Love What You Do - A Passion for Teaching
Is it possible to do something without passion, commitment, and enthusiasm? Some choose a career path purely because it leads to great material wealth and security. It means the norms of the so-called expected and society’s accepted way of life for each age is fulfilled, such as buying a car, getting married, house, holidays, etc.
Others choose to do something because it places them in a high position in the so-called social class system in society. Many careers are perceived to be the best because they are paid highly, also come with a lot of respect and pride within the community and society.
Then you have those individuals that simply choose to do what they love with their heart and soul and do not actually feel like they are working. Rather, they thrive on being the best at what they do and continue to find ways to make each day better as they genuinely love what they do and do not see it as a burdensome task or are not counting down the days away towards payday.
The reality of teaching
A teacher is a person who teaches, usually as a job at a school or similar institution - as defined by Collins Dictionary.
A teaching job is not for those who think that it is only a 9 to 5 job weekday job and does not involve the weekends or evenings. It requires specific training and knowledge. This role has an expectation of responsibility from society, parents, and students alike in the sense of trust that they will learn and gain knowledge to do well in life.
Teaching involves long hours, grading, and preparation in your own time, dealing with student’s emotional wellbeing, progress, parent, student, administration demands, and continuous professional development. As nicely put by a respected peer: “If you are not ready to work hours outside of the normal working hours, then you are in the wrong job.” That is not to say, with pre-planning and time management that a teacher’s own time cannot be their own time because it can be, which mostly depends on the work and educational establishment. Despite the long hours, grading, a teaching job comes with great perks, such as seeing first-hand the development of students, having a positive impact on students’ lives, holidays, and travel opportunities.
The difference between teachers that love what they do and one that is playing the role as a means to an end
It is often evident that those individuals that are teaching because it provides a comfortable and secure role are those that are merely teaching the curriculum as opposed to those that genuinely love what they are doing. The latter will go to great lengths to make a difference by ensuring they do not merely regurgitate facts from books and fulfill a quota but are actually interested in the student learning. In fact, “a great teacher does not teach a student, it shows them the way to learn.”
Those teachers that are interested in actually teaching or ensuring a student has learned will go to lengths to adapt and incorporate varied and up-to-date approaches in their methods of teaching. Furthermore, with the increasingly new methods, they are not afraid to encourage students to go beyond their comfort zone and teach children how to think and not what to think.
Keeping the passion alive
As a teacher, it is always important to remain as a student, and that keeps the passion alive as you are always learning to develop and share with students and colleagues.
Benefits of doing what you love
- Making a difference in society
- Forever lasting impact on students self-esteem
- Increase students motivation and love for learning
- Provide life skills
- Not working, but influencing individuals as a mentor/guide
- Will always strive to be up-to-date and the best at what you do
- Rewarding and satisfying
To all the great teachers
To all the great teachers out there, who love what they do, keep up the great passion alive and never stop encouraging the students to think outside the box! Continue to be able to influence constructive criticism in a manner that is invaluable to the students and make that important difference in society by not allowing the demands of the somewhat sometimes disappointing manner of today’s society in the way education is perceived as a business and the negativity of the bad and stressful days. It is better to not get caught up in the negativity of complaining about the stressful moments and avoid the constant memes. Though funny with some element of truth, it actually does not help because ultimately, it will slowly affect the passion you have and take away the greatness that you do, as you will then become disappointed and remain focused on the tough demands of teaching and merely fulfilling a job description.
Take time out to reflect, find a way to relax, and join global teacher’s clubs to meet great like-minded individuals. Seize every opportunity to continue to do the best.
In such an era, it is even more so necessary that people do what they love in order to have a positive impact in their field, on the youth of today, and in society.
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