Friday, September 12, 2014

Keeping it Positive

There are too many great things in the world to not constantly be celebrating them. The same can be said for ANY classroom. There are always great things happening and it is my job to keep it positive.


I have known this since my first year teaching and have struggled with it every single day since. I first learned to focus on the positive when I used to give out tickets to students as rewards for positive behaviors. Then at the end of the week there would raffle drawings for a chance to pick from a prize box. This was for fifth grade students and it really worked well for the student population we had. What I noticed though was the following: at the end of the day when I felt like we had gotten a lot accomplished I ended up running out of or had to tear off extra tickets during the day (I would prep 100 each morning). When I felt like it had been a bad day and I was frustrated with not getting things done or student behavior I still had a pocket full of tickets I never gave out.


Too often we get distracted by the negative, and forget about all the great things going on. Although I have shifted from tickets to different forms of rewards and now to Class Dojo points, one thing remains the same. At the end of the day if a lot of points were given out it felt like a good day. When there were not a lot of points given out it felt like a rough day.


My point of reflection is this …


I have completely changed as a teacher over the last 7 years. I have taught students from literally across the country (Las Vegas, North Carolina, and now Texas). I have used 6 different sets of standards since college. I have taught in schools with high poverty and low poverty. Even after this wide range of experiences when I reward and focus more on the positive I feel better about the day, I am more motivated to keep trying, I am excited about my job, and I even dance into work every day!

Remember that there is always greatness, but sometimes we just forget to look for it.