More Energizing Than Coffee In The Morning!
Every Day, Cool Teacher Greets Students At The Classroom Door With Personalized Handshake(Video)!
Unconditional Positive Regard (UPR) is essential to helping students develop the self-esteem to be confident students in our classrooms.
Here, this video- posted on Lovely Teacher- show a teacher investing under three minutes a day joyfully greeting her students and demonstrating how happy she is to have each and every one of them in her classroom. Wonderful for the kids and energizing for her!
One of my coteachers in a high school career and technology program was a retired IBM manager. Each day he would greet entering students with a "Good morning, Mr. ___." and two hours later would dismiss them by shaking the hand of each student and offering them a pleasantry--"Have a great day, Ms. ___.", "Thanks for your presentation, Mr. __"-- upon their departure. By doing this upon arrival and departure, he conveyed- in an age appropriate way--his understanding that they were people, not just percentage points, on his evaluation.
Whether it's an individualized morning greeting or a simple handshake upon dismissal, teachers can find ingenious ways to give students the time of day. Investing time building these alliances results in students challenging teachers less and working harder.... A win-win for all!