Positive Post-Class Conference

As a teacher, it is very easy to only talk to students one-on-one when something is wrong: too many homework assignments missed, talking too much in class, sleeping during lecture, talking Chinese in class, and the list goes on and on. Sometimes I focus too much on the negative and overlook the positives in my students and I know I'm not the only teacher to be guilty of that. So I've recently been trying to talk to students just to tell them how much I appreciate their hard work or recent increased effort.

Today, I called James back to my desk to talk to him after class. James is in one of the lower classes in 10th grade and his English is very poor. When James started the year, I could tell that he didn't understand anything I was saying. As the year progressed, he was getting better with the language barrier but was sort of apathetic when it came to Geometry (the nerve, I know!). For the past month or two however, James has made almost a complete 180 in my class; he is paying attention, participating in class, and has been acing his tests.

Yesterday I submitted my midterm grades and noticed that James' term 1 grade was 82%, term 2 was 92% and his midterm test score was 96%. I showed him that and told him that I have noticed his hard work and am really excited for him to continue improving and learning in Geometry. I told him that I'm expecting his term 3 grade to be even higher than term 2 and 1 and he said "95 I think" with a giant grin on his face. It's times like these that I realize just how powerful some positive reinforcement can be, especially to those students who aren't as academically focused as others.