Tag Archives: Passion

Teacher for hire: Googleyness a necessity

At the end of a long and wonderful day, I sat down to tackle my ever growing list of emails. In the impossible quest of emptying my inbox, I came across an email from my principal Travis McNaughton about our PD session tomorrow. He asked us to watch a video featuring a talk by Tony Wagner about innovation in the classroom.

During the video, Tony Wagner talks about Google and their hiring practices. Google hires people based on their ability to think outside the box, as opposed to focusing on grades or standardized test scores. When I looked on Googles website, they had a list of things they look for in a potential candidate. Their criteria include: Leadership, Role-related knowledge (someone with a variety of strengths and passions), How you think (problem solving) and Googleyness (what makes you, you as well as how you work in a team). They are not looking for someone with a large content background, because they realize that all people have access to the internet and can easily Google what they need to figure out. They need someone who has skills and the ability to persevere and work through problems. They want employees with passion and creativity.

How do I transfer the ideas from Google to my classroom? What do I need to do to as a teacher to facilitate leadership, passion, problem solving and teamwork?

My question is, how do I get students to think like a Googler? How do I prepare my students for a world that focuses less on content and more on skills? How do I become and innovation facilitator?

Passion in Teaching

As a child I used to grab my mom’s long fur coat and throw it over my shoulders. I would stomp into the backyard towards the swing set and start interacting with the imaginary children on the “playground”. “Get down from there Timmy, you know the rules of the playground” “Beth, I just graded your story and it was awesome, you are a budding Judy Bloom”
Now I realized that most teachers don’t dream of doing outside supervision, but as a child I couldn’t wait to experience all aspects of teaching.

When I finished university and was ready to be Miss B., I couldn’t wait! Instantly I fell in love with 25 students and a staff full of characters. I made a lot of mistakes that year and learned a lot of new things. I was coaching every team I could (basketball, volleyball, badminton and track). I slept minimally and often ate corn pops for dinner. Life was great!  (Still is)

As the year progressed, I was worried that students wouldn’t learn about Tunisia’s quality of life and that they wouldn’t all be able to spell metamorphosis correctly. I was up late at night worrying about the plays I should run with the boys basketball team, my gym lesson using inquiry in games and how I was going to help Jeff reach his potential. I worried and worried because I wasn’t sure I was good enough or properly trained to be the kind of teacher those 25 kids deserved.
The principal came to my class at the end of a long day and found me lying face up on my alphabet carpet. I sat up, looked at him and began to cry. I told him I didn’t think I was good enough and that maybe I somehow tricked him in the interview into thinking I was ready. He smiled and told me something very important. He said “Paige, what you teach is less important than how you teach. Students need to be cared for and given the skills they need to help them learn. We hired you because of your passion and joy, not because your unit plans were perfectly laid out.”  Those words have really stuck with me.

My ideals about passion are best described in a quote by Fabienne Fredrickson  “the things you are passionate about are not random, they are your calling.”

I am so happy to have found my calling and overwhelmed each day by the simple pleasure of going to work. I laugh with the kids, I cry when they succeed and I high kick when they get excited.

I know the old adage is “life is short” but in actuality, life is long if you spend it doing something you hate.

Love what you do and take joy in small victories. The rule I learned 5 years ago, that will always be true is: passion is the most important thing you can bring to the classroom.