I flip boarded across this article from fortune magazine this morning. It’s about the five things you need to be happy at work. Having the best job in the universe I already have them but I still like reading articles like this to pump up my enthusiasm for spending Sunday afternoon marking!

Reading through the list I noticed that it also corresponded to something else, can you see it?

1.Work that challenges you

That elusive “not-to-easy-but not-impossibly-difficult” that provokes flow and gives us pride in our accomplishments.

2. A sense of progress
A feeling that you’re actually getting somewhere, ticking lists and accomplishing tasks.

3. No fear
The carrot is more motivating than the stick, we obviously aren’t going to perform to our best if we are terrified of being humiliated, called-out or even sacked.

4. Autonomy
A sense of choice is important, people want to feel they have control over their own lives.

5. Belonging
Relationships and a feeling of team-spirit will always make workers go that extra mile.

It’s the perfect learning environment isn’t it?!

Students want work that is challenging but not demotivating by its difficulty, we need to encourage them to stick at tasks and not give up at the first fence.

Students need to know where they are going in their learning journey, and how far along that path they are.

Fear- this is the one that spoke loudest to me, obviously students aren’t going to learn if they are afraid to make mistakes or give their views in the language classroom.

Everyone wants some autonomy, the secret in the classroom is to make students feel accompanied and supported while also allowing them as much autonomy as possible within that, even if that means simply letting them choose which order to do the tasks in, or choosing their partner.

A sense of belonging to a language class means students feel free to experiment and aren’t ashamed of trying, more importantly it makes class fun.

Basically this article shows that at work, and in class we all just want to feel both motivated to do our best and comfortable while doing so.