We want those Golden Eggs of students who are learning to the best of their ability, students who are life-long learners, students who want to learn, students who are productive citizens, students who are willing to take risks to achieve more, students who attend school, students who make positive behavior choices, and students who are kind people.

Today’s thought for the day is Make a Positive Phone Call Home. We will soon be communicating mid-term grades and then hold parent conferences. Those are just around the corner. My suggestion is use this time to make a positive phone call to the home of every student in your classroom. You can do this like eating an elephant, one bite at a time. Make two or three phone calls a day for the next few days.

If you decide to make positive calls, my experience and training says this works:

1. When you call, try to get an answering machine instead of a real person. When you leave the message on the answering machine, several people (including) the student can listen when they get home.
2. Say who you are and say that you are calling for good news about ____________.
3. Tell the family you are happy ___________ is in your class.
4. Tell some specific trait, accomplishment, or behavior choice that _______________ has made.
5. Tell how you feel about that (happy, proud, excited, grateful, amazed) etc…
6. Tell the listener to share your message with others in the family.
7. Close the call.

The call will take about 60 seconds and the positive affect on building relationship with the student and the family is amazing. If you use this strategy, keep a list of students you called, so you can make sure to get to every student. Do you have a student whose behavior choices can go either way? Call that family earlier in the list.

Yesterday, I drew random names of five teachers and made positive calls to their answering machine. If you were on of those teachers, would you be willing to share your reaction and the reaction of any family members? You can be the “proof in the pudding.” (You know, I never understand what “proof in the pudding” means, but it sounds good). If you are willing to share, please leave a comment on this blog.

If you were not one of the five random teachers, you can never tell when the call will come! 

Feed the geese, make some positive calls.