Celebrate

The other day in one of my classes we discussed in depth how important it is to celebrate student's achievements rather than focus on their failures.  This has been nagging at me for a few days now and I have thought a lot about the way that teachers use their words to either build up or break down a child.
Do you know what I am talking about?
Mrs. Dorman talked specifically about a kindergarten child who was trying to spell the word because.  The child wrote her first assignment with the spelling bkz.  Mrs. Dorman celebrated the fact that the child had a beginning sound, a middle sound, and an end sound.  After all, the child is only in kindergarten.  However, Mrs. Dorman did put a sticky note next to bkz and wrote because on it.  She also explained to the child that the bossy E on the end made the S sound like a Z.
A few weeks later, the child brought another writing assignment forward.  This time, she had because spelled beks.  The child had learned the sight word be, and used her knowledge to write a new word.  Again Mrs. Dorman celebrated the beginning, middle, and end sounds.  She also congratulated the child on using her prior knowledge and remembering that the E was bossy and made an S sound.  Again she put a sticky note on the child's paper with the proper spelling of because.
The next time the child brought her paper forward, the word because was spelled correctly.  WOO HOO!!! All the encouragement she had been getting had paid off.  "This child is a word expert.  She is an expert on the word because" said Mrs. Dorman to her class.  "If anyone needs to know how to spell because, they should come to her." 
Not only did Mrs. Dorman celebrate this child's accomplishment at spelling the word because, but she also built up the child to try to spell other words.  This child's writing is not held in place by what she knows how to spell.  She feels free to write whatever she is feeling, not just whatever she knows.
So why do so many teachers point out what children do wrong?  My hope is that someday every child is being celebrated for what they know, not what they don't.  I hope that I can be strong enough to give every child encouragement, to find the good that is always mixed in with the not so good.
I challenge all of you to do the same.

~Jessica