You Knock My Socks Off!

Hi, Teaching Friends!

I have a short and silly idea to share with you today.

Long before the arrival of the (now apparently discredited) athletic toe socks, there were Toe Socks of a different sort. Personally, the appeal of squishing my toes into individual little slots falls somewhere between the fun of teaching a two-year-old to put on gloves and the horror of being confined in a bent arm cast for six weeks. In other words, lemme outta here!!!


However, I did have a pair. Mine were much flashier than the ones above. The kids called them rainbow socks, but I thought of them as clown socks. No picture of them, but I'm sure you've got the idea.


I kept mine safely tucked away in a drawer ... my desk drawer at school. When a child  would do something truly amazing and I didn't want to make a star on his nose, instead  I'd very dramatically march to my desk, noisily pull the drawer open, and pull out those socks. All eyes would be on me, waiting for the announcement.


"Did you all hear the amazing thinking Ezra did? He made a connection between our experiment with vinegar and dancing raisins and the way forces push rockets away from the Earth. That kind of thinking knocks my socks off!"  Then I'd twirl those socks over my head like a cowgirl at the rodeo, and Ezra would grow a little taller in his own confidence and in the esteem of his classmates.


It's an easy-peasy and very memorable reward. But kids love silliness, and chances are good that if you're teaching K-2, you enjoy some good old silliness, too!

What silly thing do you do to recognize special achievements in your class?


Happy Teaching!

h