I was handing back graded writing assignments yesterday when one student turned toward another and said, "Look! She wrote 'good point' on my paper!" And I wondered: if a student can get so excited about such a meh comment, maybe I should be less stinting in my praise.
Let us now praise famous students--or students who may not be famous to the rest of the world but score high points from me.
I praise the student who, by the luck of the draw, got the first spot on the schedule of oral presentations and then, despite nervousness, knocked it out of the park. Her classmates who follow may not appreciate how high she set the bar, but I do.
I
praise the former student who came to campus to teach our students
about careers in publishing and to mentor them through individual projects,
and I praise the current students who batted ideas back and forth for what seemed like hours before coming up with a group project that could have an impact on the campus for years to come, and then they set right to work putting together a budget and organizing operations.
I praise the first-year students who charmed me with their letters to space aliens explaining why humanity should or should not be destroyed; even the students who filled their papers with examples of human stupidity showed through their work that there's something here worth saving.
I praise the student who counted every single reference to birds in the first chapter of Cold Mountain and the one who loves to read Charles Frazier's sentences out loud and the one who asked if she can dress up in character for her presentation. Rarely has a class responded so warmly to a book that many students see as a long, hard slog through bloody terrain.
I praise the student demonstrating grit and resilience through a difficult time and still finding a way to carry on, and I even praise the student who dropped my class to deal with a health problem. It takes maturity to realize that sometimes the only way to move forward is to drop back and punt.
And that's just the start! Who wants to join me in praising famous students?
1 comment:
Lovely idea!
I'd like to praise the students who gave their back from study abroad talks - the one with the new accent who went to Ireland and every time they talked about things they did in Ireland, their accent shifted, the one who was so scared and quiet before they went but who gave a confident, fluent talk today, the one who went to California and told us all with glee that Frat parties are exactly like the movies,
And the student who broke a bone in their foot their first day on campus, and has had to go home where someone can drive them to the doctor, help them shower etc. due to the large plaster and the crutches, but is working hard to keep up through the VLE and sends messages every other day telling someone how they are getting on or asking questions.
And the student repeating the year after having FAR too much fun last year who's brought a whole new attitude to their studies back with them, and is just knocking it out of the park.
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