Attitude by Charles Swindoll

“The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, the education, the money, than circumstances, than failure, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company... a church... a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past... we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you... we are in charge of our Attitudes.” 

This poem has worked marvellously specially with seventeen year-old teens since they are going through the process of finding their true being and are often asked to accept more responsibilities. 

First, we read it aloud till (. . . ) home." and we comment on its messages. Then, we read it all till the end and I ask my students to provide real life examples/ anecdotes connected with the different ideas displayed throughout the poem. Finally, I give the teens these questions below for them to asnwer individually in a written form. 

Try and then tell me. I can assure you it will be an amazing experience ;)   

• What is attitude to you?
• Do you agree that “attitude is more important than successes”?Why?
• How do the following attitudes influence you? what other people say about me/ what other people think about me/ what other people do to me. (Put them in order of how much they influence you)
• How can attitude break a home?
• How have the attitudes you took in the past changed you so far? (you may include some examples)
• What is your attitude towards someone who inevitably “acts a certain way” ?
• “I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. “ Do you agree with this phrase?

Sai Baba's LIFE poem

“Life is a song - sing it. 

Life is a game - play it. 

Life is a challenge - meet it. 

Life is a dream - realize it. 

Life is a sacrifice - offer it. 

...Life is love - enjoy it. " Sai Baba

whenever I have worked with this poem, adolescents have loved it!! I believe it has some unique ingredients for them: 
it is short (they do not complain about its length)
it is simple (they do not need to look some words up)
it goes to the point (there is nothing much to discuss. Everyone understands its message)
it is easy to memorise (we generally use it to open each class for a period of time)
it tickles "their" topics (they love to talk about songs, challenges and their dreams)

ACTIVITY: Once We have recited the poem many classes and discussed as a wholes class examples of each line, I ask the students to draw 6 bubbles: SONG, GAME, CHALLENGE, DREAM, SACRIFICE and LOVE. I tell them to fill those bubbles with information connected directly with them with its corresponding argument. 
1. their favourite song. 
2. their favourite game when they were kids. 
3. challenges they find at school. 
4. their dreams in life. 
5. what they feel as a sacrifice at home ;) 
6. what love means to them. 
In this way, they feel a closer and deeper connection with the poem and its message :) As an example of the activity, find below one of my students`creation. 

Personification I "Thanking an object"

After discussing with your young students what personification is, ask them to choose an item of their own or from the classroom. Then, tell them to write a letter to that object thanking it for what it has done for them :) Guide your students into expanding reasons, situations, anecdotes etc. Help them see the objects beyond the obvious ;) 
I have read AMAZING letters throughout the years and, as an example, I leave you one of my students' as a gift :) 

PS: As a closure, you can ask them to "be" that object and write a reply letter to them :) It also works marvellously !! 

"A Thank You for Friends" Rodney Bennett

 A Thank You for Friends

There are all kinds of men
Who have done me good turns,
That I still never think about,
Not for a minute;
Yet if I were making up
That sort of grace,
They would all of them have
To be in it.

One man made up stories
Another wrote verses
I found, and I liked,
And I read till I knew them.
Another one saw
All the things they had written,
Then, being an artist,
He drew them.

Another took wood
And a saw and some glue,
And put each of them just
In the place that would need it —
So that is the chair
Where I sit with my book
And am so much at ease
As I read it.

I'm forgetting the one
Who read tale after tale
When I was too young
To know letter from letter,
And the other who taught me them,
Till in the end
I could read for myself —
Which was better.

by Rodney Bennett

Activities

1. Let's read it aloud in one go. Do not worry about words you may not understand. We'll deal with them later. By telling students IN ADVANCE that you will work on the unknown words later, you release their anxiety and, therefore, they can enjoy the poem. 

