Feel like your kids are stuck or plateauing? This might help …. 🙂
One key of success is to build momentum.
If you keep stopping.
Then starting.
Then stopping.
Then starting.
It’s hard to keep your eye on the goal.
The cure?
To have one really small victory.
Which then boosts you up, just a touch.
And leads into the next.
And the next.
And the next.
Then just like a flywheel these small steps all build up and these tiny little victories almost magically give you the energy to tackle the really big challenges.
That’s why I start each course with a huge, great big, super smiley, super confident, superhero-body language “Hello!!!”
That one little victory leads us into the next and the next and the next.
And before you know it the kids are speaking amazing English.
Who’s here?
Contrast this with the class that starts with a whimper.
With sitting down.
Being quiet.
With the class register, with fumbling around with papers or flashcards.
Not the most inspiring start is it! 🙂
So get your first victory in, then keep giving the kids small victories at least 2 or 3 in each lesson.
And remember success is just a string of these tiny victories, with of course lots of stumbles on the way, but the victories are what keep you going and going and going.
So the question of the day is:
What small victory are you going to give your kids in class today?
Be genki,
Richard
P.S. And to paraphrase Bill Gates, if you feel like you aren’t achieving that much yet “It’s amazing how little we achieve in one year, but amazing how much we achieve in ten.”
Earn More From Your Passion For Teaching English!
Excellent!! I love it!!!!
Thanks for another great post, Richard!
I have a star chart for homework, to reward effort as well as success. They also get a star and smiley face on their homework if they do very well.
Good point about the traditional way of starting a lesson (the one we know all too well! 🙂 ). It’s much nicer when the little ones are so enthusiastic they come up to you on a Friday afternoon and say, ‘Good morning, teacher!’ In these cases I don’t correct, just smile and say ‘Hello!’ 🙂
This is also where it’s necessary to find the balance between making work challenging but sometimes not too difficult, so they feel like ‘I can do this!’
Thanks, it was a healing for my today’s worries. Sometimes we really don’t see our achievements as we expect more…. Now I’m reading your post and thinking about my 6 year old student who answered to the question: “What food do you like?” as, “I like my mommy.” Isn’t this victory, Richard?! This little, in nonenglish speaking country living, girlie automatically spoke out her feelings in English… But I corrected it by telling ” no, mom isn’ t food…” 🙁 i should have given her reward… I have just realised it.
Best
Thanks Richard!
What an inspiring post! Step by step, from one little victory to another!
It’s the core principle of our work! But sometimes we forget about it and want to get big results with little effort from the very beginning…