I’ve been thinking about motivation for a very long time. The reason why some people do their jobs lovingly and why some others look forward to the weekend starting from the very first day of the week.
In other words, the ones who see the alarm clock as an opportunity clock that wakes them up to the new day with fresh new opportunities and the ones who see it as unpleasant as a fire alarm.
I think I fall into the first category and I see myself very lucky because I’m doing something I love and sometimes an hour feels like five minutes while I’m working… And I’m also very lucky that I know hundreds of people who have the same or much more passionate attitudes towards their jobs.
I’ve also been thinking of writing a blog post about it but I haven’t known where to start… since I watched the Jay Leno show last Friday.
One of his guests was Louis CK who is a well-known American stand-up comedian. At a point in their conversation, Louis made a very good point in a very fun way:
You probably don’t see a connection between a coffee guy and a teacher. If you are a coffee guy and do not like your job, it is not a problem that could make a big difference in the customers’ lives. But, if you are a teacher and do not like your job, it could make big differences and cause irreparable results in your students’ lives. And, because of this reason, I think that the teachers who fall into the second category should immediately change their jobs.
What I desperately wonder is the reason of the difference in teachers’ attitudes towards their jobs (which I think also reflect their attitude towards life). We have such a big responsibility that even the worst conditions should not cause us not to do our jobs properly or to hate going to work every single day. The motto should be ‘Love It or Leave It’…
I would like to ask you what you think is the difference between these two teacher profiles that I mentioned?
I will continue questioning this and I hope one day I can find the chance and time to do some research on this because I am sure that there are plenty of variables and it is not easy to come up with a single reason or solution.
No related posts.
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
Pingback: Speaking of Motivation… | Burcu's Teaching and Learning Zone
December 11, 2010 at 6:30 pm
This reminded me of the Abraham Lincoln quote: “Whatever you are, be a good one.” Life just. . . feels better when you care about what you’re doing–whether that’s work, or hobbies, or whatever. It’s good to be passionate about your work, and it’s good to leave work aside at the end of the day and take time for yourself (not that I’m always very good at the latter). I am deeply passionate about my work, and it most definitely is who I am–but it’s not all of who I am.
.-= Sara K-M´s last blog ..Whatever you are- be a good one =-.
December 11, 2010 at 12:03 am
I know quite a lot of expat teachers in Spain. Some of them are quite negative about their jobs, especially about the students they have to teach.
Many expats have problems, I think, because they are always looking for the students they left behind when they went abroad. They never come to terms with the fact that different cultures produce different kinds of students with different priorities and ways of doing things. As a result, they suffer in a chronic way, and this is likely to affect the way they are in the classroom.
The other great problem many of us have, whether expat or not, is accepting that students are changing in many countries in ways that we may not actually like. My view is that it is probably true that there has been a dumbing down in education and that students generally read less, write worse and find it harder and harder to concentrate for long periods of time on one thing. This doesn’t, however, mean that students are somehow less decent people with less noble intentions; it just means that they have changed – I think irrevocably – and it is my job to educate them as they are and not as I would wish them to be.
Accepting reality – more easier said than done I know – is the key to staying positive. It has taken me a long time to really learn that.
December 10, 2010 at 9:17 pm
There are a couple of thoughts I had when I read your blogpost, Burcu. The first is that whole thing about whether teachers are born or made. Well my take on that is that anyone who has a reasonable amount of empathy and who is personable can become a perfectly good teacher (even a motivated one) with training, reflection and supportive colleagues (and as Ken suggests, a good class helps!). But there are some people who are born NOT to be teachers – presumably because they lack that basic empathy etc. They should probably be doing something else.
But more important than that – to me – is to help teachers who are ging through a temporary motivation ‘blip’. Teacher burn-out is not a permanent condition, but a phase that lots of people go through from time to time. How can we help them? How can they help themselves?
