Taking Teaching as a Calling: The Significance and Practice of Gratitude in a Teacher\u27s Career

Successful teaching experience and outcome is often dependent upon the teacher\u27s personal charisma which includes the qualities of a sense of humor, friendliness, forgiving, understanding, caring, patience, and so on. A critical link to all these positive characteristics is that the teacher feels a deep sense of gratitude on a daily basis. This article reports on studies from the field of positive psychology that focus on grateful affect and grateful expression. As far as teaching is concerned, it reveals that gratitude is one of the most obvious positive emotions to flourish a teacher\u27s life and career. In practice, some tools of cultivating gratitude for a teacher are introduced such as staying away from mass media, keeping a gratitude journal and keeping a gratitude reminder. It is hoped that through practice, teachers in their daily teaching experience can tune their feelings to the grateful channel and arrive at the level where teaching becomes a calling in their life