Amy Husk, who teaches AP World History, takes time to do good things at the beginning of all her classes. Good Things is when Husk gives students time to talk about any good thing to them, and she will also share her good things in class.

Husk starts her classes with good things. She learned from a training she participated in. She uses it to connect with students and make them feel positive in her classroom. She explains how it benefits her students and herself.

“A long time ago, I went to a training session called ‘Capturing Kid’s Hearts’ and it’s just part of that training. I use it to try to get to know my kids a little bit better and try to like celebrating things that are important to them and I hope it helps them to buy into the class a little bit more and to feel like they have a voice here,” said Husk.

The training, Capturing Kids Hearts, that Husk participated in was about the relationships between students and teachers. Husk explains how long she’s been doing good things and how her training helped her build relationships with her students.

“I’ve been doing good things pretty much since I started teaching, so seven years. I feel like it helps my students to feel like they’re seen and heard and it helps to build relationships, which is all about what that training was about, trying to build relationships with kids and stuff like that. It feels like it helps me to know how people are feeling in the classroom that day and it kind of gives opportunities for celebration and to chat about things that aren’t necessarily part of the content or academic. It helps to create community within the classroom,” said Husk.

In Husk’s classroom, she does good things at the beginning of her class. This helps her learn things about her class and gives them time to talk. Husk further explains the purpose of starting her classes in this manner.

“We do good things at the beginning to start the class off on a good note. What I like is that it gives me an opportunity to get a read on the class and see how people are doing and then, also, you know, start everything off on a good note, like you know, sharing something good or sharing a funny story can kind of just help everyone get into the mood to be there,” said Husk.

According to Husk, her students share whatever they want during good times. It really depends on the class and the students and whether they want to share or not. Husk explains how she and her students participate in good things.

“I would say that at some point pretty much every student of mine has shared something. I mean there aren’t too many that have abstained the whole time, but even if a student doesn’t want to participate in sharing something, they are still there and they’re still listening and it’s still a positive process. Some classes are very open to chatting about anything. They’ll talk about things that they’ve done or things they have to look forward to, or what’s happening in their lives. Some students like to talk about a show they watched or a book that they’ve read, so it could be anything. I share anything like whatever I think that you guys will be even remotely interested in or sometimes things that I just think are funny that I like to share. I think it’s a good way for students to get to know me, so I’ll just share random stories from my life,” said Husk.

Husk makes sure that her students feel comfortable in her class when sharing. It takes time for her students to feel comfortable participating, but she continues to ask every day. Husk explains how she makes her students comfortable participating in good things.

“It’s building relationships, so just making sure that my classroom is a safe place. You know when people talk about anything that they are not made fun of or ridiculed. And that they know that there’s a voice that I’m interested in hearing and that their friends are interested in hearing. You just kind of have to build that up and then have it day after day just asking for the good things. And it just kind of came together on its own,” said Husk.

Husk doesn’t get vocal feedback from her students but uses the participation and reactions of her students as feedback. Husk explains how she takes feedback from her students and what type of feedback.

“I haven’t gotten formal feedback, but just from participation or laughing about things or students might say ‘Oh I have a good thing’ before I even ask for good things. I think that that’s a pretty good indication that they don’t hate it at least. It makes me very happy because sometimes I have to drag things out of you, but when everyone is kind of excited to participate, I do appreciate that, it makes it fun,” said Husk.

Husk appreciates it when her students participate in good things. She also uses good things as a way to make her class more fun for her students. Husk explains how things give her students something to enjoy in her class.

“It makes me feel good when students participate, I want them to feel heard and to have fun here. And sometimes we talk about things here that could be kind of heavy or maybe could be boring, but if they are excited and want to share something from their life it’s a good indicator that they are buying in and they like to be here,” said Husk.

Husk does good things in her classroom for a multitude of reasons. Some of these reasons are to connect with students, to let her students know they have a voice, and to let them connect with each other.