Sweetie

When I visit friends in Fort Worth I always make sure to stop by the McDonalds at the Meadowbrook exit to get a diet coke. Diet cokes are great, but the words I hear there are even better. Though they have absolutely no idea who I am, they ask how I am doing, and more importantly, they call me "sweetie." I love that.

Lately I have been thinking about kind and encouraging words and how I can hear more of them. My wii fit made me think about the power of repeated praise and encouragement. I am fairly addicted to the wii fit, and I don't think it is entirely about the exercise. The instant feedback and praise fuels me. The wii fit gives the option of creating a routine that can be done more quickly by omitting the feedback. Instead, I do every exercise or yoga pose individually. In one routine I hear wonderful words like "great job," "you're a fantastic runner," "you have great posture," "keep it up," and "you have amazing balance." If I make a mistake the virtual trainers tell me to keep practicing. Sometimes they give me a tip on how to improve. I appreciate the honest feedback tempered with encouragement.

I had my summative conference for my teaching evaluation yesterday. I have to explain that the problem solving lesson I taught for my observation flopped. It just didn't work out. So I expected to go into that conference and hear about how I could have done the lesson differently. Instead, I was absolutely overwhelmed by what I heard. I heard nothing but praise as she told me how impressed she was with how I handled a lesson that didn't go as planned. She commented on how well I dealt with a student who was less than cooperative, and she told me it was great how I never raised my voice. It seems like she told me a hundred more wonderful things, though I realize we only talked a few minutes. The thing is, she spent all of our time together telling me what I was doing right! I needed that so much. I already know what went wrong. I have already addressed that in the follow up lessons. I have already fussed at myself for the mistakes.

I will try my best to remember how that summative conference felt as I deal with my students. They love the positive feedback too. An interesting thing happened last week with student feedback and praise. I have been using my new iPad with my students. There is an app where a word is read aloud and students have to touch the matching word in one of several frames on the screen. Every time they touch the correct word, there is a comment like, "awesome," "great job," or "excellent." The voice is kind of corny but they don't seem to mind. However, one day at lunch I was playing around with the app and realized I could record custom praise for correct answers. So I had a great time recording "whooo hooo," "get out," "that's what I'm talking about," and other silly encouraging phrases. I didn't tell the students it was my voice. I simply added my phrases to the library of sounds. The students really responded to my voice and seemed to work quickly to get more correct answers. They actually wanted to hear that voice saying nice things to them again.

I have been shopping the app store to find one that will say nice things to me. I haven't found it yet, but I bet it is out there. In the meantime I have decided that I need to spend more time with the real people in my life who build me up. I am fortunate enough to have quite a few, and I am going to make a commitment to spend as much time around them as possible, and also to seek out even more positive relationships.

I will try to remember what I have learned from that woman at McDonalds, my wii, my supervisor, and the iPad, and apply it to all the "sweeties" I come across today.