1 Corinthians 10:31 says, “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.” “Whatsoever ye do…” What do we do? We teach! To teach well we must be passionate, we must connect with our students, we must always be willing to learn and hone our craft, we must be willing to provide timely and authentic feedback to our students. And we must be willing to “do all to the glory of God.” This is true regardless of what educational level we are – elementary, secondary, collegiate. These principles remain the same.
Passion: Ask yourself, do I still have a passion for teaching? Do I have passion for my students, and passion for what I teach? I’m of the mindset that we need to teach and learn with passion. If you are passionate about your teaching, then you are eager, and enthusiastic, and you teach with fervor and zeal. Dave Burgess, author of Teach Like a Pirate, says that we should be mindful of three different passions: our content passion, our professional passion, and our personal passion.[1] We need all three to effectively teach.
Our content passion is what we are most passionate about within our subject matter. It’s the stuff that gets us excited. It’s the stuff that keeps us up at night when we are doing our best lesson planning instead of getting a good night’s sleep. It’s the stuff that we can’t wait to teach our students.
Our professional passion is our reason for being an educator. It’s why we became a teacher in the first place. We GET to teach, and this passion ignites a fire within us; it helps us to “bring it” when we teach. Sometimes when teaching gets hard–and it does–it’s helpful to remember our professional passion. So, why did you become a teacher anyway? Having passion will help us to be resilient and stay in this profession for the long run!
Our personal passion is what we are passionate about outside of our teaching. When we bring our personal passions into our classroom and into our teaching, we keep our passion for teaching alive. Along with our own personal passions, it’s a great idea to find what our students are passionate about as well. What better way to connect to their lives!
Connect with Students, Build a Relationship, Build a Rapport: You absolutely can connect with your students, even if you teach virtually. Coming out of the classroom after 24 years, and into virtual learning, I made this my number-one priority. My students fill out an interest survey at the beginning of each semester. This is the first step in getting to know them. I ask specific questions that will give me the information I need to make connections with them throughout the semester. Next, I ask for prayer requests. I want to know how I can specifically pray for my students. I realized early in my new career as an adjunct instructor that I needed to follow up with those requests. It was important to contact my students and ask for updates.
I want my students to know that they can trust me and that they can count on me. I knew that I needed to be ready to listen to them, and I needed to be aware. If they were struggling with their grades or something personal in their lives, I knew I needed to be the first one to figure that out. They had to know that I cared.
Always be Willing to Learn and Hone Your Craft: One of the most important things we can do is to reflect on our teaching, reflect on our learning, and reflect on feedback from colleagues and students. Yes, get feedback from your students. They will be honest, and you can learn a great deal from them. I also give my students a survey at the end of the semester. Their ideas and responses have helped me grow in my teaching.
Ask yourself: Did my students learn from the discussion board? Did they glean much from the article they had to read? Was the project something that helped them grow? Find the positives and work on fixing the negatives. With a growth mindset, fixing the negatives will help us to improve as teachers. It’s all part of the sharpening and refining process; and we must be willing. No matter how long we’ve been teaching, it doesn’t matter, we can always grow and learn, and hone our craft. We say we are lifelong learners, but are we? Never stop reading good professional material, never stop learning, never stop looking within. We must strive to be all that our students deserve, and all that God wants us to be. We just are not there yet!
Timely and Authentic Feedback: Just like we should strive to learn and grow, we need to encourage our students to do the same. Our students are counting on us, and we can help them in a big way. One of the best ways is by providing timely and authentic feedback on the work that they do for us. It must be timely so that students can take it, consider it, and hopefully use it before the next assignment is due. It will be of little help to them if they receive it a few weeks after the assignment was turned in. We must make sure that they have our feedback quickly enough to apply it to the next assignment.
It must also be authentic. In other words, dig deep and make it really real. Find something positive about their work to encourage them. We can always find the positive in their work to show them that we see their potential, or their effort, or their commitment. Then give them specific and critical, or constructive feedback so they can improve their work. That way, we are giving them tools to grow. Just giving them a grade, does little to help them improve their work; and the majority of our students sincerely want to do just that.
If you still have your passions, keep them. If you’ve lost them, find them. What do you care deeply about? Find a way to connect, really connect with your students. They will recognize the effort, and they will respond to it. Commit to being that lifelong learner that every educator needs to be, and provide the feedback your students need to grow and reach their potential. Most of all remember, “… whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.”
[1] Dave Burgess. (2012). Teach Like a Pirate. Dave Burgess Consulting, Inc.