influence of the teacher

How much influence does a teacher have on student motivation?  Does our attitude make a difference to how the students feel about the class? 

If it does, then we need to take a serious look at ourselves:

• Do I really enjoy my students or am I secretly afraid of them?
• Do I focus on what they write and say or just on how they say it?  In other words, do I get so focussed on correcting their English that I don't enjoy reading their work?
• If I don't really enjoy reading their work, is there any way I could modify or change the assignment to make it more fun for myself? 

In other words

• Do I enjoy myself when I teach? 

If the answer is no, then maybe we need to see why. 

If what we don't enjoy is the work itself, the planning, the explaining, the correcting, then maybe we need to reconsider the tasks we assign.  If they're no fun for us, they won't be fun for the learners.

If what we don't enjoy is the arguments with students ("Why aren't you working?", "Stop speaking Spanish!", "Pay attention!")  then maybe we need to rethink our class dynamics.  This means recognising exactly how much power one human being can have over another: we can't force students to pay attention, and we can't force them to learn.  The best we can do is inspire them.

Are you an inspiration to your students?