Monday, August 22, 2011

Enthusiasm

Last week I read a blog post by Angela Maiers that made me sad (and her too!). She described a conversation with her children after their first day of school.  What did her kids tell her about their first day?

Boring.

Now I know that many kids say school is boring and that many teachers say they aren't there to entertain kids.

However

It was the fact that none of her children's teachers expressed any excitement, enthusiasm or passion for the coming year that bothered Angela--and me!

And then, before school this morning, I took Chloe out in the yard for a few minutes before I left for school. She played fetch with me a few minutes, but then she took matters into her own paws.  She picked up her leash in her mouth and began to run.

Chloe loves to run and I love to watch her run. She does it with such enthusiasm and joy. She runs for the love of running. And this got me thinking too.

I teach for the love of teaching. Really. I could and have taught many subjects (including 8th grade math, but that's a story for another day), but do I teach with enthusiasm and joy?

I try, but I don't know that I always succeed.

And so that is why my word for the week is ENTHUSIASM.

Let me share my enthusiasm for the spoken and written word with my students and those around me.

Starting now!


2 comments:

  1. Of course! If we aren't there for that, what are we doing? I would imagine that the teachers also were bored, but wonder if they asked themselves why? Thanks for the good reminder of what's important!

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  2. I think many of us start the year with enthusiasm, but whether or not we make sure that our enthusiasm is evident to students makes ALL the difference in the world. This is a good reminder to me - as I've not started the year yet - to make sure that not one kid goes home on the first day saying that the day was boring. (Although, you know that middle schoolers HAVE to say that school was boring - at least before they start telling about all the exciting things they did.)

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