I've been giving a lot of thought to this idea:
"If you have passion for what you do, if you love what you do, then, it'll be easier to touch your students' hearts, and they will understand what it's all about."
You may ask: -But...what is it all about?
In my case, I feel children, or teenagers, find it difficult to find people with whom they can reflect, with whom they can laugh, share, speak...in a way, they feel "isolated". I think that we, as educators, must find the way to reach to them, to "touch" them, so that they don't feel like this.
In my experience, when they meet you for the first time, they look at you, and "analize" you. (especially if you try to teach them Drama!) They don't relax immediately, because TRUST is not somehing easy, something that comes "for free". But, if you show passion for what you do, if they see you love and you feel happy when teaching, when working with them, then everything changes.
When that happens, you must really take care of that trust. You must understand that you are privileged, cause you have a chance to reach to your students, to be part of their lives.
I remember some of my secondary school teachers....I was really lucky to attend a secondary school specialized in Arts. A bunch of my teachers showed their passion, they didn't care about what the others thought, (or about what we thought). They just showed their love for what they did (which didn't exactly mean they were always kind to us... some of them were quite crazy, and extremely strict!...but they taught us with so much passion...!) .
And I realize now, many years after, that LOVE and PASSION for what you do are the ingredients that make everything possible.
It may sound silly, but, for me, that is what's all about.
