The Four Words: I Believe in You
The Four Most Powerful Words in the English Language: I Believe in You
I know what it’s like to have teachers that don’t believe in you, and I can say that’s exactly why I chose this article. Because despite those teachers that considered me a hopeless student, there were other teachers that said these very four words to me, and who helped give me the drive to continue through high school, then move on to college. I believe in you- those words can change a student’s life, especially if it’s not something they hear often.
That said, the article starts off early mentioning “You know, that’s not the point. It doesn’t matter what you said. It’s how you made us [my co-founder and I] feel. That’s the important part. Whenever we left a meeting with you, we felt like a million bucks — like we could go out and tackle the world because you believed in us and you always let us know that.” Next they say that everyone needs a ‘head cheerleader’ in their life. In this case, the teacher should strive to be that cheerleader for the students.
The last sentence in this article, it’s part of an introductory line, is “If Anyone Has Ever Believed in You, You Have an Obligation to Believe in Others”. Keep paying the positivity forward, keep helping students move through their lives. That’s a large aspect of what I want to do for my future students. I want to be someone that gave them a bit of positivity that helped them move on in life and spread positivity to others. Call me a semantic, but it’s been a long-term goal for me ever since I became determined to be an Education major.
All my lofty idealism aside, the reason this falls within my content area lies in writing. I especially think being a positive person is necessary where creativity is involved. That’s not to say I believe in participation trophies, I do not, but I do advocate for bolstering a student’s confidence first before putting in some good old constructive criticism. It doesn’t help anyone if one of the first things they hear from a teacher’s mouth is a criticism. Compliment sandwich it, start out with something kind about the work, squeeze in the criticism, then end off with a compliment. Help a student build the confidence they need first before trying to reconstruct, that way we avoid accidentally crushing their enthusiasm for the craft.
If I were to place it into a Grand Challenge, yet again I’d place it within Understanding the American Experience. My reasoning being that by building on the student they can start accomplishing what they need. Having that feeling of support can be the push a student needs to start being the person that creates future change.
Lastly, if I were to use any method for this, I would probably use Vocabulary Self-Awareness from our book. Partially because it does build on what they already know to expand into what comes next. It’s not expecting a fish to fly- it’s more personalized towards the student and can hopefully do what I’d like to see of it- build confidence with the students showing what they already know and being able to build on that structure.
