It’s no secret that the freshman class this year had a “bumpy” start to high school. Trashing the cat boxes, blasting loud music, and getting kicked out of class became the ninth graders’ new reputation, at least in part, prompting grade heads to organize a full-grade vision statement to be signed by each member of the grade and to threaten to withhold sign-out privileges.

But instead of focusing only on the negativity surrounding the freshmen, the ninth grade teachers found what they believe to be a suitable solution in the form of “Notes of Praise.”

The Notes of Praise started in January at the beginning of the second semester. Three students, specially selected by teachers for exhibiting praiseworthy behavior during the given week–on a project, for example, or just around school–received letters from their teachers. The number of letters that go out each graderoom has climbed to an average of six.

“We felt like we needed a change in the tenor of graderoom and how we interacted with the class,” Cory Zeller, Freshmen Grade Head, said. “We wanted to make sure that the freshmen felt appreciated. A lot of the disruptive behavior got a lot of attention in the fall, and so we made a conscious effort to change that. We didn’t want the people being disruptive to be dominating the attention.  We wanted to focus on the people who were doing really great things.”

According to Zeller, ninth grade teachers meet every two weeks to decide the next set of students to receive a Note of Praise. Using a shared spreadsheet, the teachers mark off the date that students have received notes.

“In my teaching in the past, when students had done something really amazing in the classroom, I always sent a note home to their parents,” history teacher Susan Elliott said. “I had gotten really good feedback from that, and I thought maybe it would work.”

Recognizing that something needed to change in graderoom, Elliott brought the Notes of Praise idea to the ninth grade grade heads amid brainstorming sessions during the first semester.

“My freshman advisory was getting kind of demoralized because every time they went to graderoom, they were being yelled at for stuff they didn’t do,” Elliott said. “I wanted them to know that there were a lot of teachers in the building that recognized that they didn’t do anything wrong.”

Zeller agreed. “I think it is typical for the transition from eighth grade to ninth grade to be a bit bumpy,” she said. “This year was particularly bumpy given a few events that happened at the beginning of the school year and given the dynamic. We felt that this year in particular, we really wanted people to feel seen for doing all of the great things.”

Though every announcement and letter given is followed by cheers and applause, some ninth graders are confused by the Notes of Praise.

“I don’t understand them,” freshman Natalie Daskal said. “I feel as though not everyone is put on a fair pedestal, and I think people who are known for messing around a lot are rewarded for doing one good thing, and people who just do good things every day don’t get rewarded because it’s always expected of them.”

Freshman Anjali Chandel disagreed. “I like the message,” she said. “I know there are some kids that are not confident at school. The notes give them a boost, like they’re doing something right, and everyone likes getting them.”

One of the goals of Notes of Praise was that every freshman will receive one by the end of the year.  “We want to think about the fact that every single person is contributing something positive to classes, to hallway, to sports teams, so each student will get one,” Zeller said. “We’ve reached out to a lot of different people to write them because we want to focus on the freshmen bringing a lot of good to the community.”

This cheapens the notes, according to freshman Lily Koltuin. “Everyone in the grade is eventually going to get one,” Koltuin said, “so it has kind of lost its meaning when it’s supposed to be rewarding each person as a specialty.”

Some students find the Notes ritual ill-fitting at Parker.  “It’s so not a Parker thing to do,” Daskal said, “and I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, it just doesn’t motivate me at all.”

Chandel has a different view. “It’s very ‘Parkeresque’ for everyone to get a note because of the equality,” she said. “It makes students feel better, even for a day. Some people pretend they don’t care, but I think everyone does.”

Though the ninth grade teachers hope to continue Notes of Praise in the future, freshman Abri Berg, who has not yet received a letter, has a different idea. “It shouldn’t be announced in front of every student in graderoom,” she said.  “It should be more of an individual teacher-student thing.  It doesn’t encourage me to do anything because there’s nothing I feel like I can do to get a letter in graderoom.”

“We want the whole class to know that we saw you all,” Zeller said. “It’s public recognition to kids instead of the public recognition to issues at the beginning of the year. It was hopefully really genuine when a teacher wrote a note for a student, but I can see that when a student would be trying really hard and not getting  note, that would be really hard. It’s not a perfect system.”