Passion-Driven...Life?

Photo by Margaret Roth

This summer, I decided to allow myself to indulge in passion.  Maybe I am the only one (though I doubt it), but sometimes I let my work and responsibilities take over my life, and those things I love to do get pushed to the side.  Truthfully, it got to a point that I actually forgot what I was passionate about. I was losing pieces of myself and I had to make a change.

Part of this realization came from researching and planning to implement 20% time, or Genius Hour, in our curriculum next year.  I began to think about what I love. What would I create for a Genius Project? I had no idea; I could not think of one project I would create.  How could I possibly lead my students through this process if I couldn't identify my own passions?

This got me thinking about the Golden Circle.  Simon Sinek describes this concept in his "How great leaders inspire action" talk:

Sinek breaks it down to explain the three parts of the Golden Circle: What (results), How (process), and Why (purpose). He explains that people don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it.  To me, this is the difference between a powerful and effective teacher, and a teacher that just teaches.  If my students understand the purpose, and more importantly, their own purpose, we can accomplish anything.

So, that has brought me to this question: Why?  What is my purpose?  Sinek captures the power of knowing how to answer this question by saying that if you don't know why you do something, how will you ever gain the loyalty of others?  How can I lead my students without doing some very deep soul searching to discover my "why."

I am not ready to answer that question yet.  I need more time to organize my thoughts and beliefs before they will be ready to publish.  But I have done a few things each day that have ignited passion and pleasure back into my life:

1. Music: I had not allowed myself to become lost in music for some time.  I didn't even realize how long it had been since I had really listened to and enjoyed music. I basically haven't turned it off since making this observation about my life.  And, in my opinion, I am so much more creative and fulfilled when the songs are blasting. (You can see what I listen to while blogging by following the hashtag #bloggingjams).

2. Dancing: Ok, so I am not a dancer, nor am I any good at dancing.  But I love dancing!  Up until this point, I have felt pretty comfortable dancing out with friends or at weddings, but I didn't usually just dance to dance.  With my rediscovery of music, I am also committed to dancing at least once a day.  It is now how I spend my breaks from working.  It is exhilarating.  (You can see an actual video of my dad and me at my wedding-it is pretty silly about a minute and half in...)

It runs in the family
(Photo by Ken Staab)

3. Gardening: My husband and I began seriously gardening this year.  We planted vegetables and wild flowers.  I had no idea that I would love growing our own food, or how much it would bring my husband and I together.  We have spent a lot of time in our (tiny) backyard tending to our harvest.  Watching everything grow and enjoying the fruits of our labor has been incredibly, and unexpectedly, fulfilling.

Why am I doing these things?  What is the purpose of them?  They make me incredibly happy and fill my heart with joy.  Of course, there are many areas of my life that are fulfilling, but that doesn't mean I am passionate about all of those things.  In the end, I want my students to walk away from my class, and their overall education, feeling how I feel when I dance or garden.  I want them to be filled with joy and amazed that they could be learning so much and feeling so good at the same time.  These passions should not exist in silos, but they should seep into all areas of our students' lives, including the classroom.  But even that isn't enough.  We need to move from the passion-drive class to helping our students live a life full of passion.

So, I will continue to strive for a passion-driven life.  Will you?

Philosophical Musings

Photo by Richard Shaw

As I try to get myself connected with teachers and the larger education community through social media and blogging, I have been doing some digital housekeeping. Cleaning up my digital footprint and updating my portfolio. I decided that I should review, and probably rewrite, my educational philosophy that I have posted on my portfolio site.  I wrote this statement of belief during my first year teaching, in graduate school, and in my very early twenties.  Surely my beliefs about teaching and learning have changed drastically enough for me to put all my wisdom into a new philosophy. 

So, I read the statement. Thought about what was written.  Scratched my head. Then I smiled.  It was perfect.

You see, I was under the impression that because I have learned and grown as a teacher and learner that my foundational beliefs had changed, but this is not the case at all.  Almost six years ago I wrote,

The progressive philosophy, popularized by John Dewy in the nineteenth century, focuses on pragmatic, democratic learning and social living skills.  Dewy proposed that education is a living-learning process, which should be fostered through active and interesting learning.  Additionally, the teacher acts as a guide for the learning of problem solving and scientific inquiry, but is never seen as the active authority of students' learning.  Learning is based on student interest, while integrating critical thinking and problem solving involving larger human problems and affairs.  

What I realized is that I didn't need to revise this document, I needed to use it to gauge my success and growth as an educator.  Am I the teacher described above? Do I allow interest, inquiry, and problem solving involving issue that really matter to my students and the world around them?  How many times to I impose my rule and "active authority" over the learning happening in my classroom?

I also started to reflect upon my own interest and passions.  In the past, I have struggled to let my students (and others...) seeing the "real" me, feeling somewhat disconnected and closed off.  I am passionate and driven, and if I cannot let down my guard to show this to my students, how can I ever expect them to learn these qualities from me?

So,  at my core, I strive to encompass and demonstrate the qualities I described in this philosophy.  I also am making the decision to not just incubate and nurture my students' passions this year, but to explore my own passions along with them.  

In reality, I can probably learn more about passion-driven learning from my students than they can learn from me.