Praise, Encouragement and Appreciation

Added: 2026-05-19

[00:00:07]hello this is Mr Michael and this is Mr Eric today we're talking about praise encouragement and appreciation these are essential for your classes now um children are of course shy and quiet and some of course they're boisterous but no matter who you are as a child you you thrive on being complimented and praised when you do things you did that well thank you thank you thank you and uh and believe it or not your parents actually need to be praised as well because a lot of times parents uh are not used to especially new parents are not used to getting silly they're not used to doing these kinds of activities they might think they have poor voices um so you got to keep encouraging them as well so we're going to take a look at some of the ways that you can praise and encourage your students excellent um there's no such thing as too much praise uh and as a tlg teacher thanks man I appreciate it as a tlg teacher you want to turn turn that phe on turn it up and keep it going awesome job yeah thanks man I appreciate it there no just thinging is too much no no no definitely not um however there are certain types of Praise that work and others that don't and so we're uh another big part of this is going to be to demonstrate you how to praise in a way that children and parents can actually take it in because if you praise in a manner uh it's basically uh evaluative vers nonevaluative praising you need to do what's called non evaluative praising uh so Michael an example would be when you said good job MH um awesome that is nonevaluative praise if you were to have said Eric you are an excellent speaker or um Eric you're the best speaker in Georgia or anything like that psychologically one is better than the other now psychologically if you were to say Eric you're a great speaker often times because of our insecurity I'll say well actually you know I'm I use my hands too much or whatever or you know no I'm not but if you just say awesome or great job or just smile like that then I can take that and I can actually it actually works so this is what you want to doing in your classroom all the time that's right and another reason why non-evaluative praise is better than eval evaluative praise is because if you say something evaluative like you're a great singer um then that could mean that it's it's kind of like giving them an identity and saying you are a great singer but maybe they're that means that they're a bad something else or someone else is is not a good singer it it puts in uh it's attaching it to the person as opposed to the action and so what you want to be doing is saying like great job way to way to do your instrument way to shake that egg that way you're praising their activity and you can take compliments for activities but to take something as I am this is just a it's more uncomfortable and then it totally opens the door psychologically for young children's minds of that if if they are a good this then maybe they would be let's say you stop complimenting them let's say they you know then they think oh maybe now I'm a bad this and so that's a very subtle thing good and bad judgment bad and and and it doesn't work I mean that's the bottom line it it doesn't work it won't accomplish the goals that you want to accomplish which is uh having the children feel loved and of course we're saying children here but we're really talking about the parents just as much when you said uh you're a great singer a better way another way to praise that not about it I love hearing you sing yeah that's that's a really good one wow that was that was awesome uh great singing great singing is different than great singer but it's on that line it is on the line I like he I love how you saying that that was beautiful or you know things like that just or just even uh even like you said uh and this is the fourth with on fourth one on our list here but just just positive words such as yes or awesome Go Go Johnny go you know just little simple things uh those are non valuative praise as are all the nonverbals m things like smiling thumbs up shaking your head yes now this yes motion I do a lot of this all the time and for the parents all the time I'll see now they require a little more salty so if you have a mom who's participating let's even say finally participating all right you wouldn't want to say awesome participation you know you did it did now for a child that might work for a mom you see that going on just even a subtle yeah you know just a subtle smile it says I see what you're doing I'm acknowledging that you're making this effort and I like it that's right that's right and with uh children a lot of times young children will look at you for longer than an adult will and I'll keep that eye contact going often with a little nod of my head but like even if I'm in the middle of a song and I'm leaving in the whole class is looking at me if if one child I notice I've caught their eye and they don't turn away I'll kind of keep looking at it for a little bit not you know just a little longer than you might in a normal uh adult interaction and just yeah and I think it's amazing how much you can tell they really appreciate that even while you're leading a whole class that's really something sometimes I'll add to that like a thumbs up like I'll I'll be like like that and then often times they'll for a while they'll look at you and then they'll do the same thing it's a nice moment uh boy I hope we're really driving in this home a lot of Praise all the time now we skipped the word excitement but you can probably tell just from the way we're talking about it's just yes go awesome Johnny just you know just just really the more they feel that praise and encouragement uh in an exciting way definitely helps now let's uh connect this to the section on uh Community which is also in the same uh area of teaching skills and you want to take this skill of Praise of non a valuative praise and you want to instruct and teach your parents and the children actually cuz they oh my goodness the children too they love clapping for each other you want to teach them by modeling and by instruction to praise each other and encourage each other and once you have that going when you have a class where they're clapping for each other and saying yay for each other you just you have a praise fest going on and every class should be a PR F that's right so so you have this environment where everyone's just clapping you know for for any little thing a child does you know and it's it's really great and that leads to the last one which is clapping so um you know not only you know you got eye contacts you got nods you got thumbs up you got verbal and clapping for kids is uh is fun and it really helps a lot you guys are awesome yeah you are totally awesome I'm so encouraged by actually you said you guys are awwesome is that a value you folks are awesome and um more praise lots of Praise yes turn it on in your classes we wish you well with your teaching and having fun with your students enjoy enjoy