Keeping the Burning
Passion Alive
When I was a kid, I never dreamt
to become who I am today. My first love is
art, I am a creative person who sees every
perspective to be a dimension of
something to beautify, to express myself
and ideas. I think being passionate at
When I was a kid, I never dreamt
to become who I am today. My first love is
art, I am a creative person who sees every
perspective to be a dimension of
something to beautify, to express myself
and ideas. I think being passionate at
something makes us understand our
purpose in life, thus making it more vivid
to who we are. Indeed, finding inspiration
in arts are some of the qualities that built
me as a teacher. It is who we are that
makes us what kind of teacher we are.
I always look back through the
years to rekindle what drives me to pursue
this career-teaching. Through this course, I
learn to give meaning and value more my
first love!
When I was a kid, I never dreamt
to become who I am today. My first love is
art, I am a creative person who sees every
perspective to be a dimension of
something to beautify, to express myself
and ideas. I think being passionate at
something makes us understand our
purpose in life, thus making it more vivid
to who we are. Indeed, finding inspiration
in arts are some of the qualities that built
By JERIC M. GUTIERREZ, SpEd Teacher
By JERIC M. GUTIERREZ, SpEd Teacher
SDO Pangasinan II, Pozorrubio Central School
something makes us understand our
purpose in life, thus making it more vivid
to who we are. Indeed, finding inspiration
in arts are some of the qualities that built
me as a teacher. It is who we are that
makes us what kind of teacher we are.
me as a teacher. It is who we are that
makes us what kind of teacher we are.
To be driven, one must have an
enabler/s to be refueled, to find inspiration,
and as well as to redefine the course for
betterment. I am a great believer that
family, great stories, and rewards are my
enablers of passion. These things keep me
in touch to realize a few things.
Finding inspiration in every
student's eyes whom I see their future with
high hopes and dreams. They are the
people of tomorrow-the future leaders. We
should treat them as our children. We
should create a classroom that radiates
positive vibes to cater to their needs. We
must escalate learning through believing in
them and showing our trust to them. I
think that's how I treat my class, a family
that is filled with love and compassion.
You will indeed do everything for your
family no matter how hard it is, and that's
how I understand teaching is.
In teaching, I believe that it is also
a is a life-long learning process. You can
never give what you do not have, I always
capacitate myself through great stories of
experienced teachers. I always look for my
mentors, one who can share great stories of
successes and also tragic ones. I tend to
look to every angle of its stories and learn
from them.
Great people of great books are
also my philosophy. Constant reading of
books from the most influential personas
opens my soul with great wisdom on
inspiring myself and others.
I believe that in everything we do,
there must be a result that we've been
waiting for. It can be tangible and
sometimes priceless that will let you see
the true meaning of teaching. We,
teachers, are fond of giving rewards to our
students and we should not also take these
away from ourselves. We must not forget
to treat ourselves of at least breadth the
crisp air, enjoy simple sweets, or just a
simple me-time.
I am also a believer of love
languages. Words of affirmation from
colleagues are so strong to keep my
burning passion alive. Awards and
recognitions always filled my heart that
every hardship paid off. But nothing is
more precious if there is an emotional
spark as I see the potential and progress of
pupils which is very rewarding in my part.
I see myself still teaching young
people up to my last breath. I love to be
part of someone's success. Embarking this
course on how to keep the passion alive
gave me some realizations as a teacher on
how will I realize these visions and that
mere dreams will be a reality soon.
DEEP Commitment. First is how depth
our commitment as an educator of today's
generation, to be a good influence to them
we should let them see how passionate we
are, the degree of how we affect them in
their lives as learners. We should lead our
four-walled classroom in real-life
situations and let them be the navigator-
By JERIC M. GUTIERREZ, SpEd Teacher
our learners of their learning process. One
of the keys is to celebrate diversity, to be
able to uplift everyone on building their
strengths out of their weaknesses. A
teacher should always see situations with a
silver lining to foster his/her learners well.
Furthermore, to have this commitment we
should embody our jobs' description and
be willing to extend our purpose.
BUILD linkages. As an African Proverb
goes "It takes a village to raise a child"
connotes the importance of our
relationships with the community. A
child's growth doesn't only counts how
well he/ she do inside the school. Nurture
also matters, how his environment
interacts to create meaningful learning. I
learn that as an educator we should also
lead the interactions on gearing the change
towards quality education through having
good networks within the community.
They will serve as support for the holistic
development of our learners as the
heartbeat of the entire system while
teachers are pathways to bridge the gap or
enhance it further.
REFLECT. One of the main points which
drive me for reform is the need for
reflections. Learning is a life-long process,
we should have always the vigor to learn,
relearn, and unlearn things. An effective
way to figure things out and let it under
control is to have a reflection, on this, we
will be able to formulate more methods
and solutions to a certain problem and be
able to direct ways for more evidenced-
based practices.
I believe that deep commitment to
teaching, building relationships with the
stakeholders and always having a
reflection at the end of the day will lead us
towards our ultimate goal as an educator. It
is to inspire the youth and in the long run,
could lead to a good reform in educating
young minds.
 "Teaching young minds takes a
stronger hand to uplift one's soul, good eye
to recognize diversity, vibrant minds to
allow positive impact and reflect and good
heart who respects-that is teaching at its
finest!"

By JERIC M. GUTIERREZ, SpEd Teacher