2. Let's discuss: what have his friends done? How has the poet received those actions? Why is it good to thank friends? You may write down their answers on the board so that those who might find it difficult to follow can relay on those notes :) 

3. Moving ideas: what about your friends? what have they done for/to you? How would you thank them? What would you do? Students can relate the "old poem" (according to them) to their own life, experiences, etc. 

4. Let's get creative!! Write a poem thanking some of your friends in 3 stanzas. Try to rhyme words. Follow Bennett's poem as a guide and always work with a dictionary. Then we will share them with the class. By giving them the number of stanzas and showing them that their poem will be shorter than the original one, we lower the feeling of "I wont be able to do it." 

Walk around the class to help them with the rhyming. Provide synonyms, etc. 

Working with dictionaries gives students a sense of independence. It may take longer but it is totally worthy ! 

Try not to force students if they do not want to share their creations with the class. Instead, you may offer yourself as a reader without mentioning the name of the writer :)

My teenage students have created IN CRE DI BLE poems and every time they or I have read them aloud, claps have filled the classroom. 

Try the activities and share the wonderful results with more ESL teachers like me ;) 

Richard Cory

Whenever Richard Cory went down town,
We people on the pavement looked at him:
He was a gentleman from sole to crown,
Clean favored, and imperially slim.

And he was always quietly arrayed,
And he was always human when he talked;
But still he fluttered pulses when he said,
'Good-morning,' and he glittered when he walked.

And he was rich - yes, richer than a king -
And admirably schooled in every grace:
In fine, we thought that he was everything
To make us wish that we were in his place.

So on we worked, and waited for the light,
And went without the meat, and cursed the bread;
And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,
Went home and put a bullet through his head. 

Edwin Arlington Robinson

Activities

1. Ask a student to read the first stanza and the rest of the group not to look at the poem but to just listen to that part. In this way, students need to pay attention to the one who is reading and the reader needs to focus on his reading aloud clearly :) 

2. Who is described? What does he look like? Which person comes to your head who may be similar to Richard Cory? Why? By comparing Richard Cory with another person, students can see how minds and imagination work differently in each human being as they will probably provide different names. They can even discuss which aspects have made them think of that person. 

3. Let's read all together the second stanza. Would you like to meet him? If students do not know the meaning of some words just provide it by means of examples or mimics so as not to translate. 

4. Read the third stanza: Would you like to be in his place? Provide an argument for your answer. What are the pros and cons of being very rich? Draw a chart on the board to write the pros and cons students come up with. They will have an image of their ideas in an ORGANIZED way :) and will probably want THEIR idea to appear on the board ;) 

5. Read the last stanza. What is your reaction? What do you feel for him? What could have happened to him? By discussing possible motives, students may reach different conclusions about the human soul, the power of the mind, what money represents, etc !!! :) 

6. FINAL TASK! In pair, choose a dead famous person and write a poem about him/her. Follow this structure: 
1. physical description
2. personality
3. how people look at him/her; what people think about him/her. 
4. how he/she died. How people reacted. 
My students have produced INCREDIBLE poems with deep understanding of that person's soul and a lot of respect towards him/her. 

HOPE YOU HAVE ENJOYED THIS WONDERFUL POEM !! 
LET ME KNOW HOW IT WORKS FOR YOUR STUDENTS ;) 

The Man Who Thinks He Can

If you think you are beaten, you are;

If you think you dare not, you don't.

If you'd like to win, but think you can't

It's almost a cinch you won't.

If you think you'll lose, you've lost.

For out in the world we find

Success begins with a fellow's will:

It's all in his state of mind.

If you think you're outclassed, you are:

You've got to think high to rise,

You've got to be sure of yourself before

You'can ever win a prize.

Life's battles don't always go

To the stronger or faster man,

But sooner or later the man who wins

Is the one who thinks he can. 

Walter D. Wintle

ACTIVITIES

1. Let's read it aloud and discuss which word/s should be stressed and why. What happens if, for example, I take out the word NOT in the 2nd line? 

