Goodness, I love all of these. One of my favorites (which really is a sub-point of #2 or #4) is noticing when kids try something new or practice courage. For quiet kids, I'll say something like, "I noticed you spoke up today. That was brave. I'm really proud of you." This essay is just gold.
These are all so simple, and the impact so great. You care about them, know who they are, and notice them. Amazing. And I would bet that it lifts your heaviness too…
Thanks for sharing your ways to celebrate students and bringing the focus back on why this matters.
A few of them I do as well.
One of my favorites is sending emails home to the students who go above and beyond, the quiet helpful ones, the ones district and school doesn’t have 5-8 personnel attached just to get them from one class to another, the ones there aren’t 100-foot long email threads going to trouble-shoot how to get them to not ruin the learning experience of others while helping them in every human capacity each employee assigned to them is capable of doing (no, they are not on IEPs or 504s even; they just are)
The biggest shift I have noticed is parents not acknowledging the praise-emails I sent home. Not to me. But not to their kids. There is no communication happening.
So, now I tell them—ask your parent did you check email (if parent checks emails)?!
Those quick emails (or, in our district, ParentSquare app messages) can make such a difference—early in the year while establishing relationships but also at random points within.
Now that I have a kid in our system, I also now recognize how easy it is to get overwhelmed by the multitude of how/when you receive digital communication, so I try not to worry much about if I get a response. It's one of those "only upside" situations, mostly (and sometimes I don't get a response but it is visibly clear that the student heard about it the next time they are in class).
All that said—this is probably the best argument for telling the student in advance that you're going to communicate as it then helps create a channel of confirmation when you send it—so like you, "asking them" is a great tool in my arsenal for this!
Strategies that are student-centered and designed to celebrate legitimate accomplishments and moments of triumph, no matter how small, are force multipliers - they reverberate not just during that class period, but throughout the year and signals to others the importance of a teacher who is constantly on the lookout for ways to uplift and encourage their students. As a parent, I cannot tell you how much it impacts the entire family (and of course the student themselves) when we receive an email home to just share what a great class / project / contribution our daughter made that day. It's such a simple but truly effective move. Kudos to you for embracing these practices. I'd love to hear, in a separate post, the circumstances that create tough moments and how to weather those as well. The brilliance of teaching is that there's always tomorrow, but the flip side is you can never coast - you're only as god as your last class. Great post.
With our kindergarten student now, we get to feel the genuine impact of notes/messages like this, too—which has me doubling-down on my own conviction here.
As far as "tough moments," one of my overarching strategies over the years with The Broken Copier has been to write about the good specifically/in the moment but to sort of sit with what is hard/challenging rather than writing about it immediately. Not only because that added time for reflection is important, but I also would never want someone to read this and be able to assume that I was writing negatively about a particular student or situation.
Not that I don't want to write about what's difficult—I just try to be super mindful of the platform/space, but I do keep notes and it can lead to broader, thematic posts down the road (as this week might very well do).
Goodness, I love all of these. One of my favorites (which really is a sub-point of #2 or #4) is noticing when kids try something new or practice courage. For quiet kids, I'll say something like, "I noticed you spoke up today. That was brave. I'm really proud of you." This essay is just gold.
These are all so simple, and the impact so great. You care about them, know who they are, and notice them. Amazing. And I would bet that it lifts your heaviness too…
Thanks for sharing your ways to celebrate students and bringing the focus back on why this matters.
A few of them I do as well.
One of my favorites is sending emails home to the students who go above and beyond, the quiet helpful ones, the ones district and school doesn’t have 5-8 personnel attached just to get them from one class to another, the ones there aren’t 100-foot long email threads going to trouble-shoot how to get them to not ruin the learning experience of others while helping them in every human capacity each employee assigned to them is capable of doing (no, they are not on IEPs or 504s even; they just are)
The biggest shift I have noticed is parents not acknowledging the praise-emails I sent home. Not to me. But not to their kids. There is no communication happening.
So, now I tell them—ask your parent did you check email (if parent checks emails)?!
Those quick emails (or, in our district, ParentSquare app messages) can make such a difference—early in the year while establishing relationships but also at random points within.
Now that I have a kid in our system, I also now recognize how easy it is to get overwhelmed by the multitude of how/when you receive digital communication, so I try not to worry much about if I get a response. It's one of those "only upside" situations, mostly (and sometimes I don't get a response but it is visibly clear that the student heard about it the next time they are in class).
All that said—this is probably the best argument for telling the student in advance that you're going to communicate as it then helps create a channel of confirmation when you send it—so like you, "asking them" is a great tool in my arsenal for this!
Indeed there are too many emails for parents—but when adults can make time for 100 other notifications…. Just saying! Lol thank you, Marcus. 💜🙏
Strategies that are student-centered and designed to celebrate legitimate accomplishments and moments of triumph, no matter how small, are force multipliers - they reverberate not just during that class period, but throughout the year and signals to others the importance of a teacher who is constantly on the lookout for ways to uplift and encourage their students. As a parent, I cannot tell you how much it impacts the entire family (and of course the student themselves) when we receive an email home to just share what a great class / project / contribution our daughter made that day. It's such a simple but truly effective move. Kudos to you for embracing these practices. I'd love to hear, in a separate post, the circumstances that create tough moments and how to weather those as well. The brilliance of teaching is that there's always tomorrow, but the flip side is you can never coast - you're only as god as your last class. Great post.
With our kindergarten student now, we get to feel the genuine impact of notes/messages like this, too—which has me doubling-down on my own conviction here.
As far as "tough moments," one of my overarching strategies over the years with The Broken Copier has been to write about the good specifically/in the moment but to sort of sit with what is hard/challenging rather than writing about it immediately. Not only because that added time for reflection is important, but I also would never want someone to read this and be able to assume that I was writing negatively about a particular student or situation.
Not that I don't want to write about what's difficult—I just try to be super mindful of the platform/space, but I do keep notes and it can lead to broader, thematic posts down the road (as this week might very well do).