I asked one of the teacher groups I am working with to read this post by George Couros, the 10 Essential Characteristics of a 21st Century Teacher. In it, he writes about the teacher as artist. It was an idea that stuck with the teacher group. Couros doesn’t write about teacher’s being organized or flexible. He doesn’t even include content area master as a characteristic of a 21st century teacher. But, he does include artist.

Each day, as an educator, I am called upon to be creative. It is one of the reasons I stayed in education.

What does it mean to be an artist?

I love this quote by  Edgar Degas:

“Art is not what you see, but what you make others see.”

We are creating beauty every day, in the minds of our students and in the connections we make. We do it when we open a student’s mind to their potential, what they can not see, but we know is there.

We create art when we ignite passion in our students and there is really no better art than that.