Passion in the Classroom

After reading the Passion Based Learning article by Ramirez and the 21st Century Education article by Azjd, I was left thinking about how this is the way that I want to teach. Passion-based learning is how I have always pictured my teaching style, I just didn’t know there was a name for it. I really like how Ramirez broke down what this would look like in a classroom. How a teacher can show their students a bit of vulnerability and a lot of inner geek, and even more passion about the content, it can infect the classroom and the passion for learning will be unleashed. I want to teach with the passion I have for learning and let that be contagious to my students.  I think that “Think like a beginner” is a statement crucial to getting kids to the stage of loving what is being learned. We can talk about how awesome cloud formations and whether is until the cows come home but if we don’t relate to the kids at their beginning stage of understanding, we have already surpassed them and they wont grasp the same passion we as teachers have and are putting out there. I like the analogy of “wading in from the shallow end” how Rita puts it. Beginning the content with the thought in mind that we have to build a passion in these kids, strategically giving them the tools and information that will hook them and that which they can build upon.

I can be an animated and excitable person, often times that is why kids like me so much but it is really good for me to put into perspective this concept of being on the same level as my learners. Creating a bond to the content for them, such as the story of how it became so important to me, or some other introduction. I know that not all lessons and content areas are going to spark a passion in all of my students but I hope to show correlations to the things they love, and if I can’t do that at least get them excited to show what they discovered in ways that are meaningful to each of them. The classroom needs to be flexible to encourage students to be active questioners and explorers. This passion based learning can go hand in hand with concept based learning which is my bread and butter. By that I mean I get really excited about creating lessons that all correlate to a concept, all things can connect to this concept, and with that all passions can be touched upon with one concept. There is time for passions to be learned about, and standards to be met with a set up such as this. I want to empower them to question, discover, and find the deeper meanings and connections of the content we teach, I think I can accomplish this with these teaching styles.