Words of Encouragement...

          Brief note before I begin…I taught my second lesson this week with an ELA lesson.  Unfortunately, it did not go as planned and that was my fault.  I forgot to follow my plan to a tee, thinking that because the lesson was something I loved, I would be able to improvise as needed.  I was wrong…lesson learned.  Improvisation comes with experience not passion or a love of something.  I realized that I needed to have my notes in front of me because, once I got off on my “tangent”, it was really hard for me to find the focus of my lesson and objective.  So, note to self (and anyone else who may need this):  keep your notes handy and follow your lesson plan (why did you spend all that time writing it).

          On another note, though, I wanted to say how important it is to praise and encourage our students.  We have moments all day long where our students may drive us crazy with the talking or not listening, and we get on to them for doing these things.  But do we equally praise them for the behaviors that they do correctly such as working in groups well or writing neatly in their notebooks.  It doesn’t have to be some outstanding achievement for them to hear “Job well done.”  We may be the only encouragement our children hear in a day’s time.  As teachers, we cannot know everything that goes on in our students’ lives, but we can show them a little compassion and love that is much needed regardless how their home life may be.

          I have heard, “It’s not my job to encourage them.  I just need to make sure they learn something” from more than one teacher in my years as a parent and as a student.  Why is it not my job to lift up a child with words of encouragement?  Does it take so much effort for some to be kind that they feel it a chore to inspire their students with kind words? 

I don’t think it is a chore or even a duty.  I look at the children in my class, and I genuinely care for them.  I am not there every day and yet, I have fallen in love with them and love to praise them for things they do right.  I listen to my cooperating teacher and hear her doing the same thing.  She praises them when she can and if she needs to discipline she does that too, but never in a shameful way.  I applaud her for that because I know it is hard.  Some days our fifth graders are too talkative and just disengaged.  As a mother of a fifth grader that talks entirely too much, I have learned how important it is to still praise the child and not always discipline.  They need to hear more from us than, “be quiet” or “stay in your seat”.  We need to offer, “I was so proud when you did…” or “when you did this, it made me think of our school pledge and how you exemplified…” 

Just think about this when you are in your class with your students…be an encourager and ignite in them the passion that you have for learning!!