I Have a Dream... to Foster Self-Belief and Dreams Back into Students of the 21st Century.

I am a teacher, and if you went to any teacher training or professional development today, you would see that our job revolves mostly around academics, even if it is heard otherwise. My job consists primarily of teaching a lesson and giving instruction on activities revolving around the core subjects, like math, science, social studies and/or ELAR. I am expected to follow standards, units, and prepare students for state assessments. It is the criteria of my job, and I went through school, took tests and was prepared for just that. Yes, there is positive reinforcement, behavioral management, encouragement and social-emotional development for students, but those are what we would call the "supporting" standards, and the teach to the test, data driven instruction is the "readiness" standard.

I am not saying I agree with it all, it just is what it is. Students need to learn, and for the past six years, teaching primarily academics was good enough for me. The students learned, they were well managed and they had their own social life. In other words, there wasn't concrete concerns of insecurities, negative external influences or lack of capability and limitations.

That is until COVID-19 hit, and with the help of social media influences. Now, more than ever, I see it all: I see the students shorter attention span, inability to hold eye contact or a conversation, and unawareness of their own capabilities. I see students rely on technology to come up with answers, believe only what they hear and divert their attention to anything but their own opinions and self-beliefs.

It is come as such a red flag that I genuinely cannot ignore it even if I wanted to. And so my goal this year, despite the expectation of providing the best academic education for the students is to foster a confidence in the students of the 21st century. It is a must, and like MLK painted a picture of a future where discrimination and segregation was no more, my painting is a picture of a future where students are growing up more confident than ever before.

Why? How? Look at the opportunities this world provides. Never before have we had such innovative growth, remote and endless career paths or creative avenues to be explored. Never before have so many people achieved their dreams and created a life for themselves. So seeing these students come into school with such lack of dreams, confidence and belief literally hurts my heart. It shouldn't be like that, and so I now address it in school, everyday.

I have always had dreams. When I was little I dreamed that I would be an author. I had a vision board. I knew I would get a scholarship for sports to school. I knew I was smart. I knew I was pretty and I was sure of where I wanted to be. Did I have insecurities? Of course. Did I lack in some confidence, duh. But something I had when I was younger that I see has become diminished in the students of the 21st century is belief. Belief in themselves, and belief in a dream.

I foster my students now by starting off with "I am" affirmations. I don't care if they don't like it, if they think it is funny or think I am crazy for making them say it and believing it will do anything for them. They do it. For example, I write on the board, make them stand up and repeat after me: "I am smarter today than I was yesterday. I am having the best day. I am a genius. I am learning so much today. I am having fun today." Those are a few examples, but I mix it up depending on the type of week we are going to have.

I make the students write prompts and do short warm up activities that are positively stimulating to themselves. For example, they have created vision boards, they have had to write "I am thankful for... because..." and they have had to self-reflect on events and experiences that have caused them to change. I have even had them write out and share their own "I am" affirmations (had to be positive). And of course, as the students were expected to do all of these, I did them as well. I ALWAYS do them with them, not only to share first and show that I too should reflect and think positivity of myself but also to make it equal. And for teachers, a great resource is the 7mindsets platform:

See details at: https://7mindsets.com/

All in all, so much has happened in the last two years with COVID-19, isolation and virtual learning, that bringing back belief in students and dreams is a must if we want our students to succeed in the 21st century.