Greetings Iowa Business Educators!

What a year it has been!  The last school year ended in uncertainty and chaos, and this school year hasn’t been much better.  We are already well into 2021 and uncertainty still surrounds many of us!  I hope that you all are staying safe, healthy, and sane during these unprecedented and ever-changing times!

This past year has been challenging for most, if not all, educators and students. I know it has been a struggle for me.  There are many days I have felt burned out and defeated, my engagement lacking and my passion for teaching dwindling.  But, I refuse to give up!  This year my vision for IBEA is to focus on bringing engagement and passion back to our own teaching and learning.

According to edglossary.org, in education, student engagement refers to the degree of attention, curiosity, interest, optimism, and passion that students show when they are learning or being taught, which extends to the level of motivation they have to learn and progress in their education.  As educators, I think we all would agree that striving to engage our students and to have them take an active role in their own learning experiences is a common and important objective.  I mean, that is why we teach, right?  I’m sure we all can agree upon the importance of student engagement.  But what about our own engagement as educators?  What is our degree of attention, curiosity, interest, optimism, and passion as educators?  Has your engagement dimmed over the years?  I know mine has at times, especially over this past year with the changes and uncertainty that came with the rise of Covid-19.  So, you may ask, “What can I do to bring back more passion, more curiosity, and more meaning to my own teaching and learning?”    IBEA is here to help!

My challenge to you this year is to become more engaged and more passionate about your own teaching and learning, and one way to accomplish that is to become more involved in IBEA.  Now more than ever we need to rely on our fellow educators for support, for ideas, for collaboration, and for friendship.  IBEA can provide opportunities for all of these things. I hope that you will take advantage of what IBEA has to offer and to share the benefits of IBEA with educators that are nonmembers as well. Together, let’s increase our engagement and ignite our passion for teaching.  As Helen Keller once said, “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.”

Amy Christian
IBEA President 2020-2021