The Power of Positivity

Last week was a hectic week to say the least. With a truck in a ditch, and some pretty late nights and early mornings, I might say I was (more than figuratively) looking up from the trenches in only week 2! This week however was a complete turn around. I had such a positive week that stood with some contrast to the previous one.

To start, I love food science! It is honestly one of my favorite courses to teach. I was never a fan of chemistry, but teaching it to high school students is so much fun! I love watching the light bulb light up when they "get it." We can do such engaging experiments in that class, and the students have only had me as an instructor for this class, and  enjoy having a group without any preconceived ideas of how the class should be taught. Landscaping is a difficult class for me, so having the food science class to enjoy really helped lift my spirits. The students are typically more troublesome in other classes, but as a small group, they are really engaged and well-behaved.

I had a student this week in food science who was typically given to misbehavior who raised his hand and asked to make a comment. Knowing this student, I couldn't imagine what he was about to say. He stopped class to tell me that he thought I'd be an awesome teacher, and that I am so engaging to learn from! I couldn't believe it! No evaluation or professional opinion of my efforts mattered at that moment, because I had a STUDNET think that I was a good teacher! It wasn't a compliment that I was cool, or like a friend, but that I was a good teacher! It really made my week!

That evening I wanted to email his mother to tell her how awesome her son is in class! I was so glad that my first parent email was a positive one. I knew that this mother would be so excited to hear how well-behaved and well-mannered her son was. It really hit me how much some parents need to hear good news. Parents deal with so much life and can lose hope when it comes to a child that acts out in school, and a kind email can change a parents' entire perspective of their child.

I also had a student who had a very successful sibling who will be graduating as a class valedictorian at their university. He felt as though he could never amount to anything close. He mentioned it subtly as I was checking his work and it felt like it broke the simulation for me. Hear was a student how with farm more depth to his story than I realized. I wish I  had a better response to his comment, but I could only offer some mild encouragement. He was a student I was most concerned about behavior with, and I finally understood. I have decided to focus my efforts on encouraging him in class, and allowing him the opportunity to show what he knows to his peers.

Being positive is a necessity, and it can be easy between planning and teaching and trucks in the ditch to forget about those kinds of meaningful interactions with our students. Students will raise or lower themselves to your standards, and sometimes our worst students can be the ones who need us most. My goal for this coming week is to be intentionally positive to at least one student each day.