Intrinsic value: how does it matter?

While there is both intrinsic and extrinsic value to teaching profession, I believe you discover the intrinsic value in teaching only after coming across numerous instances where you have stood your ground, done something beyond the call of duty or have let go off an opportunity- just because the work did not identify with the value that you most often turn to while making decisions.

And so, it got me thinking. What excites me the most about my profession? I narrowed my rewards to these three:
1. when students begin to express themselves better
2. when they show evidence of extending/ building on their learning independently
3.  when they begin to think critically

Any teaching project that goes half-heartedly at any of the above rewards, I look at it as a task rather than work. This is not to say that I believe that there are only these three goals of learning a language. Instead, I am saying that these sub-goals I deliver even when I am not actively planning for them in my lessons.

I think the awareness of the same has helped me understand my philosophy and style better. It also helped me understand why I passed some of the teaching opportunities in the past and held on to others.