In this way, students engage in a pretty interesting discussion; they find out the message of each stanza without real intention, and discover the hidden power or words :) 

2. Now that we have agreed on the meaningful words, let's focus on the punctuation. When do we generally use commas/semi colons/colons and stops? Why do you think the author has chosen those marks in those lines? 

By moving those questions in groups, the students discover the importance of the punctuation marks ;) 

3. Let's get creative! Copy the If clauses and finish them with your own ideas. 

Before letting the students plunge into the activity, talk with them about the message conveyed in the first conditional.  

4. Going beyond! Fill in these phrases with your thoughts, beliefs or experiences. 

For out in the world we find___________

Success begins with____________

Life's battles don't always go______

But sooner or later the man who wins________

Here the students must think about themselves, those around them, their context, etc before completing the lines. Not only, do we ask them to think but also to FEEL ;) 

5. Pair work: Choose one of the stanzas and imagine you want to SELL that idea. 

A. Create a slogan for it.

B. Draw a symbol for your "product" 

This activity works marvellously since the students get really hooked and, once again, they are working with the poem and its messages but from a more original perspective :) 

I hope you have enjoyed these activities as much as I have and do every time I work with this wonderful poem !! 

Let me know about your experience with it :) 

Learning experiences at the Teacher Training College I

"Who dares to teach must never cease to learn" John Cotton Dana

yes, but how cannot I cease when I attend 9 annual, excruciating subjects and work in the afternoons? Let alone, having already a family of my own!! 
well, as a matter of fact, you perfectly can :) 

I have attended a public, wonderful TTC (teacher training college) where I spent innumerous hours discussing essays, gramatical terms, trying to understand the phonetic chart ;) or just drinking "mate" while planning for the feared residence. 

But I believe I just could not have done that without a simple POWERFUL recipe:

Ingredients
a spoonful of your parents' support
a pinch of your classmates/friends' smiles, hugs and shoulders to cry on 
a bag of your attitude

Steps
In an enormous pot, melt your parents' support little by little and with a small fire. Let your parents sprinkle every day some of it (and if it is accompanied by hugs or kisses, much better!) 

Once you have a consistent, shiny mixture, pour your classmates' gifts one by one in any order, but do not forget to constantly stir; you do not want a sticky mixture that then you have to scratch from the bottom of the pot ;) 

Sparkle the last ingredient throughout all the procedure day by day with a confident hand. 

Charles Swindoll once wrote: "(. . . ) I am convinced that 10 % is what happens to me and 90 % how I react to it, and so it is with you. You are in charge of your own attitudes. " So with a true attitude towards your goal, you will definitely be able to achieve that objective. 

What are your thoughts about my recipe?  What has worked for you ? 

Adolescents. Why I choose to teach them.

"Why does LOVE hurt? "
"Do you like cheese?" (when discussing about slavery )
"Would you like to have children some day?"
"why do you even care to teach me?" 
"Why is your face a square?" 

These are some of the amazing, deep and sincere questions I have had the pleasure to be addressed to when teaching adolescents. . . I believe that when our soul is ready, we find the path we are to walk.
My path in teaching adolescents began quite a few years ago and It has not been easy just because life is difficult for an adolescent. . . They undergo so many deep and hurtful changes that they simply cannot help it; To that, we may add absent parents or economic issues and bingo!! 

After many stomach-aches, tears and self-discoveries, It dawned on me that if I opened my heart to their silent suffering in a compassionate way, I would be able to send a sign: "hey, I know. . . It is not easy but stay with me; I understand; It will be over. I promise." Once that intangible sign was sent, everything changed for good :) 

Yes, I know what you might be thinking: "despite a teacher's predispositions, adolescents insult, do not appreciate our classes, neither listen nor study!!" and that is sometimes true in fact ;) but I teach in spite of that; I go for that soul who is struggling to , at least, understand what is going on; to that wonderful being who after having said tremendous bad words to you , comes to you and asks if you could forgive him ' cause he is not actually angry at you but at his dad. . . 

