The Highlight Reel

From the desk of Leigh  Ann . . .

I spotted a refrigerator magnet that said, “The reason we struggle with insecurity is because we compare our behind-the-scenes with everyone else’s highlight reel.”  These words caused a brief moment of introspection – and as all teachers do – I related it to education.  I was always a good student, but can vividly remember my aching feelings of self-doubt.  I would quietly watch my classmates and wonder why things came so easily for them when I knew the struggles that were going on inside my head.  It made me wonder what we as teachers can do to transform this nagging self-doubt into growing self-confidence.  How can we help our students create their own highlight reels?  Here are a few ideas:

• Value each child as an individual with unique gifts and learning styles.  Avoid comparing one child to another and encourage the children in class to respect and accept each other.
• Establish appropriate goals and help build and support the skills for achieving them.  Remember there will be setbacks, plateaus, and failures, but with perseverance comes success.  Celebrate success!
• Understand that mistakes are inevitable, but they are a valuable part of the learning experience.  We are all going to fall, but remember to fall forward and make a little progress along the way.
• Promote positive thinking with positive vocabulary in your classroom.  Avoid using sarcasm with children and expect students to use encouraging words.  Communicate your confidence in students and emphasize the positive aspects of performance and behavior.
• Build the confidence in your students to take learning risks.  Fear affects everyone, but can be a factor for growth.  Encourage children to sound out new words or solve math problems independently.  Our classrooms should be fear-free zones where students and educators work together to grow and celebrate learning.
• Model behaviors that build self-confidence and promote learning.  Our students’ self-confidence is affected by the conditional acceptance of others, so our unconditional acceptance as their teachers is a must.  Research shows their is a definite relationship between self-esteem and student performance.  As our students’ self-confidence increases, so will their academic progress.

With age I have grown in the knowledge that we are all working hard to find our place in this world.  As individuals we have different gifts to share and school is a place to nurture those gifts and open our students’ eyes to the  possibilities that come through learning.  Now I try to remember that the gifted ones that I admire and feel “have it all together” have their struggles too.  We are all like those ducks on the pond – calm above the water, but paddling for dear life below – just trying to stay afloat.  We need to build the self-confidence to remember the highlight reels look great, but it is the behind-the-scenes work that make the highlights worth viewing.