A Lesson with a Reward

My freshman year everyone had branched off from me and I was pretty much a loner. I didn’t belong to any sports group, academic club, or extra afterschool curricular. It was just me, myself, and I. on day in English class, with Mrs. Nelson we were all given projects which consisted of various assignments on the topic of The Great Gatsby.” While Mrs. Nelson handed out assignments, fairly easy grades right? So wrong. When Mrs. Nelson handed me my assignment, I wanted to die (not literally). For the assignment I had to write a song based on something from the book. After class I asked her why I was given the assignment and if I was able to change it, what she told me gave me the confidence to complete the project and get that

When classes first began in August, Professor Birnbaum informed our class about the four essays in which we would write throughout the course and be graded on strictly. In addition, we would also get into small groups weekly to gather ideas and improve our paper. Nevertheless, the first essay began. We were told as a class to write an essay on a personal experience in which meant greatly to us, so I wrote about a speech I gave in front of 700 people. I spent less than three days working on the essay with only one revision. In result, I received an outstanding grade of a 93, boosting my confidence in Professor Birnbaum’s class greatly. She commented on the paper that I needed to work on my verb tense, sentence structure, and mechanics that distract readers through the paper. In addition, she also let the entire class know that she would not be lenient in the next three papers and

Growing up, I’d always been expected to do well in school. Which isn’t out of the ordinary, every parent wants their child to be successful and have a beneficial career. So, since good grades were what my parents expected that’s what I got. All throughout elementary, I strived to do my absolute best in every subject. At my sixth grade graduation I was awarded the Presidential Award for Academic Achievement, in my junior high years I did well as well. My eighth-grade year I achieved my goal of obtaining a 4.0 G.p.a. The first year of high school was nerve-racking but I still managed to keep my grades up. However, Sophomore year was definitely a bump in the road for me. In all my ten years of being in school (including head start and kindergarten)

As Mrs. Grimes started to slowly pass the papers back, my heart started to race. Did she like my paper, please let me get a good grade? I worked to make this the best, or most disturbing, ending I could imagine for the story. I even used my prior knowledge about drug use and withdrawal from my AP Psychology class to make my story better. I feared that none of this would matter to Mrs. Grimes. I could hear her talking to the other students as she passed the papers back congratulating them on writing an excellent paper. This made me even more anxious, would she even say anything to me or would she just pass by me quickly after handing it back? I wish she would pass back the papers faster!

Specific Praise. Specific praise includes verbal or written statements to a student that recognize a desired or correct behavior. Praise can function as a tool for instruction and for increasing social and academic behaviors. To be effective, the student must view the attention provided through praise as pleasurable or motivational (Curran, 2017). Specific praise promoted more on‐task behavior than positive praise and significantly increased academic self‐concept (Bizo, 2004). Offering specific praise will help Sam because it sends a message that the teacher is aware of the effort he is putting into staying on task. As time goes on, Sam will desire the teacher’s positive statements. He understands that the statements are the result of him remaining on task and reaching his six-week goal. Sam will also develop an understanding of how to meet the teacher’s expectation. In the end, Sam will mature and advance in his academics. As he matures, the need for constant specific praise will become unnecessary. The added benefit of specific praise is to the teacher. The high levels of stress and emotional exhaustion while attempting to teach in the classroom with Sam will diminish as he progresses.

My essays in that English class were below average, according to her standards. She drilled every grammatical rule into our heads until she felt like it would stay there forever, and I felt like she returned my papers with big, fat D’s out of spite. None of my essays had been worth the hours of labor I put into them, so why would they matter at that moment? I was ready to fake it with every ounce of beguiling poppycock I could muster at that

