“Where is your passion?” I recently asked this of a group of physical education undergraduates who were halfway through their student teaching. In putting together my presentation to them, I wanted something that would grab their attention right away and get them thinking about their chosen profession. I think this question did the trick.
When I asked for their answers, I got many of the response I anticipated. Most of them said something along the lines of “physical activity,” or “physical fitness,” or even “teaching kids about sports and fitness.” But then one of these students gave me the answer I was hoping for. His answer was “to teach kids.” When I pressed him to tell me more, low I thought he would say something PE related. I was both surprised and impressed when he answered by saying “anything!” That was the answer I was hoping for and what I wanted to get all of the students to think about.
You see I believe that there is a big difference between our passion and our expertise. Our passion needs to be kids. First and foremost our main focus should be on the kids we are fortunate enough to see daily (even the ones that seem to go the extra mile to make our jobs difficult). We are there to create an environment where our students can thrive. As basic as that sounds I believe this should be our main focus.
Our expertise is in the subject we teach. For us and for those undergraduates it is physical education. Physical educators spend their entire careers honing this expertise. Many of us have taught for years, regularly reviewed our lessons and constantly made necessary adjustments. We’ve attended countless conferences to learn how to expand our expertise. We’ve picked the brains of colleagues always looking for a better way to teach something. But none of this is any good unless it’s aimed at our passion: Helping to improve the lives of the kids we see daily!
