Passionate Teaching
Passionate teaching will grasp the minds of students,so they will be focused on the subject being thought.
Hi Kathy,
Isn't it wonderful to have someone like this in your experience from which you can draw inspiration and create your own class dynamics so your students will be inspired like you were.
Thanks for sharing about this professor and his impact on your life.
Gary
I will never forget Dr. Ed Snyder, my long-ago Professor of Earth Science, and the most passionate teacher I have ever known. I can only hope to be half as memorable to my students as he was to his. Who could have ever thought that the study of rocks could be so exciting?
Kathy
I have many years of life and actual experiences that i can utilize in my teaching style. It's extremely helpful when you have the experience and passion for the subject area you are teaching the students will ask many questions and stay engaged thru the course to learn more from your exposure.
Hi Leslie,
Good point about sharing your love of the field with your students. This is type of excitement does catch on with the students. Then the momentum builds from there to the benefit of everyone.
Gary
When students begin to see that I really enjoy what I do in the medical world, that I am in love with my subject, it does peak the curiosity of even those who may not have been very involved with the course topics. There are no catch lines to get this perception across, and I cannot fake it, but I usually find I can begin to engage more students with this backdrop.
Hi Cathy,
You are dead on with your comments about passion. If you show your students your passion and devotion to the field it is catching. They can see a role model, you in a position of leadership and instruction. They also see someone that is willing to share his/her expertise with them. All of this adds up to motivation for learning.
Gary
There was a lot of important factors expressed in this module concerning retaining students. I strongly believe that passion is one the driving forces in experiencing success in the classroom. As a professional in the field that I teach, this allows me to bring experiences to the classroom. My student can see that I love what I do, reinforcing modivation to learn.
There is a project that I give my students to chart their progress which I find useful in their development, fueling their passion and excitement to learn. That is to keep a weekly visual journal. My students are learning the foundations of professional photography and to chart their weekly events using visual concepts will help them see their own progress throughout the course.
Along those same lines, Kevin, I teach math. I do have and hopefully show a true passion for math and the beauty of how everything in math "fits together". I know that number theory and won't grab many of my students, so I try to push the idea of quantative problem-solving. Since life is truly just one big, complicated word problem, I try to push this idea and celebrate each time we conquer some small part of the that unending set of word problems that await us all. On an aside, rather than use textbook word problems, I try to pull in real-life situations. As we all know, trying to figure out what is REALLY the problem is often the hard part.
Hi Thomas,
Great to hear about your attitude toward teaching and your students. It is both an honor and a job. If we keep the idea of teaching being an honor to help impact student lives then the paycheck that comes with this effort is more valuable to us.
I wish you continued success in teaching.
Gary
Passion is what keeps us educating the students. What I see is that sometimes we need to step back and look deep within ourselves. I see many instructors that have lost the passion and are teaching only because they need a job. I feel that this is more than a job and passion has to be a part of every day you get before a class.
Hi Tim,
Good point about being able to continue in the field. This is what makes teaching so great. We get to still be in our field, pass on our knowledge and help shape the future of the next generation in are career field. Doesn't get much better than that.
Gary
I agree with the fact that you have to have passion in what you teach about and having the passion from real world experiences adds to the learning. I enjoyed the job that I did for 20 years but was unable to continue it so, I figured out a way that I could still be involved and pass on the knowledge that I had gained. I fill students get a lot more out of the class knowing what they are learning real does apply to the out side world.
I love the field I came from and telling stories about all of the "real world" experiences I have seen. I think it is important for instructors to remember your students want to be where you have already been. Tell them all about it!
I agree that your enthusiam about the course and materials is just as important as your enthusiasm to teach is. I have actually heard instructors make comments to their students about how they think an assignment or objective is "stupid" or "silly". Would we want to complete that assignment if we were students?
Treating your course and its material with respect can do as much as showing passion for it.
Hi Kevin,
I like your way of turning around a subject that may not be the most exciting by making it a part of the big picture of business ownership. Without good accounting practices the business will not be successful so accounting then becomes essential.
Gary
Who really likes accounting? It is boring. I am an accountant and I know it is boring. Since I am a business owner, I focus more about business ownership and this is what I am passinate about. And the students will know how you feel.
I like to make sure the student knows that I love teaching and I am interested in the material I teach. I think this helps many of them get more interested in the topic (electronics). Of course, bad jokes help a little, too.
I love the medical field-it has been my entire career. So when the opportunity to teach what i had learned over the years presented itself, I was very excited.
I love to apply knowledge by sharing ideas and real life stories which the students love. I have the advantage of many years of successful management and can add that side of medical coding as well. The students find the stories intriguing and usually ask many questions. They share their own experiences as well.
I love the profession as well as the classroom.
