Passionate about children...YES!

Every day I walk into my classroom with a lesson plan and a prayer.  Guess which of the two I hold in higher regard.  If you said the prayer you would be right.  I truly believe that when you have a love for something it's a God given love.  So for me to be passionate about the children that must mean that God is, too.  My lesson plan is important as it guides me in the knowledge sharing aspect of the day but the prayer, well that's where the power is.  We all remember being in school and having that dreaded subject or two or three.  We also had a subject that we liked and many times that subject lead us to our future careers.  Okay, so some people hated every subject so much that the career they have now has absolutely nothing to do with any school subject.  I can relate!  But what if one teacher saw in you something special, a gift, a love, a talent and actually directed you towards that?  Mine was art.  I loved art, all kinds of art.  I was good at it, too.  The elementary art teachers saw that in me and took a particular interest in me.  I felt confident in that one subject and looked forward to it every week.  Life often takes us down undesirable roads and I lost the connection with my art and new teachers in new schools never picked up on that gift.  Like me, every child is designed with a particular gift, talent, passion or whatever you choose to call it. I'm glad God didn't make us all to be the same, how boring!  My school has taken the "out of the box" approach to education and they allow me to be more of the teacher I'm called to be.  I couldn't be a teacher if it were any other way.

I go to school for the children.  My purpose is to allow them to learn how they learn, free to be who they are, and to express themselves as they need.  I believe with the many special needs in my little class there is enough genius to change the world.  As the name of my blog suggests, I believe my students are smarter than the teacher, they just need someone older and (a little) wiser to guide them and encourage them.  Otherwise I'm learning from them a majority of the time.