What am I passionate about?

Where to begin?  Perhaps a simpler approach would be to ask "What am I not passionate about?"  A much shorter list to be sure.  In fact my students have dubbed my superhero identity as "Willipedia" which I hope is a fond acknowledgement of idiosyncrasies revolving around my thirst for knowledge rather than a mocking salute.  The issue remains however, that even within the realm of education I am passionate about a great many things.

On to the task of narrowing it down.  Technology?  History?  Innovative teaching methods?  All of these are near and dear to my heart, as are many others.  Perhaps they can be unified in some way, a central theme or greater goal that encompasses all of these methods and interests.  Focusing on my first and foremost passion, history, I look to what I hope to do with the subject.  Since coaching a love of history into each and every student is beyond even my ability, my central goal is instead to teach every student how to use history to make sense of the world in which they live and to help create their own personal success.

An expansive and perhaps impossible goal, yet that does not make it any less important to aim for as an educator.  If I condense this goal into "I want my students to leave my classroom with new tools and new understandings of previous tools that will help them create their own success" it becomes somewhat more manageable, if still a bit nebulous.  One further revision leads to the goal "My students will leave my classroom with new and improved tools to create their own success." Aha!  I like it.  Now does it encompass all of my educational passions and interests?  Indeed I think it does, this is the central core of what I hope to do as a teacher.

Within this goal I can incorporate new material, new methods, and new technology with a focused point of helping my students develop physical and mental skills that will help them on whatever path they choose.