As the holidays approach there is a lot to be thankful for, this includes being thankful for our job and feeling appreciated at what we do. Being instructors and going through large numbers of students, sometimes pretty quickly, we can forget that what we do makes a difference and that we are in fact appreciated by our peer, students, and deans. I found steps to find appreciation in your work life and I am placing the ones that pertain to what we do as instructors, these come from edutopica.org

1. If you don't feel appreciated appreciate someone else. Yes, you read that right! Go out of your classroom or office and find someone else in your school whom you appreciate: perhaps the custodian who keeps your room so clean, or the administrative assistant who answers the phone and greets parents all day long, or a veteran teacher who's knowledge and understanding of the community you work in has been helpful to you.

Find someone and just express a few words of gratitude -- in person or perhaps in a note. A simple, "Thank you for what you do," will suffice! And while you do this, notice the feelings that come up as you genuinely appreciate another for his or her contribution to your school.

2. Consider the range of people you can appreciate for their contributions to your work life: colleagues, supervisors, former teachers, students, their parents, and so on. Send them a mental appreciation naming the things you're grateful for.
3. Then appreciate yourself. If you are so inclined (you could even do this right now!) Close your eyes and acknowledge everything you do in the service of children. Talk to yourself, name what you appreciate about yourself, feel these appreciations sinking into your body, feel how you feel appreciating yourself. Say what you wish others would say to you. Try doing this at the end of every day for a week and see how your feelings shift.

I am attaching the link to the entire article by Elena Aguilar

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/teachers-finding-appreciation-work-elena-aguilar?utm_source=facebook