What inspires a teacher in their career?

Question

What inspires a teacher in their career?

Answer 1

Making a difference in a child's life. And watching kid's grow as people as well as how much they learn. That is what inspires me :)

Answer 2

the response of the students. it's that simple, if students look up to you and enjoy your teaching, that will be your greatest joy!

Answer 3

having the joy of knowing all of the childrens lives sh a touched and changed

Answer 4

The kIds

Answer 5

certainly not money

Answer 6

knowing you really helped a child. or when a child shows that you mean a lot to them.

Answer 7

The fact that they are teaching someone I guess....

Answer 8

laughing at the kids when they awser wrong like they ask what is 4x8 and a kid say 459 lol the kids do unless they r high schools they take 1 look at the class and split

Answer 9

the kid that they really helped and motivated

thank you ms. klien

Answer 10

The kids - the ones who allow you to teach them.  They make every bit of the job worth it.  Fortunately, I'm blessed with many such kids in my classes. :)

Answer 11

A good teacher is in it for the "aha" moments.  Those times when a kid's face says, "I get it!"  That's why we do it.  On the other hand some say its not for the money.  If a teacher does not enjoy instruction, and the discipline of structuring 7 hours of learning a day, teaching will be a tedious unsatisfying job.

In response to some of the other posts I must add; Being a career changer that once worked 50 weeks a year for the same money I make now as a teacher, with the same level of education, I don't understand how teacher can complain of being under paid.  Teachers where I live start (at age 22) making 34,000 a year plus insurance (health, life and disability for $28 a month out of their poket - compared to the $100s it actually cost), and retirement.  After 15 years they are making in the upper 40s and at 20 they are over 50k a year (that would be at age 42 for those doing the math).  How many jobs can you find where you get a week off for Thanksgiving, 2 weeks for Christmas, 1 week for Spring Break, and 8 weeks for summer break and make that kind of money.  Now before someone tries to saw me off at the knee caps with (we work more than school days), consider this;  Teachers work 180 days a year (180 classroom + 10 planning - 10 sick/personal days).  Divide 180 by 5 and teachers get paid for 36 work weeks in 52 week year.  So a first year teacher is earning nearly 1,000 a week or the equivelant of 50k plus benefits if they worked the same number of weeks as other vocations with the same education.  Even if you work half of the other 16 weeks, teachers are earning an average of 45K+ plus benefits a year (benefits that include 8-16 weeks a year OFF).

Answer 12

It's the easiest career to get away with being a pedophile

Answer 13

It's those ex-students that come back to visit just to tell you that you had a positive effect on their life. I live for those and they get me through rough patches in my career.

Answer 14

What inspires me to continue teaching is the kids.  Most kids know when you are enjoying what you teach them, because they can see it in your attitude and the way you present it to them.  Kids, espeically elementary, show you how much they care by trusting in you and the smiles they have on thier face.  Kids are the main reason I teach....secondly for the enjoyment.

Answer 15

they either like to help kids or make them miserable.

Answer 16

THE MONEY!  Oh, yeah, baby!  

Well, seriously, US high school teachers get paid pretty well considering all the vacation time.  I don't teach in the US though and don't get all the vacation time.

I love teaching though.  If someone sells a car or a shirt or some machinery parts, what difference have they really made?  But I know what kind of difference I am making everyday.  I really believe in what I do.  I am changing the world, maybe just a little bit, but I am making it better.  

What inspires anyone to do anything really?  Making a difference.  It is just that in some careers it is easier to see the difference you make and perhaps the difference is greater than in some other careers.

P.S.:  Any teacher worth anything works day and night and usually weekends too (except on summer vacation, which I personally don't get where I work).  But I used to be in a different job before I became a teacher, and I got paid more and worked less.  As a teacher, I am working all the time.  To teach a good class takes enormous amounts of preparation and grading time, not to mention tutoring outside of class, meetings, and on-going training courses.  For the money, being a teacher sucks.  

Ever see the movie "Mr. Holland's Opus"?  That was a great movie!  Mr. Holland figured he would teach because the hours were great and he would have a lot of time to write his music, but he found out quick how wrong he was.  Decades later, he still hadn't finished his master symphony, but he had made a great difference in the lives of hundreds of people, maybe thousands!

Answer 17

I am inspired by my own experiences and my kids in school and no it wasn't good.  I wanted to make a difference to make kids more passionate about school.  When I got through to a child that hates school and give them hope it makes me feel like I have done something to help them.  Unfortunately, I have lost my job and am now losing my passion because of the hurt of the administration treating me so poorly.  Even with my high student loan debts it looks bleak for a career.

Answer 18

watching, or even just seeing the results of, a really good teacher is enough to inspire me.

a really good school will encourage teachers to observe each other. And a really good teacher will welcome observers.

a good teacher gets the best out of his/her students, so watching the students interact with each other and the teacher can be very enlightening.

Answer 19

You only work days, you have holidays, vacations and summers off. I should have been a teacher!

Answer 20

20 year or 30 years ago it was the love of the job, to impart knowledge- and later when the students achieved success and rose to high heights in their careers , the teacher felt a deep sense of pride knowing she / he had helped another human to excel-Today? Its just a job- Earlier a teacher had so much latitude , not just imparting knowledge and guiding a child but also teaching them manners , how to live in social surroundings, they had a right to correct behavioural problems, the teacher was the one that students spent most time with in schools not the parents , so teachers played a role in their upbringing too in a way- Today well? you know how it is

Today its to make 2 ends meet-

Its sad to see that teachers today are a different breed