But most of all, I choose to teach adolescents because I have faith in their future; whether they become an honest builder or an extraordinary astronomer. I trust them; I trust they will overcome that phase and become warm-hearted adults. That is why I teach adolescents. 

Books that have enriched my teacher soul. Part Two

The extremely shy brunette girl approached the stage when her name was mentioned. Yes, she had won "the best student award" that year; a difficult year for her altough she did not know that at the time. . . 

Looking down, all blushed, she took the gift. It was a book; everyone knew that, but what she did not know was that that book would touch her heart for ever. . . 

Back in her seat, she unwrapped the gift and there it was Ami, a warm-hearted, wise and strange boy. With each turn of the page, the girl was fascinated by him, his words and his teaching. 

Ami was not an ordinary character for the girl. He was a secret friend; always present the moment she opened the book and ready to fill her heart with pure thoughts. 

That girl is in her mid thirties now and still smiles whenever one of Ami's sharings come to her mind. Those words comforted her and not only did they keep her company but also spread to her two loving sisters' hearts. 

I believe that a teacher's heart is made up of thousand of treasures, experiences and anecdotes. Ami and the book he is in are definitely one of my cherrished companies. 

Do you treasure a book like that? Please, share your comments. 

Books that have enriched my teacher soul. Part One

(. .  . ) " so what took you so Long?" 
I was teaching. That`s what took me so Long." Page 3 

On a foogy Saturday afternoon, while walking down Victoria road, I came across a georgeous library. We, teachers, are lured into libraries justo as kids into candy shops ;) therefore, I HAD to enter. Once there, a marvelous book called me: " hey ! I can recognize a teacher miles away. Come; come closer. . . " And there it was. Definitely, showing off a little as he was the ONLY standing book on a lovely decorated table. TEACHER MAN by Frank McCourt. 

Everything about it is engaging! ! His writing style: so colloquial and so teacher like !!! , his anecdotes and his reflections upon his teaching. . . 

Just for you to feel the book, I will transcribe the second part I underlined when reading it for the first time ;) 

(. . .) "In America, doctors, lawyers, generals, actors, television people and politicians are admired and rewarded. Not teachers. Teaching is the downstairs maid of professions. Teachers are told to use the service door or go round the back. They are congratulated on having ATTO (All That Time Off). They are spoken of patronizingly and patted, retroactively, on their silvery locks. " page 4

I simply loved his ATTO word and have used it whenever this topic has been brought up in those typical teachers' discussions. 

Why is it that wherever we go the same concept about teachers is heard ? 
Hasn't anyone seen a woman or man sunbathing on a beautiful beach reading a book on "How to work with Problematic Children" instead of Vogue magazine? What force drives us to keep on going to school every morning? What moves our hearts towards teaching? 


Have you felt identified? Please, share your comments :)

Cut out to be a teacher

My favourite game as a child was to play to be a teacher. I would prepare my bag (an old brownish leather bag given to me by my mom) with all the school objects needed: old, blunt pencils, may be a marker, heavy books from the libraby and a notebook. I would set to the "school" (our back garden actually), prepare the desks for all my students and wait anxiously for them. 

Then my two sisters would "enter" the classroom and we would raise the flag. I remember taking attendance from a long list of invented students and my sisters sitting there looking kind of bored waiting for their names to be said outloud. 

I could spend hours writing anecdotes like this because I just SIMPLY LOVE TEACHING. . . I do not even remember a day when I was asked as a child "what would you like to be in the future?" and I answered something else besides " a teacher". 

But years pass by; you grow up; you laugh; you cry; you study hard, really hard to get your degree and then circumstances face you with situations in the classroom you have not been taught at the teaching training college. . . 

If you feel identified with this or you just wish to learn more about what you could do or could have done in those out-of-the-book situations, follow me ;)