Part of my Narrative

I first posed the question, “Do we as educators mistake reward for learning,” to my cooperating teacher Maureen Fernandez on Friday as we were packing up to leave for the day. Her first reaction to the question was to say, “In society, isn’t everyone always working towards a reward? We go to school to get a degree, we go to work and our reward is a paycheck, even as musicians we practice and perfect our instrument skills in order to gain applause or good reviews as a performance.” I began to think about myself during my student teaching and my reasons to motivate myself to do the best I can. Of course I want to connect with my students and give them exciting and interesting learning experiences, but I also know that there are alterior motives and thoughts that happen when I am lesson planning or teaching. I always want to impress my cooperating teacher and my supervisor because I know that a positive reaction or observation report is my own personal reward and that these observations will hopefully lead to positive references when I go to get a job. Am I just learning and working towards rewards myself?