I reckon it’s all about accentuating the positive. Tell them they’re great. Make them feel good. And then help them right out of the comfort zone into some new and potentially risky but exciting experimentation. Try new techniques. Do something you have never done before. Go gliding!
Same with the coffee guy. You CAN enjoy serving coffee if you work out a way to make it fun and great – if you risk a little.
Friday evening thoughts!
Jeremy
December 18, 2010 at 9:25 pm
I started reading the comments on this interesting topic and I read this one. I noticed that I was saying ‘yes,definitely’ and ‘how true’ and then I read the name of the writer. Yes, Jeremy Harmer. I feel so lucky to read your opinions and again I feel so happy that you are in teaching business. Thank you for all your brilliant ideas and for your existence. I can say that after the teacher education I got for four years and the courses from universities in the UK, I learned how to teach mostly thanks to your books.
Thank you.
December 10, 2010 at 8:59 pm
Hi Burcu,
Thanks for starting this discussion. As somebody who has worked as both the ‘coffee guy’ and a teacher, I feel I’m in a good position to comment on this subject!
Having a positive attitude in whatever you do always makes things easier. When I worked in cafes and bars to make ends meet as a student, I soon found a smile and a friendly comment with the customers would usually (though not always!) be reciprocated, which in turn would go a long way to making the shift pass more easily.
As a teacher, I’ve found the same. Perhaps more than any other job, you have to interact with the same group of people on a daily basis and if you’re not keen, happy/comfortable in what you do and approachable, the course/semester/year will be one long slog. I find that when the kids in my classes are happy and motivated, this bounces back to me and makes me happier and more motivated too. Just today for example, the bell rang for break and I dismissed my class but one girl didn’t get up. She sat at her desk and said “I don’t want to go.” I asked why and she said “because I don’t want my English lesson to finish”! That gave me a great feeling which I carried through to the end of the day, even during my Friday last period ‘class from hell’.
However, over the last ten years of teaching in Turkey, I’ve witnessed teachers whose heart is not in it. I find these are usually foreign teachers who have some other reason for wanting to live here and find English language teaching to be the easiest and best paid job they can do. They react to difficult days with a “Why am I doing this?” attitude rather than thinking what they can do better or differently next time. Perhaps the teachers who don’t like their jobs never really wanted to become teachers in the first place…
Dave (the thinner, younger and not quite-so-bald Louis CK a-like
)
.-= DaveDodgson´s last blog ..Dogme Games – Just unplug and play! =-.
December 10, 2010 at 7:21 pm
Hello Tim,
you’re absolutely right that there are days when you feel like death, or your life is (temporarily) in tatters. And LOTS of days when you wish the bloody alarm clock hadn’t gone off. But if your class is a bubbly group of people, they can be part of the way back to feeling ‘normal’. I remember one day in particular, when we came to work on a Monday morning to find that a colleague had been killed in a motor-bike accident. Twenty minutes later, I was on my way to class. I approached the door of the classroom, thinking I would have to talk to them about it. But at the last minute, I changed my mind, took a deep breath, smiled and walked through the door and started as normal. I let the warmth of this great class get me through a particularly bad moment.
I’m not sure this example covers all the things you mentioned, but I go back to my main point – it doesn’t really help to take it out on the class if you’re not feeling on top of the world.
.-= Ken Wilson´s last blog ..Guest blog 25 – Ania Musielak on using drama games to teach soldiers =-.
December 10, 2010 at 6:59 pm
I love the clip!
It made me think of how hard it actually is to be that happy, positive motivating person ALL the time! As a teacher, it’s so important that even if you’ve had a really bad day, or had some really bad news, you have to stand up there and be positive. I think this can be quite a stressful part of teaching! Particularly if you’ve been worn out by a difficult class and you’ve been teaching for 4 hours already, with 2 more to go! Which leads us into the issue of over-work, but I’ll leave that for now!
December 10, 2010 at 5:52 pm
Yo don’t have to be a teacher , whatever you do , whoever you are , if you do your job with enthusiasm or love the staff you are doing the results will always be satisfactory.
