Teaching Is....

It's Day 18 of TeachThought's Reflective Teacher 30-Day Blog Challenge!

"Create a metaphor/simile/analogy that describes your teaching philosophy."

When discussing unmotivated and/or unwilling students, you will often hear frustrated teachers say, "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink."  Somewhere I have read an addition to this saying:  "You can, however, make it thirsty!"

Source: nea.org

That's my philosophy.  My job.  Make students thirsty.  Make them curious.  Make them feel secure so they are willing to take a risk.

The drinking of the water...the learning...will follow.  Whether or not the students were originally motivated or willing.