After a grueling first quarter, I was completely miserable, with terrible grades, low self-esteem, and no end in sight. I was hanging on to the hope that there would be some epiphany moment, a moment where suddenly my writing soared, along with my grades. That change did happen, but not all at once‒ it began during the third quarter, when my teacher, Ms. Boynton, asked me to stay after class, along with five other students. She asked if we would each be interested in participating in The Atlantic and College Board Essay Contest, in which we would each submit an analysis of a famous American speech. I was truly stunned that she had chosen me over so many other students in the class, since I had felt so lost for so many weeks, but it was exactly what I needed as motivation to keep on improving my writing. As I worked closely with her on my contest submission and other class work, I came to realize how much she cared about me and wanted to help me succeed. With that being said, she never made it easy; she continually pushed me, knowing that I could always do better if I set my mind to it. Last September, I began her demanding course with the intention of purely surviving, not necessarily thriving, but that

My senior year AP English teacher is well known throughout the school for being the hardest grading teacher there is. An argumentative research paper comprises a significant part of our grade. Although he assigned us the research paper at the beginning of the year, most people procrastinated until it was due in two weeks. I along with handful of people had finished and turned it in two weeks before the due date. My teacher quickly reviewed my essay and said to the class that I had written a good paper. This prompted a wake-up call for the whole entire class. Word spread, and I found myself surrounded by many people who desperately needed my help.

The person I have chosen to do my essay on is Mrs. Gardner. Mrs. Gardner is my advisory teacher. When I first started school here at Potosi High School, I had a very difficult time adjusting to this new place. I had come fresh out of a homeschooling program and before that, I attended a small private school. I was scared that I wouldn't do well in this school. I was especially nervous about grade checks. I've always been a good student and made good grades, but I was worried that the stress of switching schools would get to me and I'd struggle. Mrs. Gardner has been encouraging and empathetic to me since day one. She has reminded me not to worry so much and that as long as I'm doing my best, that's all that matters. She has taught me

In 7th grade I was unfocused, unprepared, and childish. I didn’t know my grades would have an impact on my high school career. I thought everything that happened in middle school stayed in middle school so I focused on useless drama. I used to blame my C’s on bad teaching but now I realize I have no one else to blame but myself. I was the one coming to school unprepared to work not my teachers. Now I know all of my grades count. I have blossomed into a person I am proud of. This year I’ve made it my mission to actually pass not just get by. I now sit promptly in the front of the class and take notes. I focus on test scores and grades not drama that’s not even going to matter next week. I now know what’s important and what I should just leave

When I turned in my short story to my teacher I ended up getting a "A" on my paper. I was very pleased with my grade. But most importantly, I was more impressed with my dedication towards writing this paper. There were times that I could

As the semester dragged on, the teacher Mrs. Tebo, kept telling me that I needed to find an event to perform. Finally, I decided to pick a speech. It took me quite awhile to write the speech but I eventually finished it. When the time came for me to present the piece to the class, I bailed out and decided to take a zero on the assignment. After class Mrs. Tebo asked me “Why didn’t you present today? That was a huge assignment.” All I could think to say was that I simply didn’t like the speech. Tebo could see that I was frustrated

To be completely honest i wanted to yell at her right then and there. But i didn’t I held it and nodded and said, “ Thank you, you will not be disappointed”. I then resorted with staying up the the whole night to finish the essay. And I did it. I don’t know what I would’ve done if my teacher wouldn’t have gave me the opportunity to make up the

The last year of high school is always the craziest and the most exciting. The year has just started and all my peers were already talking about which college they’ll be going to. Apart from my honors classes and being in the AIG program, I didn’t have much going on academically. What I was most concentrated on was writing. Just the year before I had taken English III honors and my teacher, Mrs. Patton, was the hardest English class I had yet. Every week we had to turn out vocabulary in and make a story out of the words. During first period, I realized I forgot to write the story so instead I wrote a poem. When we got in class we she looked over our vocab as we turned it in. Once she got to mine she paused and

Classroom reward systems provide teachers and students with guidelines to follow when dealing with behaviour. Every school has some form of behaviour management in place to deal with both good and bad behaviours and children with special needs who often need structure, planning and daily goals. Integrating technology into classroom reward systems, rewarding good behaviour, hard work or improvement, can have a positive impact on students, as Merrett, A., and Merrett, L. (2013) described, due to the materials being more stimulating and more interactive than other methods commonly used. Also digital rewards systems are easier for educators to edit and tailor to students or classrooms, individual needs, abilities and/or year group.