December 10, 2010 at 6:41 pm
Hi Alis, thanks for your comment. Yes, the world would be a better place that way:-)
As teachers we have a very strong influence on people’s lives and for this reason the ‘my body is here but my soul is not’ group of teachers makes me really nervous…
Burcu
December 10, 2010 at 5:51 pm
I would describe myself as an enthusiastic and motivated teacher and I agree with most of what has been said here up to now but … :
I am an expat Brit who has been working in France for more than 25 years.
I am writing this at the end of a Friday afternoon after a very rewarding week of teaching, testing and consulting. I love my job but I am also very happy that tomorrow is the weekend and I’m looking forward to winding down. Also, every morning when the alarm clock goes off, I dream of lying in and I must admit that I have never jumped out of bed and danced around thinking about all the new opportunities I could be investigating during the day!!
Over here, customer service is seen as important but not nearly as much as in other countries, notably the English-speaking world. I have many examples of “Anglo Saxons” being disgusted by the way they have been treated by French shopkeepers, tradespeople, reception staff, “coffee guys” and teachers over here.
Many years ago, I was talking to one of my French brothers in law about this. He works for French Railways and his take on the problem was extremely simple :
People at the front end, working with the public, cannot always be in a good mood. You cannot expect everyone to be at 100% of their capacity 100% of the time.
At that time,I scoffed at that. It was obvious to me that people should not carry personal problems to work and bother colleagues and clients who have nothing to do with it.
But know I’ve grown older and lived a bit longer, the more I think about that explanation, the more I accept it. Sure, you shouldn’t bring your problems to work but you do and everyone has done at one point or another. Burcu and Ken, are you trying to tell us that you have never taught one day after you’ve had some bad news, an argument with your partner, car problem or whatever and that your effectiveness wasn’t under par that day?
If your job is not your whole life, then some days your life has to creep into your job. And if your job is your whole life, in my opinion you have another problem – you need to get a life. And the more you do a mundane, badly paid, unrewarding job like the coffee guys and gals of the world, the more you try to blossom outside your job.
What do people think about that?
Tim
December 10, 2010 at 6:34 pm
Hello Tim,
Thank you for your comment. Actually, what I’m questioning here is the general negativeness and lack of enthusiasm rather than unhappiness or mood changes that daily life might bring to us. We all have ups and downs, good days and bad days. If you love your job, I don’t think having bad days from time to time doesn’t make you a bad teacher, it shows that you’re a human being, not a robot:-)
By the way, can you believe that I made all that noise for this 40-second piece of Louis CK?:-)
Burcu
Pingback: Tweets that mention My Job Is Not What I Do, It Is Who I Am | Burcu Akyol's Blog -- Topsy.com
December 10, 2010 at 5:05 pm
Burcu,
you’ve asked a simple question that has profound implications for teachers and their students everywhere. Research shows clearly that teacher enthusiasm is a major factor in student motivation and performance. A lack of teacher enthusiasm has a negative, sometimes irreversible, effect on student attitudes and to their self-esteem.
It makes no sense for teachers to feel a lack of enthusiasm for their job. Regardless of pay, conditions, circumstances, showing a little enthusiasm makes your life better. Facing a class with a face that says ‘I don’t like teaching because I don’t get paid enough’ is senseless. It isn’t something that the students are responsible for or that they can do anything about.
But I also think the ‘coffee guy’ would feel better about himself and his life if he put a little more enthusiasm into what he did, too.
Did Louis CK have any more to say about ‘coffee guy’? It seems he was just getting started!
.-= Ken Wilson´s last blog ..Guest blog 25 – Ania Musielak on using drama games to teach soldiers =-.
December 10, 2010 at 6:43 pm
Hi Ken,
Well, I am a little worried about a potential copyright violation and I cut it short:-) And, he was done with the coffee guy:-)
Thank you for your comment. I definitely agree with you. I also find these people toxic because they have a great potential of spreading their negativity.
Burcu