The Power of Noticing

Here's a quote, resources, a book, and an affirmation to power you through the rest of the week.

Quote

"Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity." Simone Weil, in a letter to the poet Joë Bousquet (1942)

Resource: One Specific Sentence

Teachers are always on the lookout for students who need help both academically and behaviorally. This takes up a great amount of our energy. We often don’t take as much time to look for the positives and call them out.

This week, pick a few students and tell them one specific thing you've noticed them doing well.

The specific part does the work. "Nice job" could be about anybody. "You rewrote that paragraph without being asked" could only be about them. It tells a kid you were paying attention.

I can remember one of my teachers in high school giving me positive feedback on a poem I wrote, even calling me a poet. I wrote more poetry in high school because of that comment, and even think of myself as “a poet” to this day.

So why don't we spend more time pointing out the positives? Xuan Zhao and Nicholas Epley ran a series of studies on compliments. They found that we’re often concerned that giving a compliment will seem awkward, or we think that it won’t make much of a difference to the person who receives it.

Truth is, most of us like getting a quality comment. It sticks with us. It will stick with your students too.

Try it this week. Pick your student before you get to school, so it isn't just whoever's in front of you at the end of the day. Watch for something real: effort, a choice, a habit that's changing. Not a grade. Then say it in one sentence and stop. No "keep it up" tacked on the end. Let it land.

Weil called attention to the rarest and purest form of generosity. One sentence is about the cheapest way there is to give some. And like most of what you do in the classroom, you may never find out where it lands.

Say it anyway.

Book

How to Know a Person by David Brooks - Brooks set out to get better at actually seeing the people in front of him. He sorts people into diminishers, who leave you feeling invisible, and illuminators, who leave you feeling noticed. Every teacher knows which one they'd like to be. (Affiliate links. I may earn a small commission at no cost to you.)

Worth Your Time

• How Good Teachers Get Even Better (Edutopia): habits experienced teachers use to keep growing. For anyone in year twenty who still wants to get better.
• Teachers feel they matter most when they're with students, but only 35% say they matter a great deal at their school.

From the Archive

• The Two-Minute Check-In: staying connected when the year gets busy.
• You Make a Difference (Even When You Don't See It): last October's take on this week's practice.

Now Repeat...

I don't have to see where it lands to know it was worth saying.

Question of the week

Who believed in you before you believed in yourself, and what did they do?

Hit reply and tell me. I read every one.

P.S.

Day 23 of our 30-day challenge (#30DaySTRONG), and it wraps up next Wednesday, Nov 18. If you've missed a day, never miss twice. The small version counts. Need an idea for your next one? The Thirty-Day Challenges workbook has 42 of them.