50 Inspirational Quotes for Teachers

URL: http://hubpages.com/hub/50_Inspirational_Quotes_for_Teachers

Source: ripplemaker, Cebu, Philippines
A Glimpse from ED646 - Spring 2009

Monday, January 25, 2010

Sustaining Students' Joy and Wonder

Part of the reason I chose to become a teacher is that I wanted others to share in my joy of reading and writing. Of the different inspirational quotes, the following by Rachel Carlson is the one that caught my attention the most:

"If a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder, he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, the excitement, and the mystery of the world we live in."

Quite a few of my students seem to have a jaded point of view--and, for a few, with good reason. But literacy is something that is necessary to life and may serve them well as an escape from their less-than-perfect realities, an escape through more marketable skills. Carlson's quote emphasizes the necessity of sustaining and developing students' enthusiasm. Motivation is the key to learning, and we can use students' sense of wonder and joy to fuel their drive to learn.

2 comments:

  1. Christine, what a wonderful insight! I believe that in order to keep your students motivated, we as teachers must also be motivated and it is in our enthusiam in teaching that the students are motivated!Keep up the great work!

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  2. With your passion for reading and writing, your students are already ahead of the others. A teacher's enthusiasm for the content is so important and is the most effective motivator for learning. Your students are lucky to have you as a teacher and I am sure that you will be instrumental in changing those jaded views.

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