We've all had students who have needed that extra push to feel good about themselves. Today's short post will highlight some cool ways to build confidence among your students.
1. Positive reinforcement
There are sooooo many ways to do this. I love to send emails home (I've written about ways to make that manageable here), but the EASIEST way to do this is to just jot down the specific behavior you like that the student displayed on a happy note. You can create your own, or you can click the picture above to be taken to a freebie in my Teachers Pay Teachers store! I have a color and black-and-white version available in this freebie. Just make sure that you are specific when writing your feedback. Instead of writing "Johnny did a great job in reading today," try writing "Johnny was so focused when he read with his partner and made sure to read the dialogue with expression." I wrote more about using happy notes here.
2. Use students as mentors in your anchor charts
I love this idea, which I got from reading one of my favorite books Smarter Charts. I totally recommend it because it COMPLETELY changed my charting habits. Charts are actually useful tools instead of things taking up space and collecting dust on the walls. Go read that book. Go read it right now. You'll thank me later!!! You can click on the picture above to be taken to the author's blog. Imagine how you will build a reluctant writer's confidence when you use his or her copied writing on your class chart!!!
3. Create an expert board
This makes your classroom run smoothly because you don't have to fix everything yourself. I put experts on the board all of the time. Our board is updated and changed every day! I make sure everyone gets to be an expert. I know this isn't the prettiest expert board, so feel free to get creative. However, because this is is always changing, I like writing on post-it notes. You can see that I cared less and less about what color the post-it notes were as the days have gone on. This is do-able no matter what grade level you teach. If you teach kindergarten, assign a student or two to be your resident Shoe-Tying Experts. I always ask students before I add them to the expert board!
What do you do to make your students feel good? Comment below!
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