No one ever wants to have a teacher as a role model. Not even students in schools with well packaged teachers salary admire their teachers well enough to be like them(teacher).

I recently joined the profession not long as a Mathematics teacher. The closest admiration I have received so far from my students are from those the seek better Mathematics skills so they could become good engineer in the future.

The quote:"teachers rewards are in heaven" doesn't set in well with me as a teacher. It all depends on the teacher's motivating factor(s). Nowhere in the world are teachers adequately enumerated in terms of rewards and fat pay cheques. You will be disappointed as a teacher if you classify your reward only in monetary terms.