We get pretty good at reminding students what they need to work on. We are, after all, teachers. And while I know that we have our students’ best interests at heart, what if we took one class period to give our students something that would continually remind them why they are great? Once class period could change a students’ life – or at the very least, give them a boost of confidence to keep putting one foot in front of the other.

This idea was shared by one of our team members after reading a forwarded email. Here’s how it works:

Step 1: On a sheet of paper, instruct students to list each student in the class, skipping a line between each name. (You can also print a list of students in your class, in alphabetical order to speed up step 3 below :-)

Step 2: Next to each name, students are to write the nicest thing they can think of about their classmate.

Step 3: Collect papers and create one paper for each student, listing the nice things said about them anonymously.

Step 4: Give each student his or her confidence-boosting paper and watch them stand a little taller, knowing why they are great!