiasm and people will come from miles around just to watch you burn!”
This is yet another reason a “cookie cutter” approach to teaching will never be the most effective. What gets me fired up and passionate in the classroom, and therefore more effective, might not be the answer for my colleague down the hall. Resist any movement that attempts to clone teachers and lessons and instead rejoice in the fact that it is your individuality and uniqueness that will always lead you to become the most effective teacher that you can be.
Light yourself on fire with passion…and don’t worry if it’s not a controlled burn.
You’re about to learn the #1, top secret way to become a dramatically better lover!
I have your attention now, don’t I?
Right now, the people reading this can be split into two groups… men and women. The men are thinking, “I definitely don’t need this section.” The women are thinking, “I sure hope the men are paying attention to this section!” (I should mention that my wife is probably thinking, “What the heck is he doing thinking he can teach this subject?”)
In the famous science-fiction
