The Gift of Passion

TL;DR:

When you enter your state of flow, the passage of time does not seem to feel accurate.
Discover your passion and allow yourself to pursue it. It’s a great avenue for self-care.
The goal is for students to discover and pursue their passions through Passion Projects.
The passion for learning is a gift we hope to instill in students as a lifelong process.
Passion is a gift because of how it makes people feel inspired and joyfully alive.

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Ignite the
Fire within and let YOU shine
Through

Do you have a superpower to control time?

Have you ever been able to manipulate the passage of time?

While I cannot control or manipulate the passage of time, I most certainly felt like I have been in a time warp…many times. How is this possible? Well, it’s when I enter into a state of flow. Time seems to bend.

How many times have you worked on something you are so focused on and passionate about and then when you pause to check the time, you think your eyes deceive you? It is just unbelievable that hours have passed when it only felt like just one. That’s me!

Most of the time, this happens when I am really enjoying myself. For example, when I am with friends or family, I can sit and talk for hours and not realize it’s been for hours! Although time is a constant, it’s like time passes too quickly! This happens in our class sometimes too. You know what they say, “time flies when you’re having fun!”

This also happens when I get into the groove of writing. I can sit at my laptop and write, write, and write without realizing that it’s now 4 am in the morning! I love it when I’ve entered my state of flow and the passage of time surprises me.

Discover Your Passions

Sometimes it takes time for people to discover what they are passionate about. I notice what I naturally gravitate towards learning or doing and how inspired that makes me feel. Then I nurture that interest by investing my time and effort.

Sometimes it takes time to develop a passion. When I first started playing ringette, a winter team sport played on ice created by Sam Jacks (a Canadian) in 1963, I enjoyed it. Then when my daughter started playing the following year, I started coaching. Over the years, it eventually became a great passion of mine to play, coach, and then ref the sport! In the fall, it will be my 14th season of playing, 12th season of coaching, and 3rd season of being a ref! Ringette fills me with great joy! It’s the gift of passion.

For students, it may take them time to figure out what they are passionate about too, especially the younger they are. Some know right away what they want to learn more about. Some take a lot more time to discover. Once they figure it out, they are on their way to finding joy in learning through their Passion Projects.

Student Passion Projects

Passion projects have been a favorite learning opportunity for my students. I first started offering this to my grade 3 and 4 students when we moved to remote learning in March 2020 because of the pandemic. It was the perfect “learn at home” project to dive into something they have always wanted to learn about but may not have had the push or time to do it.

One of my students, Kiana, had a passion for story writing. She really wanted to become an author so she worked with her mom to publish a children’s book on Amazon called Ellie and Lou: The Meaning of Friendship. Since it published in May 2020, she has sold over 3,000 copies! To learn more, check out her website too!

After seeing the passion students brought to their learning, I was sold! What a gift to offer the opportunity to do Passion Projects at school! So for the past two years since, I have thoroughly enjoyed guiding and watching students work diligently during this weekly Friday afternoon time. I have many students who spend many more hours during the week and weekends working on their projects at home. This is not assigned as homework but they love working on it!

This is the kind of learning I love to facilitate!

So often when I tell them that it is time to wrap up because it’s home time, I hear, “already?” I hear groans and pleas asking for more time. Remember, it’s Friday right before the weekend! Sometimes I jest and say we should have a sleepover at the school so we can continue working on our passion projects, to which I hear exclamations of “YES!”

I love how happy they feel when they are in their flow working on what they are passionate about learning. It’s the gift of passion.

To learn more about where I started with passion projects, read this article that was previously published on School Rubric: Passion Projects – an Opportunity to Do Something Amazing. Each year, I make improvements to what is expected of students. Click here for my most recent Passion Project proposal and checkpoints sheets.

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The Gift of Passion for Learning

When I witness children’s passion for learning, I see it as a gift. Their desire to learn sparks a positive energy that spreads throughout the room. More importantly, the passion helps them further develop that love and joy for learning which hopefully will carry on for life.

When I have opportunities to talk about my passions, I often share that I am passionate about learning. I love learning every day by reading articles and books, having conversations, listening to podcasts, and more. My brain craves and finds joy in learning new things. It fuels my passion for becoming an even better teacher tomorrow, which is the Teach Better mindset. I strive to be better today than I was yesterday and better tomorrow than I was today.

I also believe that it’s important to be a role model to students. When they hear about my many different passions, they can see how I come alive with joy when I talk about them. When they see that I am in constant pursuit of knowledge and betterment, it allows me to model how much I love to learn.

The Gift of Passion

Why do I see passion as a gift? Oh, for so many reasons. When I nurture what I am passionate about, it makes a direct and positive impact on how much joy I feel. When I see passions as gifts, I give myself permission to dive in deeply. The result? I get to feel inspired and joyfully alive. Being able to pursue what I am passionate about is a big part of taking good care of myself. Next? I get to feel such gratitude for the life and joy I cultivated and have been blessed with. What a gift to nurture this thing called passion. Here are a few of mine:

I am passionate about making connections.
I am passionate about teaching.
I am passionate about learning.
I am passionate about writing.
I am passionate about ringette.
I am passionate about leading with my heart.
I am passionate about living my best life.

What are you passionate about? Please share!

I would absolutely love to connect to have a conversation or if you would like some support to get started with Passion Projects. I am grateful you chose to give me the gift of your time to read my post. Please click here to let me know your thoughts, thank you!

If we have not connected yet, I am looking forward to meeting you. Feel free to DM me on Twitter. Let’s chat!

About Livia Chan

Livia Chan is a Head Teacher, author, and speaker passionate about building relationships, teaching, leading, and daily learning. Her other passions include family, friends, and the sport of ringette. She lives by the belief that in every interaction we have the opportunity to intentionally uplift others through our kindness and gratitude to help make their day a brighter one.

For over 20 years, Livia has continued to experience the joy of teaching in the Greater Vancouver area in BC, Canada and loves her role as Head Teacher and classroom teacher. She previously served on the District Staff Development Team in Learning Technologies supporting K-12 educators. Currently, Livia is honored to be the Digital Content Coordinator for the Teach Better Team and loves being a part of this family! Her motto is “Working together to better ourselves, each other, and the world around us.”