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Identify one or two practices you could implement to further nurture your students.
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Reaching out to parents more often for behavior support before things boil over, which means I just need to allot time for that. Make sure that when a student corrects a behavior, I give praise immediately! If they are giving effort to correct the issue, I need to show them that I am paying attention and proud of them. I care about them and I’m expressing joy and support they will feel nurtured even through correction.
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To further nurture my students I think that I need to do a more thorough job taking time at the beginning of our day to greet them individually and let them know how thankful I am that they are going to be going on a learning adventure with me that day. I would also like to bring parents in on behavior or issues that arise that could use some pruning. I tend to take care of things in the classroom without giving parents the opportunity to partner with me in correcting behavior or bad habits because I don’t want to bother them, but it is a very pertinent partnership.
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I would like to try and interact with them in less formal manners. Whether be eat lunch with them, sit with them at chapel, or interact with more at after school events.
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I need to focus on more positive conversations with parents and students. Sometimes it is very easy to get bogged down with planning, grading, and working with difficult students yet it is easy to miss the encouragement aspect. That has been my goal this semester and will continue in the next semester.
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I should become more consistent while greeting students each morning. I began to make a point to greet each middle school student a couple of years ago when a certain student entered the classroom visibly upset each day. She didn’t want to talk about things when she arrived at school, but would share with me about the daily arguments she would get into with her mom, right before school. I learned to say, “Good Morning, Claire”, each day, then leave her alone for about 15 minutes. Later she told me it was usually the first nice thing she heard each day, while also needing time to calm down.