I'm Smiling Today

I had so many reponses to my last post, many via facebook and ravelry: it turns out people appreciate honesty... who knew? (That was tongue in cheek, just so you know!)

Blogs which are always happy and full of success can actually negatively affect readers' feelings of adequacy - even though they can be inspiring (and I'm not saying there shouldn't be blogs like this). Everyone hates feeling like a failure. 

On the other hand, there's something really encouraging about someone being honest with what they're finding hard, and everyone needs encouragement. 

Even monsters with saggy butts need encouragement.

There's a student in my class at the moment who thinks that he is stupid - that he "can't". So I have to push and push him to try, even resorting to the "it's now or at lunch time outside the principal's office" line because he is so so so so so so so stubborn. But eventually he gives in, and with even more pushing, he eventually does some work. And when he does, I make a MASSIVE deal over it. "You did it! Well done! I am SO proud of you!" And you see him start to glow a little. He does some more work, writing another sentence. More encouragement and praise is given. Now he's engaged and eager to write another sentence that uses a contraction. He's standing straighter and looking happier, because he did it. 

Yeah, he wasn't doing the work the other students were doing, and yeah, he did three sentences instead of the six done by others, but he went from thinking he "couldn't" to knowing that he "could" because he did! And I was (and am) so pleased with him and for him.

And that's one success story from today. Yay! =D

(On a related note, the teaching prac is going well, I'm enjoying it, I'm exhausted, I'm happy, I'm a little braindead at the end of each day, and I'm glad this is my chosen profession.)