My Virtual Stars
I like rewarding my students. Before covid, I used to give them star stickers for good ideas. When I started to teach remotely, I wondered what I should do instead. I could tell them that they had won a star, but it felt too weak. The next idea was to show them a star and tell them that it belonged to them. But that still felt insufficient. Then I had an epiphany. I would say to them they earned a star, show it to them, and stick it to my face. So they, and all the other students, would see it for the rest of the class. The photo shows how I looked at the end of a successful lesson.
![Tanya getting a prize at a linguistics Olympiad](http://tanyakhovanova.com/BlogStuff/me/MyVirtualStars2Sm.png)
Another picture shows what my MathRoots students posted on our Discord channel.
![Students about Tanya's stars](http://tanyakhovanova.com/BlogStuff/me/TanyasStars.png)
Now that I am back teaching in person, my students asked me to continue sticking their stars to my face. Sometimes I forget about the stars and, after my class, wander around MIT star-covered.
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JBL:
This is lovely. Hope all is well!
5 December 2021, 6:00 pm