Attention for the Good Kid

Sometimes it gets easy in an busy day to overlook the "good kids".   We get busy grading, creating lesson plans, completing paperwork, modifying lessons to match IEPs and managing students that disrupt.  We work to help our students of poverty and those living in a challenging home life.  Along the way we cannot forget about the "good kids".  Many times there

A sample of one of my postcards

are overlaps, for example, many sped kids are also the good kids.  The good kids are the ones that help you look forward to going in to work each day.  They also hold on to us on days we are "threatened to jump off the cliff".  I do my best to not overlook them.  Now many of them I see in FBLA (Future Business Leaders of America) which I sponsor and I get a chance to interact with them and get to know them but what about the rest?  Sometimes it can be a simple as a pat on the back or a comment on an assignment or report card.  You know the ones, those short comments on a paper like, "thanks for turning in your assignment on time again" or "excellent following directions".  The report card comments to show your appreciation and recognition for their politeness, kindness or attention to details.

I have found one quick and easy way to acknowledge these kids and they tend to love it.  I have postcards made up and I keep a stack on my desk.  They are not elaborate, just thanks for being a
good kid, but many of the kids are thrilled to get them!  Some have told me they taped theirs up inside their locker or on their locker doors.  Some put them in their senior books and others put them in the front cover of their binders.  The first year I printed myself on cardstock but last summer I ordered a 50 when vistaprint.com had sale, best 10 bucks I spent!
 Friday I took an idea from Facebook and recorded telling some of my students that they were one of the reason that I came to school each morning.  It only took a few minutes and I am not sure who loved it more, me or the students.

Take a minute, do something to remind yourself of those wonderful kids that are the definition of "good kids".