Counting Down

The last two weeks of summer break are upon me, and as I look back on the long days full of anything but school work, I question if I spent my time wisely. Like most other teachers I had a long list of things I wanted to accomplish that would prepare me for the new school year. Write inspiring lesson plans. Compose interesting units. Create innovative uses for technology in the classroom. These would be in addition to reading the latest 'teacher' books, such as “Returning Civility to the Classroom” and “Discipline in the Responsive Classroom”.
But alas, the only thing I have crossed off my self-imposed to-do list is read. The aforementioned books and much more, such as monthly peer-reviewed publications and several teacher community blogs and websites, have been thoroughly reviewed and committed to my personal favorites. All of this reading has left me wondering: What is it that I need to take into the classroom with me this year to be an effective teacher?
After much thought I have come to the conclusion that among all the gimmicks and gadgetry that is hyped as the next best thing in education that will make my profession completely fool-proof, one thing is missing—passion. The desire to teach is not just about making annual yearly progress, which makes the administration happy. It is about the passion of teaching that comes from the desire to take young minds and fill them with knowledge that will support them on their journey in this world. Sure, learning different strategies to add 2 and 3 digit numbers is important, just as learning about how to use word chunks to help decode an unknown word is valuable. But to inspire a child to WANT to learn to add and read is what teaching is really about.
So, as the break draws to a close I choose to see my to-list as mostly complete. No, I do not have any lesson plans or units ready for the first weeks of school, nor do I have the ‘it’ that will make my teaching headline news. But what I do have is the passion to face another group of children as though they are small sponges, understanding that it is my passion for teaching that will provide them with the knowledge to soak up all they can while in my classroom.