If the fire is waning - you need to switch things up a bit. The safe equivalent of tossing yourself in front of a train. Supposed danger is a healthy catalyst.

I personally try to keep strong connections with creative industry professionals. Building bridges between the classroom, students, teachers and the people who are doing what students aspire to do is a good way to keep the fire burning. If we operate in a vacuum then yes, the fire will die out. I'm always inspired by the works, stories and adventures of others.

So here's my two cents:

Build a strong teacher to industry professional network.

Create industry professional show and tell opportunities within the classroom.

Collaborate with industry professionals on mock projects for advanced students.

Create an annual awards competition within school or district. (Or participate in an existing one like http://www.skillsusa.org.

Good topic and very relevant.

I am struggle annually with many of the things that Marcia mentioned. (I am the yearbook adviser at my HS - 9th year running.) And, believe me, it takes special building leadership to understand what an undertaking the yearbook actually is. This one commitment is not understood by many. And those who do understand it (my friends, family, and other advisers [active or inactive]) often ask why I even stay with it. To be honest, it is the ONE class wherein I get to teach - and I mean wholly teach - real-world skills with a realistic small business setting using industry-standard software and equipment. (I am certain that without our journalism classes our district would have cut all proprietary software purchases out years ago.) And so, for that $1/hour pay rate for the extra time it takes to produce the book, here are a few token rewards I reaped this year: one of my old editors is up for editor-in-chief at a ranked collegiate newspaper because of her knowledge and expertise walking onto campus; another student stopped in to thank me for adequately preparing him for collegiate world/ job life; and a grad from last year, as well as a grad from three years ago, got hired at a local graphic design office. And those small things are the things that have to keep me going. These small tokens come about 3-4 time per year - and these are the things that keep me teaching this one class of many.

Daily, and I mean daily, I wonder about the state of education. How we will continue to attract, not just competent, by exceptional candidates for teaching, how my husband and I can keep our household budget healthy while the state keeps cutting funding (my pay is in its 3rd year of decline/we are both in educ.), how I can keep staying enthusiastic while acquaintances and family tell me I earn too much for the time I put in ('cause I get all those summers off, yeah right), how my students will possibly compete in a global market when many have just not read enough to stay competitive... These are the topics that keep me up at night.

Then to top it off, many people just plainly believe that if I am challenging my kids, I am doing something wrong - cause the knowledge just isn't "coming" to the kids - as if working the brain muscle is just plain wrong.

So, how does one keep the fire? Here are my suggestions:

1.) Read. Read for ideas, read for escape, read for skill building. Get away from the daily nonsense for just a second. (I also find a remote coffeehouse allows for uninterrupted reflection and reading time.)

2.) Find a mentor. Not a "school-given-job-descript" mentor, I mean someone who you can be completely honest with and someone who has enough experience to offer genuine feedback and question your thinking. Go out for bevs, talk, plan another meeting time before you leave. These small conversations about life and profession will prove invaluable and help one balance the day-to-day stresses.

3.) Find humor in the everyday stress of things. If you can buddy up with a couple of teachers and just laugh at the ridiculousness of some of the policies/ decisions/ outcomes then there is a small release.

4.) Enjoy the kids for what they bring. They are still moldable, shapable, creative beings. They do have dreams. They have hope.

5.) Watch an inspiring movie about a teacher overcoming great obstacles. Mr. Holland's Opus was on TV the other night. Yes, it is an anomaly to what we typically experience day-to-day, but inspiring nonetheless.

6.) Make short term and long term goals for yourself. They can be technology skills, job-related, job-focused, or something else, but when individuals are striving for something - they typically are happier and can find value in their endeavors.

Hope this helps,

Kelly

mmmm....probably a little too lyrical yestarday.

I'd start with Adobe Forms Central, Acrobat Portfolio's and Adobe Connect and plug assessment, collaboration and presentation.

Photoshop Touch is great but you'll probably have trouble connecting with left brained subject areas, whereas creatives will pick it up and run with it straight away.

Keeping that fire burning is a tough gig. Too much heat and the fuel burns fast. Burn slow, burn strong, burn long. I'm not sure of the value of the extrinsic i.e., the tools / apps, it's the intrinsic integrity and worth or sense of worth of the person using them that conveys the same to students and other educators., (a burning ember can light lots of fires) and I believe that the oxygen that keeps that alive is the creative life one has outside the classroom. When your light goes out there, by default, it dies everywhere else. You can make the simplest thing exciting for others when you yourself find it so. When you do what you love, others in time will love what you do. I don't think you have to cache the solutuon inside the use of any particular software. I believe that the fact that you want to make a difference means that you will, regardless of the environment. The best creative tool those people have is you. Good luck Dan.

I left the classroom four years ago because my fire for teaching was waning, and couldn't identify any other opportunities for professional growth than becoming a principal, which frankly turned my stomach. I've pursued a number of formal and informal professional learning experiences since then that have allowed me to deepen my connection with the education change movement while staying current, fresh, and engaged. But I did all that on my own, and i had to walk away from the kids I love in order to do it.

I wish there was something like this in place in the NYC DOE four years ago: http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2011/04/what-the-heck-is-a-teacherpreneur/

I may have stayed in the classroom where I was "doing the work" everyday.

Having been a Post Sec Teacher for almost 15 years I have seen those fires sputter and gutter out. The reason for this inevitably comes down to a teacher moving into autopilot mode and doing the same thing alll the time because "that is the way it has always been done." One also can't dismiss the fact that teaching the same thing for so long is comfortable.If you are teaching technology, "comfortable" is a really bad habit because of the accelerated pace of change in the market.

When teachers are "on fire" they refuse to accept the status quo, are passionate about their subject matter, and able to embrace change. I am at the extreme end of that spectrum. Having written 15 books, produced a number of traing video projects and written a few thousand tutorials I am constantly trying to figure out: "How did they do that?". When I figure it out I will write the tutorial or do the video and then walk right into my class with "Here is what I learned."

I am also "fearless around technology". I am unafraid to try something totally out of my knowledge base because , when it blows up and I figure out why, I can bring that experience into my classroom. My students love my war stories becausde I want them to understand learning something new is not always a straight line. There are going to be failures and how you solve them is, in many ways, more important than "learning the software".

I also have an insatiable curiosity around technology and spend an inordinate amount of time studying it, deciding whether it is going to stick and then working it into my curriculum. If I look back 15 years or even five years, what I have taught is never the same and how I have taught it has also changed. We have deep-sixed technologies one year and added new ones the following year. When it comes to teaching software we make it clear to our students we are one semester out from every release because we need that semester to get "trained up" on the software.

I also love what i do. As I am fond of telling anybody- This stuff is fun. When it stops being fun and becomes a job ... go drive a beer truck.

I felt my fire fading recently, so I took on a new challenge. Moving isn't the only way to rekindle the teaching & creative flame. Teachers need to challenge themselves in order to stay involved. The best way to motivate teachers is by demonstrating the power of the Adobe programs. A good, short, powerful demonstration can really light fires! Show them how they can use their tablets with Photoshop Touch. Show them that there is something better to do at bedtime than check Facebook!

Are you asking for sites? apps? projects? lessons?

D.)all of the above?

How strong is the sense of community in your school? Is there much collaboration?