Our schools should be positive, encouraging, delightful places in which we spend time -- lots of it -- over 1,200 hours a year! Who wants to be in a blah, boring, or negative place? We certainly don't.
Here is a list of what we believe helps us teachers to positively encourage our students to keep moving forward. I could write an essay about every single one of these, but I'll spare you. Please let me know if you would like more detail on any of them.
1. positive, encouraging comments -- just about every class period
3. having students write their own report card goals and periodically (every 3 weeks) reviewing them (I do this for a journal assignment.)
4. a teacher who is excited about teaching, education, learning, and the content he or she is teaching
5. encouraging, written comments on their tests, in their journals, anywhere -- older students especially like this as there is no embarrassment (peer pressure is icky)
6. motivational rewards that are at a level achievable for everyone in your class or school -- these should be multi-level (Susie's goal is to get all As and Bs on her report card; Sally's goal is to turn all her work in on time and get at least a 70 in every class. These should correspond to each student's ability.)
While I certainly do believe in positive encouragement, we've got to balance it out with some gentle but firm prodding, especially for some of our students. Remember, we want to keep them moving forward.
In my classroom, it sounds something like this.
"You can do this! I want thought-provoking sentences, and intriguing introductions. Your last paragraph should make me laugh, cry, or think. Here are some examples . . . ."
"These were great! I'll read some of your own writing aloud to you to prove to you how great it is."
Or . . . "Your work on this last assignment was not what I was expecting. It wasn't nearly as good as most of your other work has been. Here are the things that were wrong, and here is how we are going to fix them. We are going to fix these, and then we will all feel much better."
We need to be MOVING in a direction. Somewhere. And hopefully it's up, pushing them on to better grades, better writing, and better understanding of all subject content. This applies to every subject we teach.
Positive encouragement helps our classrooms to be uplifting, vibrant places to be -- places that students enjoy and places where they try to do their best. Motivation helps get us there.
For further reading:
Writer's Circle (motivation to write)
The Second Annual Photo Scavenger Hunt and Diner Honor Roll Party (Quarterly Achievement Parties)
A Lesson for the Teacher (Get tough, teacher!)
Up Next: a slice of cherry pie!
*The pushmi~pullyu is a silly fictional animal from the book Dr. Doolittle, which I read when I was younger. 
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