cultivate Optimism

I have set my habit…I will always work on this…the habit is my accomplishment!

I’ve noticed that with my students if I believe that they can succeed, I feel like I’m fighting half the battle with them. They often come from homes where they never see their parents (or have NEVER seen one or more of their parents) and rarely if ever have someone say “I BELIEVE IN YOU!” Optimisim starts by automatically EXPECTING that my students should be optimistic with themselves. This is hard when telling them whether or not they should go on to honors next year or stay/ go down to regular English (since we are registering for next year right now) but reminding them the future is out there and IT STARTS NOW I hope helps them imagine themselves in any role they want and that they should stop dreaming and start doing NOW. I love my kids…they are MY kids for 90 minutes a day…and I want them to chase the same dreams and possibilities that I did. Sometimes this gets clouded with crankiness and bad attitudes and problem students etc. etc. etc. but I need to remind myself to be persistant, to believe in them, and to believe in myself.

My newest challenge is to make my students optimistic about their futures, but more specifically, optimism about their writing. They hate it, they despise it, they might even despise me for it. But they MUST write—essays, letters, notes, summaries, whatever it is, the function of writing is necessary. So how do I make them optimistic about their education? Especially, how do I make them optimistic about writing? I’m trying patience, guidence, and examples. I hope it works!

I have a friend going through the Bar exam. I feel for him in his stress-load, and am trying to ease the struggle by finding the positive side to his situation. However, I think he doesn’t enjoy my optimistic intentions as he has of late become more sarcastic in his responses. Hmmm…oh well, it’s worth it!=0)

I have this friend who no matter what always seems to find the positives in life. He amazes me! I just spent the weekend with him essentially and he is the most energetic, positive person! Not in an annoying way, however—he is strong in his convictions and follows his heart to whatever makes him happy! =0)

when I am optimistic. However, pessimism runs in my family, and it’s hard to steer away from genetics. When I see the positives, take the time to have patience and not take things personally, then I feel accomplished. I am working on being more optimistic every day. A mantra?