This is my collection of stamps which I use for my students’ work correcting purposes.  I think they are also useful in other field although they appear to be more academic wise.  Please don’t get me wrong as this is not a post to advertise anything but just a sharing of a thought on encouragement.

I have always believed that positive encouragement is an essential element in a child’s learning process even before I have started my teaching career. Children have different capabilities and learning abilities and they often excel in a certain way, depending on the exposure that they are opened to.  I have been doing some serious teaching for the past four years now and I am also trying my best to encourage my students with every effort that I can make.

The reason why I said serious teaching for the past four years is because in my previous teaching experiences, I did not know that there are so much that needed to be done as a teacher.  I’ve learned a lot in these four years and I am still learning every second when I look at my teaching materials, the lesson plans that I’ve made, the reflections that I’ve come across, my students’ work, the ideas and suggestions from my beloved and helpful colleagues and many other things that I have prepared  and have to prepare prior to every lesson.

So far, I’ve been using the above teacher’s stamps quite frequently except a few of them such as, ‘unbelievable’, ‘dynamic’ and ‘absent’ because it is not that appropriate at the level that I am teaching now.  However, I’m sure they will be in use sooner or later.  Children usually like those with a little cartoon as it brings out the stamping even more.

When I walk into the classroom, I can see different personalities and characteristics in each child.  Some of them are still like a dough, waiting for you to shape them and create something best out of them.  Some are timid.  Some are bold.  Some are talkative and knowledgeable.  Some are afraid to make mistakes and not very confident.  So, in order to encourage them, I tried these teacher’s stamps.  The stamps are not magic wands but they are the lights and smiles on a child’s face every time they see a stamping at the corner of their work when I have finished marking and returned it to them.

Well, call me a child cheater if you want but in time, I’ve really seen improvement with this encouragement method.  The stampings have encouraged the child to work towards a higher achievement.

These are how the stampings look like on paper. The frown face is used when they did very poor in their spelling tests to indicate the teacher’s worry and hope to see better results next time.  Do you think the stamps are good for children’s encouragement  or otherwise?  If you have children, will they be proud to show you the stampings if they’ve got it for their work?  Please give us your feedback.