Passion and Devotion to One's Craft

In PED 201 and EDU 255, Professor Yang stresses the importance of having a passion for your work and career as well as being able to communicate your enthusiasm and knowledge to your students. You have to show to the students that you enjoy the material and never show signs of being bored or unwilling to go above and beyond. To demonstrate this, we were show to videos that epitomized this philosophy...

In this video from the Live Aid Concert from 1985, Queen performs in front of an endless sea of fans and concert goers. When the song "Radio Ga-Ga" begins, Freddie Mercury rises and begins his 'lesson.' Immediatley from the start, you see his passion for his work. He moves about the stage dancing and all the time smiling enjoying what he is doing. As Dr. Yang pointed out, this song was performed by Queen thousands of times before Live Aid and from this video, you couldn't tell that as Mercury was as enthusiastic as he was when he first performed the song. As the act progresses, the audience takes cues from Mercury in the form of singing and clapping in sync with the music when he tells them to. He has the full control and attention of a stadium packed with tens of thousands of people. The audience sees his passion and responds with equal passion and enjoyment to his music. As a teacher, I hope to attain the same outcome. I want my students to see my passion for my work and show the same desire to learn. However, it's quite doubtful I'll be teaching in front of a sold out stadium!

In this video from a show called 'The X-Factor', a school teacher auditions by singing a song in front of a panel of judges and a live audience in the studio as well as a television audience seen by thousands. From the beginning of his audition, you could see his passion and desire for the task he was performing. He was very animated and clear with his performance of this Beatles classic. You could tell he was having a blast singing and the audience was immediately captivated by his performance and give him their full and undivided attention. As a future teacher, I hope to be as animated and happy to be performing my tasks in front of my students and having them by captivated by my performance and respond positively and to their best abilities.

In any field, you can see that passion and communication to your audience will provide excellent feedback and solidify your reputation in your field!