Читать книгу Start With the Heart - Michelle L. Trujillo - Страница 31

Key 7: Finally, we must believe in our students, as well as our colleagues, intentionally. Intentionality is essential, because often the people with whom we are attempting to connect may not believe in themselves. Find something, one thing, you can believe in about them, and this will help you to connect because, ultimately, it may lead them to believe in themselves, too. As an administrator who worked in alternative education, I interacted with a majority of students who had not been successful in their previous schools. In their own minds, for whatever reason, they saw themselves as failures. So, when our students would say, “I can’t,” or “There’s no way,” or “You just don’t understand,” my staff and I would find something that we could believe in for them. Even if it was initially difficult to come up with a strength, we would take a dominant behavior trait and turn it into something positive. Their stubbornness, for example, we saw as determination, or their anger, as passion. For example, a student who was always arguing to get his point across, would elicit this type of response from a teacher: “Johnny, I love your perseverance. You know what you want and that quality will take you far in life. However, we need to work together on fighting for what you want in a respectful way.” When we let our students know that we saw a strength within them, we connect with a small piece of them they didn’t even realize existed. Whatever it was we found to believe in, my staff and I would tell our kids, “We believe in you, regardless! So, grab on to our belief, until you can begin to believe in yourself.” And, eventually, they did!