{"id":448,"date":"2013-07-10T00:58:17","date_gmt":"2013-07-10T00:58:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/?p=448"},"modified":"2013-07-11T02:58:13","modified_gmt":"2013-07-11T02:58:13","slug":"staying-healthy-and-motivated-scott-thornbury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/2013\/07\/10\/staying-healthy-and-motivated-scott-thornbury\/","title":{"rendered":"Staying healthy and motivated – Scott Thornbury"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Scott<\/a><\/p>\n

What Motivates You As A Teacher?\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

— Scott Thornbury<\/strong><\/h2>\n

It\u2019s not the best of times to be a teacher. In Spain, where I live, and in response to the deteriorating economic situation, the government has just announced an increase in class numbers and an increase in teachers\u2019 hours. Not only is this likely to reduce the quality of education, but it reinforces a perception that teachers are undervalued (there\u2019s no concomitant increase in teachers\u2019 salaries, of course) and it contributes very little to teachers\u2019 self-esteem. Not very motivating!<\/p>\n

It\u2019s worth reminding ourselves, though, that \u2013 even if our governments don\u2019t value us \u2013 our students do. Who, apart from their parents and siblings, has made the biggest impression on their lives, after all? Ask anyone to name a formative influence on their lives and chances are, they\u2019ll name a teacher.<\/p>\n

What do teachers do, then, to validate their role in education and to retrieve a measure of self-respect?<\/p>\n

I decided to ask my Twitter followers. My question: What motivates you as a teacher?<\/p>\n

These are some of the answers I got:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

As I sifted through the responses, I found they fell into four main areas:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Learner feedback\/ results. For example: \u201cI love when the light comes on in a student’s eyes and you know that they’ve ‘got it\u201d<\/li>\n
  2. External validation: \u201cAppreciation also helps to raise motivation..whether from students or from your boss\u201d<\/li>\n
  3. Intrinsic drive: \u201cContinuous professional development & using my new knowledge to help students\u201d<\/li>\n
  4. Peer support\/community: \u201cWhat keeps me going is the experience of knowing extraordinary people every year\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Each of these areas is within the teacher\u2019s control. 1. You can get results, because you know what you\u2019re doing, and you do it well; 2. Your students \u2013 and even your boss \u2013 will appreciate you if you do your job; 3. You can push yourself even further, because you\u2019re always learning; and 4. You can become part of a community of teachers who you care for, and who care for you.<\/p>\n

    And (with regard to point 4) that\u2019s why ITDi is such a great idea: it extends the notion of community to a global level.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Connect with Scott, Chuck, \u00a0Tamas, Vladimira, Nour, \u00a0Ann and other iTDi Associates, Mentors, and Faculty by joining iTDi Community.\u00a0Sign Up For A Free iTDi Account<\/a>\u00a0to create your profile and get immediate access to our social forums and trial lessons from our\u00a0English For Teachers<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Teacher Development<\/a>\u00a0courses.<\/p>\n

    Like what we do? Become an\u00a0iTDi Patron<\/a>.
    \nYour support makes a difference.<\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    What Motivates You As A Teacher?\u00a0 — Scott Thornbury It\u2019s not the best of times to be a teacher. In Spain, where I live, and in response to the deteriorating economic situation, the government has just announced an increase in class numbers and an increase in teachers\u2019 hours. Not only is this likely to reduce … Continue reading Staying healthy and motivated – Scott Thornbury<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":42,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-staying-healthy-and-motivated","category-summer-sampler-1"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}