I just gave my Geometry students their Right Triangles Mid-Chapter Test. One of my colleagues sends an email to a student's parents whenever the student makes an A on a test. I decided to do that this time. So, I sent the following email to all of the parents of students that made As.
"__________ made an A on our most recent Geometry test! You should be proud of their hard work!"
My inbox was flooded with emails this morning. I've never gotten such a response from parents before! All of the emails were so nice too. Here are some of the comments:
"You just made my day!! Thank you for letting us know."
"Wow! That is so exciting that _________ did so well on his test, and you are extremely kind to let us know. He definitely has been studying hard. Thank you so much for all you do for __________ and all your students, to help students with different learning styles and strengths succeed in math."
"You made our evening! She never tells us the good news."
"Thanks a bunch. This is easily the best e-mail that I have received all day."
This is a good reminder for me to share good news with parents. They were all so grateful and excited. I think that parents (of high school students at least) are used to only hearing from teachers when there is a problem. Also, several kids came into class this morning just beaming. Hopefully, making such a big deal about making an A will inspire them to study hard for the next one. I'm really, really going to try to do this more often. It was totally worth the time. It was such a small thing that made a big impact.
Do you ever send (or call) positive notes home? What has been your experience?
