Teaching Tip #44

Teacherscribe’s Teaching Tip #44

Catch students doing something right.

Each year my College Comp classes come up with three core values to guide us throughout the year.  I get great buy-in from the students.  However, the real reason I do this is so I can catch students doing something right, that means catching them living or personifying the core values.

Then I call them out for it and share it with the class and on social media.  It is a very effective way to build culture.

Catch students doing something right.  But you have to be on the look out for it.  Too many times, I’m just on the lookout for catching students doing something wrong.  When I do that, I tend to be far more negative that I really am.  So I focus on the positive.

That doesn’t mean I turn a blind eye to the inappropriate things that students do every single day in my class.  I address them.  But I dwell on and publicly display the good stuff.  I find that students tend to start to emulate that more.