My older sister and I are taking a boot camp workout class together...don't be jealous :) It's pretty nice because it's just me and my sister and the trainer. Yesterday during our class my teacher said to me, "You're doing such a great job!" ...see? I can be athletic. It gave me such a huge boost of confidence to finish the incredibly sweaty workout (I have seriously never sweated that much or even known I could sweat that much!) It made me start to think about what praise can do for someone's self esteem.
Every teacher has had a student who basically drives them up the wall. Some days we are more patient then others, and some days I know I wish I could have seen a little more of the 'good' in that child. I have a particular student who is very wearing on my nerves. He has so much energy and he cannot sit long enough to accomplish a single task. I try my very best to be calm with him...but today was one of those days. Towards the end of the day I felt worn down and felt bad that my student and I had had such a rough day. I realized I hadn't given him much praise today so I watched him for a moment and saw that he was actually sitting in his chair. I hurried to fill out one of our award certificates for good behavior...before he moved...and announced to the class, "Good job Adrian! I love how you're sitting in your chair!" (we like to celebrate the little things in Kindergarten) You should have seen his smile! He jumped up and as he walked by his classmates so proudly he couldn't help but spread the news! "Hey Dylan? Did you see I got a BARK award? Look Timothy!" And you know what he did after that? He actually sat down to write his name...well at least the first three letters :) Better than nothing!
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