What did we learn?

Happy Monday Joy, Love and Work-ers!

I hope you had a marvelous relaxing weekend and the right team won the Superbowl :-)

Last week we ran our first Joy, Love and Work poll and asked the question 'Do you LOVE your work?' here's what we learned:

60% said YES! 

28% said Sometimes

and sadly 12% said No

HURRAH for the 88% for whom love is at least sometimes a part of work, and for the loveless 12% I hope you are soon able to make changes that will positively affect your answer.

I've always found polls interesting, it seems very cool to me that polls allow the participants to take the driving seat, become the teachers if you like, and the poll creators take the role of learners; this is pretty different from the way many of us think about teaching and learning.

I'm in complete awe of great teachers and am blessed to have been exposed to many at home and work. It seems to me that great teachers set themselves apart by having a boundless appreciation for both their subject and their students, they enable themselves to continually grow in their own area of expertise whilst simultaneously being able to flex to support each student on their individual journey of discovery. Great teachers have an internal passion and fire that is viral - they share the love - and fortunate students get positively infected!

Of course not all teachers are great, for whatever reason some people with the responsibility of teaching others are not on fire, they often fail to grow their own expertise and fall back on a dwindling body of outdated knowledge. They are not attuned to the needs of their students and instead take safe standardized routes of rote learning. Poor teaching is a disease that inhibits learning and closes minds off to future possibility - love don't live here anymore.

I would LOVE to hear your stories of great teachers and learning today, so take a moment think about your greatest teachers, what was it or is it about them that's so powerful?

And who looks to YOU as their teacher? - could it be your children, neighbors, colleagues or friends? - how are you doing? are you positively infecting or closing their minds?

Whether at home or at work - HUG A GREAT TEACHER TODAY!