I am super excited to have the opportunity to be a part of Picademy this July. I have wanted to attend for years and it finally is close enough and the logistics worked out to make it a possibility.
But that isn’t what this post is about. Well not exactly. Recently those facilitating the Picademy workshop created a Google Group for those of us attending the training together. (There are lots of dates. You can go to the page here.) The one thing that I found in each introductory post was PASSION. You can tell from the way everyone introduced themselves that they are passionate about what they do. We all work with students in some way. AND we are passionate about teaching them physical computing.
I think to fully engage your students in ANY course or subject, you must bring passion for what it is you are teaching. Back when I taught elementary school I was self contained. I hated teaching writing. Probably because I felt so inadequate as a writer myself. To bring passion to the writing, I turned the personal narrative that I had to assign them into a time of personal reflection. I demonstrated by telling them about the time I had surgery on my esophagus due to a swallowing disorder. I went through a tough 6 months of illness because I could barely swallow any food. The students saw the passion and gave way more effort to their writing than before I chose to demonstrate with my story of illness.
I think to truly be effective teachers we need to bring our passion. This has to come from within. Kids can pick up on your true passion or when you are faking. After reading the introductions of those attending Picademy with me, I can tell no one is faking. That is why they are making a difference in their schools and classrooms.
Find your PASSION and share it!