So far, I have listed “students”, spreading my love of history, and extrinsic benefits of being a teacher. I will finalize this series of posts with of course, the intrinsic benefits, aka the internal pluses of this profession.
- Changing the world: I feel slightly more empowered in the classroom, and though I don’t actually think I have made any of my students THAT much better in terms of historical thinking skills, I do think I have changed their values. My goal as a teacher is to have students exit my classroom slightly better as people than when they started. My goal is to make the world a better place, which is why I also encourage students to engage in community service through Builder’s club.
- Student appreciation: I do get a kick out of any notes or any thankyou’s from students. Because I teach middle school, they are pretty rare in nature, but I do feel like I have made more a difference when someone actually thanks me.
- Being around people who care. Nobody, and i mean NOBODY chooses teaching for the money, because there literally is none. People choose to be teachers to make the world a better place, and I do think the people I’ve taught with at Rise seemingly have good places in their hearts for their students. My favorite was last year’s 7th grade team (not to be confused with this year’s).
- Giving students new experiences. I like LEL (life experience lessons), and particularly giving students new opportunities they wouldn’t otherwise have. Growing up as a kid relatively poor and not getting to go anywhere makes me motivation to expose to students new experiences.
- My final intrinsic motivation is to make students feel recognized and know that they have a place in the world. I want them to feel as special as possible. And while I tell them I hate them, I will always at the end of the day appreciate them for who they are as individuals. I just finished writing 128 letters for students which I hope to give out at the end of this week.
So there you have it. Whenever I’m feeling down or disgruntled with teaching again I will re-read my 4 primary motivations for doing so (students, history, extrinsic, and intrinsic motivations). Hopefully it will keep me going for 30 years.
