My favorite words.. Creative, Innovative, Passionate and Enthusiastic

So I am sitting at my computer applying for my job and have decided to take a break. There are a lot of points to be met in the selection criteria and right now it has taken me a few hours and I need a break. You know I don't know about you but "selling your wares/ experience" is not something that comes naturally to me. I'm not really someone who likes to blow my trumpet at all the things I can do. For the most part I just do my job and try to excel in everything I do and hope that is enough to get the job done.  More than ever in this tough job market I find myself reflecting on what it is that I do and now I feel exhausted. Teaching certainly isn't for the faint-hearted and anyone who tells you we only work 9-3pm is not a teacher!

So as I type away I have been reflecting on my core values and philosophy as a teacher and I have come up with this. 

"Providing quality, innovative, creative and enthusiastic teaching and learning environments for students is what drives me to work each day. I am passionate about building skills and confidence in students as well as providing professional development for colleagues particularly in the area of technology and education. "

I have thought about the teachers in my life who inspired me both at school, uni and TAFE and I find that they possess many of these qualities. You can't be a champion for your students without enthusiasm. They need encouragement and support. You can't engage them without creativity. Creativity allows you freedom to engage with them as learners both individually and as a class to meet the learning outcomes and allows them to develop of their skills and builds confidence in learning. You need passion about what you teach because it is the thing that drives you to continually learn and improve upon your skills and knowledge because it is so exciting and interesting and has the potential to impact your life.  You need innovation otherwise you become stale. Innovation allows you to try things out, make mistakes and improve upon methods and systems in order to drive change or gives you freedom to think outside the box. 

Teaching is a wonderful profession and it has enriched my life in many ways. There have been many students that I have taught that have greatly humbled me as a person through their personal struggles and there is so much more to this job than meeting outcomes and implementing syllabuses. 

So in this blog post I celebrate teaching and my four favorite words... Creative, Innovative, Passionate and Enthusiastic. I hope you can find some of these elements in your teaching today. 

Until next week,
Kathryn