Teachers’ passion is what makes them survive and thrive in the profession. This driving energy does not only direct their actions, but it also empowers them to soar over obstacles and pursue excellence and growth.

Because teaching is the most demanding job, teachers need to be passionate about it. This is the advice I give to my teacher-students :

« If you love teaching and you’re feeling energy boiling over you to lead that learning journey and drive your students to the shores of success and growth, go for it. But, if you consider it solely as a job to gain an income in exchange for an ordinary practice involving providing instructions and grading students’ work, forget about it. This is not the right job for you ».

Yet, teachers’ passion can wane over time. So, how can they bring it and maintain it?

Here are 4 tips to use when teachers’ passion wanes.

1. Tap into your professional passion

Not all of what we’re teaching is stirring up our interest and engagement as teachers. There are times we find the content uninteresting and so we can’t get ourselves fired up.

We are not passionate about everything we teach. This is the TRUTH! But, teaching content we are not passionate about is likely to make us less excited, even bored, and lose the energy that fuels our students’ engagement and productivity in the classroom.

So, how do teachers bring their passion to work when they are not passionate about their teaching content?

In such cases, focus on your professional passion: your love of the teaching profession.

In his book, Teach Like a Pirate (one of my favourite books, if you don’t have it click here), Dave Burgess explains three kinds of passion. Content (what you love to teach), personal (what you’re passionate about outside of your profession), and professional passion (what ignites your love of teaching). Dave emphasizes the need to focus on our professional passion when content passion is not there.

« With a focus on professional passion, teaching is no longer about relaying the content standard……it’s about transforming lives. It’s about killing apathy. It’s about helping the next generation fulfill their potential and become successful human beings. It’s no longer about memorizing facts; it’s about inspiring greatness ». Dave Burgess

When you think about your mission as a teacher, you get more passion-filled even if your content is boring. Because this is what ignites in you the love of supporting your students to learn and pursue excellence against all frustrations and trials.

Tapping into your professional passion will help you find a way to present that content interestingly. So, you’ll think about integrating teaching techniques and materials you’re passionate about to introduce it excitingly.

Teaching my students how to write academic essays has never fired me up. But, because I’m passionate about developing their writing skill, I try to make those lessons more interesting.

I bring short texts or paragraphs for students to read in class, selecting topics that are of interest to them. After doing some vocabulary practice and discussion and introducing the structure of the essay, I ask them to develop those paragraphs into essays.

I also ask students to do individual presentations about the most common mistakes students make in writing and how these need to be avoided.

So, our love of teaching is so powerful. It can inspire us to render our lessons more interesting for us and our students.

When your passion wanes because of your teaching content, tap into your professional passion you’ll feel ‘the power surge through your soul’.

2. Be proactive

Our students’ interest, enthusiasm, and all the vivid energy they bring into the classroom can make us more passionate teachers. But, when these are replaced by their carelessness, and disinterest to get engaged we are likely to feel the emptiness and unworthiness of all what we’re doing for them.

So, we get frustrated and our passion wanes.

It may seem difficult for you to get over such situations. But, letting those negative feelings rule over you will lead to burnout.

To bring teachers’ passion and enjoy the profession, you need to figure out what’s going around you. You need to dig deeper into the reasons which contribute to students’ reluctance to get engaged.

So, stop thinking that you’re doing your best, they’re ignorant in return and accepting that they don’t deserve it. This is your JOB.

Get your students’ opinions regarding what makes them act in such a way. Rethink your decisions and plans and find out what works best for them. Bring your passion for creating content and materials that are more captivating and try to provide them with ample opportunities to experience success.

You’ll see a positive change in most (if not all) of your students’ learning attitudes. Because your passion is contagious; it’ll rub off on your students. So, if your students are what makes your passion wane, be proactive to regain it instead of yielding to negative assumptions and feelings.

3. Collaborate beyond the school context

Such a great opportunity when we work with colleagues who are supportive, and collaborative and share the same perspective of growing through lifelong learning and sharing.

Yet, this may not be always the case. You may find yourself surrounded by colleagues who focus merely on teaching for exams, resenting any kind of flexibility or change because they feel uncomfortable with « the unfamiliar ».

These colleagues will overweigh you with their negative ideas whenever you try to speak your mind and invite them to take a different stance. As a result, all your enthusiasm to put into action your plan and innovative ideas is likely to wear out.

So, to flare up your passion in this case stop second-guessing yourself and feeling down. Stick to your goals and seek opportunities to collaborate with other teachers beyond your school context.

Attend conferences, connect with teachers via Twitter, share your ideas, and invite them to your world of teaching. Set common goals and create avenues to work together to achieve them through projects, seminars, etc. This will re-energize your teaching.

4. Face up to the challenge

We are supposed to be passionate about teaching, but if we can’t face up to the big challenge our passion will wane and we may even end up quitting this job.

What is challenging about teaching is finding a way to meet your students’ needs while your voice and choices are suffocated in teaching and all what you’re doing is more about following district mandates.

The challenge is about learning, innovating, and inspiring this generation while receiving no support from the school, but being the first to blame when students fail or discipline issues arise in the classroom.

It also includes overcoming your stress, enjoying teaching, and having time for yourself and the people you like in the presence of excessive grading, paperwork, and meetings.

If you love teaching, you need to think about how you can face that challenge. To do so :

• Don’t expect your school principal, or administrator…. to value or reward what you’re doing and provide you with the necessary LEARNING. You’ll get frustrated when these don’t happen. Seek your opportunities for professional development, and look for experts’ and teachers’ advice. Remember that your students’ progress is the most rewarding part of your job.

• Don’t lose sight of your purpose find room for your voice and choices to be heard. Create moments when you can make visible your ideas and feel the joy of your creativity in teaching. Get over this paralyzing idea « I cannot do it ». If you have to teach that content you can do it in different ways. And it’s only you who can decide the right way because you know what works best for your students.

• If you feel that this job has taken over your life, you’re overwhelmed and you’re still beating yourself up about doing this and that, think CAREFULLY about narrowing down your goals. Be realistic and don’t blame yourself for not meeting all your students’ expectations.

When your passion wanes, tap into your professional passion, be proactive, collaborate beyond the school context, and face up to the challenge. You’ll get more passion-filled and feel the joy of helping your students become successful human beings.