Lighting of a Fire

"Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire" - William Butler Yeats

This being the first blog as a future educator I want to start off with a bang.  I think this quote sums up what this blog will become and what I believe as an educator.  Yeats says that education is the lighting of a fire, and I believe this to be the same for this blog.  I am looking for the spark that is needed to start a fire for my blogging.  I know that blogging is a great tool for teachers to communicate and for students to see the that teachers are humans as well.  

Reading this quote I have so many takes on it, but I will share my most important.  As teachers we should know that we don't want to feed students with a ton of facts and knowledge that may not be useful.  Therefore we don't want to fill their pails.  Instead we want to give students sparks of new information, knowledge or learning that will grow into a much bigger fire.  We need to provide these sparks for students so they can learn on their own and not always rely on others.  Once we find the spark that needs to be started in each student, then we can say that we are successful educators.  But if we don't find the sparks that are needed for each topic we have failed and need to try and try again.