Teach English in Wenquan Zhen - Weihai Shi

Any teacher should know the importance of praise and punishment, and how those factors affect the educational experience of students. In order to create a welcoming classroom for every student, it is essential to understand what will make individuals feel valued as your students. In my undergraduate career, I was fortunate enough to take multiple courses that reviewed effective protocol for reward and punishments in the classroom setting. I will be taking these lessons with me as I transition to classroom settings in Indonesia. Regardless of the country that I am in, individualizing the way that students are praised in a classroom is essential to ensure that they are feeling welcomed and valued. Praise is important, but only effective if used well. The purpose of praise is to ensure that students are rewarded for good work that they do and to motivate them to continue to pursue that good work. Typical ways of praise include, but are not limited to: giving gold stars or prizes, verbal affirmation, granting positions of leadership in group projects or classroom duties. However, if done too often or not enough, students may become unmotivated or motivated by superficial factors that do not intensify their passion for learning. This all being said, praise needs to be done in a way that benefits the student and their educational experience. In previous classes that I have taken, and from what I have gathered from the TEFL course, it is evident that praise has the ability to motivate students to be good students. The teacher should determine the purpose of praise before implementing it into the classroom: Is it important to have students know why they are learning? Is it more important to have students know the information? I would encourage teachers to not only emphasize the content of the information being learned, but also to encourage students to understand why they are learning, too. This makes praise for focused on internal motivators, as opposed to just getting a good grade or passing the class. In order to most effectively implement praise, it should be individualized to the students in the classroom. There are multiple ways to individualize praise. Praise in America might look different than typical praise in Indonesia, so to start out, it is important to make sure that the praise you plan to give to students is culturally appropriate. This might take some research prior to entering the school year and/or talking to the cooperating teacher to go over typical moments of praise that they prefer. Additionally, not every student reacts the same to praise. One student might appreciate verbal affirmation more than a gold star, while others might prefer a prize for a correct answer. Individualizing praise comes with understanding the individuals that are coming into your classroom. This obviously takes time, but dedicating the first few weeks in the classroom to getting to know the students and what makes them feel appreciated can really make the difference in a student’s life. After reflecting on the TEFL course and all of the information that I have learned about teaching in the past, I know that creating a welcoming classroom environment is one of my highest priorities. I believe that students will learn better and with more enthusiasm if they are in a space where they feel valued and appreciated. Individualizing praise in a way that is culturally appropriate and so that every single student receives praise in a personalized way ensures that you are controlling the classroom space to make everyone feel included. When students feel valued in a learning environment, they are more likely to enjoy the content that they are being taught and overall learn better. I hope that I am able to make each one of my students feel like an important individual so that I can empower them through intentional relationships built through mutual trust and respect.