Yesterday, for no real reason at all, I decided to write notes of congratulations and encouragement for my students who struggled so mightily last year, but are managing to Take Care of Business (TCOB: my motto and favorite saying!) much more successfully.
I felt that their hard work and success needed to be recognized, and while I do so verbally fairly often; I know that the feeling I get when I get a hand-written card or note is much stronger than when someone verbalizes the same thing.
Giving my at-risk and potential dropout (PDO) students this kind of recognition had a much larger impact than I expected. A great many of them responded with a note or quick visit of their own expressing how wonderful it was to have their hard work recognized.
Reflecting on the success and impact of this simple gesture, I hope to continue this practice in the future. It felt good on my part to give positive feedback and recognition to students who are all too often on the receiving end of negative feedback. In the end, it was very selfish of me to send these brief notes, and I hope everyone finds the time to be equally as selfish, as it is a great feeling!
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