Passion & Purpose

Learning from our passions creates greater purpose in our teaching

My wife @neilasteele loves to post her favorite quotes up around our house. She likes to use non-permanent marker and write these quotes on different walls around our home. I love waking up in the morning and seeing a new quote on the bathroom or the kitchen wall. These quotes always get me thinking. Her latest one about passion and purpose really struck a chord with me, so much so that I needed to take a picture and blog about it. 

Passion is what life is all about and when we look around each day, we can see both young people and adults engaged in their passions. As this quote says, passion brings a sense of purpose. Embedded within our passions are a constant stream of learning moments which push us to reflect on life's true values. 

As educators I think it is critical to share what we learn from our passions with our students. Think about your passions and the roller coaster of emotions, both positive and negative that are associated with pursing what it is we love to do. As we pursue excellence, we encounter so many obstacles and with these obstacles come a plethora of choices. Every choice we make has either a negative or positive consequence. Sharing with your students some personal experiences you have had with your own passions can have a profound impact on your learners. Being willing to share your successes, your failures and why you have made the decisions you have can help your students to better understand and connect with the fact that we are all human and that we all have unique thought processes that shape our decision making. 

When sharing my passions with my students, I keep my stories short and sweet. Major things learned both good and bad. Most importantly I share how I transfer things learned to life in general, not just my passions. Whether it is my passion for cooking, running, golf, or American football, I believe their are a load of authentic and genuine learning experiences I can pass on to my students to find value in, especially as they pursue their own learning and their own passions. The 4 photos below sum up my true passions in life. I have learned so much from each of them. The learning continues! Thanks for reading. 

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Cooking is a true passion. So much patience and attention to detail needed when cooking. Here is a photo of me cooking with my favorite tool, my Greek kebab maker!

Running has helped me through some of the most difficult times in my life. I do my best thinking during my runs.

Have played golf my whole life. Golf is a game of life, so many emotions.

American football played a huge role in my life for many years. Some of my greatest friendships formed. Some powerful learning moments. The true value of persistence, grit, determination and learning from failure.