Building self confidence

This week´s readings reminded me about positive and negative classroom activities that I have had experienced throughout my school years. I enjoyed thinking about one of my classes where students did an activity which consisted on students going around introducing themselves and trying to find something in common. I believe activities of this type are a good idea for the first week of school because it builds community and confidence within the classroom. In addition, the students feel like they know one another from the stories that are shared.

I believe that the more students get to know one another and build relationships, the more they can share with one another. Building strong relationships between students in the classroom is a must. I know as a student when I feel comfortable with my peers in the classroom, I feel safe to ask questions and to voice my opinion.

A year ago, I took a class called team building and I witnessed the classroom environment change dramatically after doing a team building activity. The class was held for only 3 sessions. The first day of class only a few of the students spoke up when questions were asked and the conversations weren’t very deep. The second class session we all met at a field where we did "team building" activities. At first, we started off doing smaller tasks and as a group, we all began to show what our skills and weaknesses were. At the end of the day, we all had to walk across balancing beams as a team. The smaller tasks lead up to this bigger task and as a group we had bonded and knew each other very well at the end of the day. I noticed that our last class session the environment felt safe. We all felt safe sharing our ideas within the big group.

On a negative note, I do remember some teachers posting our grades up on a bulletin board for everyone to see. I think this could be very detrimental because the students that got good grades would make fun of the students that didn’t get good grades. I was one of those children that didn’t always get good grades. Having everyone see my grades not only made me have unpleasant feelings of self-consciousness, but I also felt like I wasn’t part of the “smart kids”. I think as future teachers, we need to be aware not to single out children like this, but make everyone feel like they are part of the group, regardless of their skill levels in a certain subject.

As a future teacher, I want to include activities that build community and confidence within the classroom. Growing up and going through public schools, I was always the shy kid. In some of my classes, I would often feel like I didn’t want to speak up and I also thought the teachers looked down upon me for this. However, classes that included confidence building activities made it easier for me to share my ideas. I would ask questions and involve myself more with the classroom discussions in the classes where I felt comfortable with my peers. When I was engaged with the discussions, I noticed that my learning was deeper because I was able to experience the dialogue with my peers and teacher.

“To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to leave the world a better place; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson