I should praise my students more. Few people work hard without any recognition.
When I was getting ready to leave and feeding my dog this morning, I realized that I praise him substantially more than my students for doing way less. Every time he stretches, I pat him and tell him how good of a dog stretch he just did. When he's walking I always tell him how good of a dog walk he's doing. Even when he's asleep, I wake him up and tell him how sleepy of a dog he is and how happy it makes me. Sure, some of this is borderline (maybe not so borderline) insane dog parent stuff, but the bigger issue is that I can count on one hand how many times I've offered positive encouragement to ANY of my students. I've said maybe 5 words of positive encouragement to my students since the semester began.
One period in particular is starting to unravel a bit. To be clear, I give them PLENTY of negative reinforcement. Redirection incurs grade based penalties. Missed questions result in point dedications. Why wouldn't they start to rebel? Not only are we in the revolutions period where I fill their heads with all these notions of natural rights and popular sovereignty, but I'm acting like the very people that are getting overthrown in our content.
I deserve their growing discontent. Time to let them know I appreciate them and recognize their hard work. Not sure how I got to this point, but I plan to fix it immediately.
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Scrutiny over Reward in Dallas Schools
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One period in particular is starting to unravel a bit. To be clear, I give them PLENTY of negative reinforcement. Redirection incurs grade based penalties. Missed questions result in point dedications. Why wouldn't they start to rebel? Not only are we in the revolutions period where I fill their heads with all these notions of natural rights and popular sovereignty, but I'm acting like the very people that are getting overthrown in our content.
I deserve their growing discontent. Time to let them know I appreciate them and recognize their hard work. Not sure how I got to this point, but I plan to fix it immediately.
Follow us on Facebook; Twitter; iTunes; Soundcloud; Stitcher
Related Articles:
Scrutiny over Reward in Dallas Schools
Being fair to Dallas Students
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