Infusing Enthusiasm Into Your Teaching

 From the desk of Carol C. . .

It is the supreme art of the teacher

to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.

Albert Einstein

Sometimes it’s just downright hard to be enthusiastic.  Your team is losing the game.  The sermon is delivered in monotone.  The neighbor continues to drone on about something you can’t even remember.  In all of these situations you may have had to resort to faking interest or enthusiasm.  Not a fun situation.

Now what about in your classroom.  Do you ever feel less than enthusiastic about the lessons you will teach?  Do you sense that you are the losing coach, flat minister, or run on neighbor with your listeners lost in their own thoughts?  I suspect we can all say yes to both questions at times.  So what do we do to turn this situation around?  Be excited about what we’re teaching.  Make our enthusiasm infectious.

To create interest in and enthusiasm about learning, the first step might be to ask yourself, “If I were a student in my class, how would I want to learn…?”.  Laura, an elementary teacher, planned a unit on the landforms of NC asking herself this question.  She knew she would want to make something if she were a fourth grader learning about the geographical regions of North Carolina, so she designed a way her students could make a 3-D relief map of the state.  Each day her students were eager to begin social studies.  What’s more is that Laura noticed how much more her class learned by actively participating in a hands on activity.

Another question you might want to ask is, “What can I bring in to this lesson/unit to make it more interesting for my students?”.  Mr. Brown, a high school English teacher, decided his students needed to see literature as a part of a whole.  In other words he wanted them to understand how a piece of literature might influence or be influenced by the events of the day.  When his class read Shakespeare they learned about the Elizabethan Age…how the literature, music, dance, and art were influenced by Queen Elizabeth herself, the development of England as a powerful European nation, and the growth of the Anglican church.

We know students learn best when they want to learn.  What we as teachers need to do is to teach with enthusiasm, so our students will find the joy in learning.