Passionate Teachers ~ Celebrate 2017 (ten) #sol17

I believe being a writer is one of the biggest gifts you can give to your students. ~ Stacey Shubitz

This month I am participating in the Slice of Life Story Challenge.  Thanks to Two Writing Teachers for creating a space for me to share my corner of the world.

Today I am also combining my two worlds of writing by celebrating my week with Ruth Ayres. 

Remember what it was like when you were a child on Christmas Eve, so excited and couldn't sleep?  Or maybe it was the night before the first day of school and you are filled with anticipation of a new class of students and new ideas to implement?

That was me last night.  I came across a recorded 2016 webinar with Penny Kittle, who just happens to be one of my teacher idols.  It was one hour and 35 minutes long, but with all of the stops to write notes and "back 'em ups" to catch something brilliant she said that I missed the first time, it took me over two and a half hours to watch!  Finally at midnight (just after the Two Writing Teachers email came through) I decided I needed to go to bed.

But I couldn't sleep.  I could not turn my brain off because all these ideas and thoughts were swimming.  There is so much brilliance to share, but today I celebrate passionate teachers.

In the beginning of the webinar, she talks about passion, and this quote was one of her slides.

She explains how her passion, everything she has wanted to do, has come because somebody showed her their passion.  She affectionately tells about how her father instilled her passion of fishing though his own passion.

Of course, she then moves to her passion about reading and writing and this had me thinking.

Do I show my passion each and every day?  Do I share my passion to each and every student?  How can I do a better job of sharing my passion with my colleagues?

Who shares their passion with me?  

When I think about how my teaching has changed because of what other teachers have shared with me, I am overwhelmed and so, so grateful.  I am not talking about the teacher down the hall who shares a resource or an idea.  Although I am thankful for them, I celebrate teachers like Penny -- and so many others -- who share their passion with us through webinars, online courses, tweets, blog posts, books, and conferences so that we may become better teachers.  

To paraphrase Penny, everything I have wanted to do in my classroom and my career, is because somebody showed me and shared with me their passion.

This is the true celebration.