In pursuit of "freshness" in teaching

As a teacher who is new to the craft of teaching I was worrying on how a teacher needs to keep himself "fresh". Once someone has taught the same course a couple of times, sets in a tendency to relax a bit , hoping that the preparation which he or she had done the last time around would be enough to carry him through. But the need to keep oneself "fresh" cannot be overemphasised, not just for the students but firstly for himself. Because the first person who has to be interested in the course is the teacher himself and I feel if the same examples and cases have been used over a period of time there is a high chance that he himself might have lost of the enthu of going into the class and sharing it.

In today's era of ppts it is both easy as well as difficult to keep one's material fresh, because as easy as it is to update the ppt, more is the inertia not wanting to change the presentation. Paradoxically though the imperative to change and update is higher in the information era, reasons being two-fold. Firstly owing to fast paced change and the wider availability of information. And the second reason why the ppts need to be updated if not changed, is because in the computer-era chances are that what you shared with the students last year is anyway there with students of this year.

There are some teachers whom I have heard tend to tear-off the notes that they have prepared for their class as soon as the class is over so that he has prepare afresh the next time he has to teach the same course, though might seem a extreme , but then we all tend to prepare the best when we have very little to fall back on.

I watch with envy the spring in walk of teachers walking towards the teaching block ready for their class after doing the same for 15-20 years, maybe all teachers more so the ones who are new to teaching should also access that elixir of freshness in teaching...............