Gotta be Positive on Fridays!

To set aside time to positively recognize students is the single most important characteristic of a thriving Freshman Academy. If this is not done well, I believe teachers and students suffer, and the overall results will disappoint.

In meetings today to refresh our understanding of this important effort, four common elements emerged:

• The Team’s Disposition

• The Means for Delivery

• The Modalities of Praise

• The Categories to Praise

The Team’s Disposition

The heart of the team needs to have a bent toward these:

• Attention to the academic and personal lives of freshmen

• A growth mindset

• Generosity 

• Initiative

• Prioritization of time 

Without these five elements, an impactful, positive recognition of freshman success is unlikely to happen. We set aside most Fridays as a completely positive day. Not a negative word is to be spoken!

This moratorium on negative comments can generate light-hearted adherence to this rule: “I am so positive that Robert is not doing well today.” But to spend 20% of our team time on the 80% of freshmen doing well, is time well spent.

The Means for Delivery

Teams need to translate their observation of freshman success into memorable and receivable forms. Here are a couple of examples:

• Recognition avenues in the building that are already in place (Why recreate the wheel?)

• Postcards

• Email

• Phone

• Texting

• A conversation

• Post-it notes

•  Candy or other food rewards

• Recognizing publicized goals or targeted behaviors

Time and focus turn these everyday avenues of communication into credible, purposeful, and meaningful observations of the efforts of these first-year students.

The Modalities of Praise

Teams have ways of recognizing freshmen that are unique to them but often include these modalities:

• The team meets a freshman in their meeting room.

• The team travels to a freshman’s classroom and brings them into the hallway for a brief discussion.

• Three-Point Praise - The success or accolade from one teacher is carried by another teacher to a freshman. (It’s great to see the look on their faces as they receive praise in Algebra for a Biology victory.)

• The team can develop targets for each week’s meeting:

  • Every Friday we will write ____ postcards to freshmen.

  • Every Friday we will visit with at least ____ students in our meeting room.

  • Every Friday we will email or text _____ parents about this week’s successes.

• The team tracks the who and when of praise to guide their efforts. (This is very helpful!)

• The team has a calendar rhythm:

  • Student of the week.

  • Student of the month for each content area.

  • Top 10 freshmen of the month, the semester, or the year.

  • At the end of each semester teams will have an awards assembly.

A good balance between variety and consistency is needed. Teams that have a plan in place step into their meeting with energy, purpose, and culture-producing impact.

The Categories to Praise (Likely a partial list, but they all start with C.):

• Change

• Consistency

• Character

• Concerns

• Courtesy

• Creativity

• Communication

• Content

• Caretaking

Attending to freshman success is good for us.

It’s good for them.

It’s great for team health and stamina.

And it’s a great way to end a week of struggle and stress.