Saturday, March 8, 2014

I Embrace My True Value as a Woman, I am Empowered

Gifting yourself with personal empowerment is the greatest thing that you can do to yourself. Every woman in the world should feel happy, healthy, confident, and encouraged all the time. Embracing your true worth as a woman means empowerment.

I have goals and dreams. I have plenty of things that I would want to do for my family and for myself. However, everytime I think about these goals, I always stop and ask myself when and how will I begin achieving them. As a full time elementary teacher in a public school, a wife, and a mother of four children, I am indeed a very busy woman. I know that all successful people empower themselves to reach their highest potentials. Thus, in order for me to live the best life possible, I BEGAN EMPOWERING MYSELF THROUGH THESE WAYS.

1. I teach myself to believe that I am unique, lovable, and I am what I am.
Gaining awareness of myself helps me feel healthy, powerful and more balanced as an individual. I always believe that I can do amazing things to myself, to my family and friends and to all the people around me. I don't pretend to be "anyone" to be a better woman. I am unique in a lot ways and I know I am special. The first step towards self-empowerment is loving yourself.

2. I always speak the truth.
Doing things that are based on truth and honesty strengthens myself as a woman of value. I gain trust and confidence of all the people that surround me. I use my voice that God has given me to say what is right and what is true.

3. I try to identify my weaknesses and strengths.
Knowing my weaknesses and of course my strengths enable me to engage in activities that will help me become successful and fulfilled. I also try to turn all my weaknesses into strengths by constant practice, asking others' help and by involving myself to training, seminars and workshops. 


4. I practice purposeful driven life.
Having disappointments and discouragements will never cease me in pursuing my dreams in life. Dynamic approach in the pursuit of my goals help me demonstrate self-confidence. Identifying my purpose and significance as a woman aids me to direct the correct path I need to take daily. 

5. I read, I learn, and I share. I empower myself to empower others.

Teaching the young generation of today is my duty. I need to create and support positive learning environment to my pupils. Our life's learning process has not to stop. It is a continuous cycle. My life is always about learning new things as I age. My own personal experiences and struggles are my guides to learn and re-learn the right things in life. Reading helps me a lot in empowering myself with different tools that I  need to empower others.

6. I am adaptable to change.
I thrive on change and challenges. I am optimistic and enthusiastic to every opportunity that comes my way. I am flexible and adaptable towards responsibilities and always willing to learn new tasks. I enjoy working in a challenging and quality environment. 

7. I surrender my concerns to God. I glorify God in my work and in my life.
Believing in our powerful God and yielding my concerns to Him help me live a healthy and contented life at work and at home. All the blessings come from our Almighty God who always enable us to become stronger in facing our daily journey. 

I am a woman of value. I appreciate my true worth as a woman. I respect   myself as a woman. I believe that I am doing my best with my talents as a great contributor to our society. I would like to let the world know that I embrace my true value as a woman, I AM EMPOWERED.

Let us celebrate #WomensDayatMegaworld with recognition and acknowledgement of the biggest influence and wonderful contribution of all the women in the world.






Wednesday, March 5, 2014

A Teacher's Challenge




After more than a decade of teaching, I just want to ask myself again of things that teachers have to do to ensure that students will leave school fully equipped  with knowledge and skills to face life challenges. How would I define good teaching as an instruction that shape good learners? Are academic skills important than good behaviors? Our profession needs us to view every pupil as an account wherein we need to deposit experiences that are truly beneficial and encouraging to him. So do we have to focus more on the academic progress or behavior improvement? 

Among the many challenges that teachers have to confront daily, often the most strenuous is how to deal with pupils who seem disruptive, unreachable and those that are resistant to different learning activities. 

It is really true that a child's academic excellence is never an absolute measure of his intelligence. His behavior actually plays a vital role in academic achievement. And this definitely can affect his ability to learn. Therefore, a teacher's challenge is to think of ways on how to engage with this kind of call.


HOW CAN TEACHERS DO THIS? 
Let us try some approaches that can be of help to us. 

1. Try not to be too much disciplinarian or authoritarian. 
When a student's behavior bring problem, opt to find ways on how to find out what's going on. There is always a reason for misbehavior. Do not control them and always demand obedience. remember that a problematic behavior comes from a number of reasons.
-health problems
-personal or family issues
-academic difficulty
-developmental issue
- and a lot more

 *Love them as they are like your own children.

2. Know their interests and goals. 
Teachers should not forget that motivation starts from within. Develop trusting relationships that help them connect learning to their goals and interests in life. 

*Let them follow their hearts. 

3. See their mistakes as opportunities for learning. Respond properly to pupil's mistakes. Find ways to explain to them that they will learn even when they experience failures. 

*Teach them with patience. 

4. Use positive reinforcement still. 
Do not forget to give encouraging and positive remarks/messages. Children that are given positive reinforcement are most likely to become cooperative, enthusiastic, confident, and inspired. 

*Be persuasive and appreciative 

5. Say sorry when you create mistakes. We are not superma'ams. We create mistakes as well. If there are situations as such, never forget to apologize. 

*Be courteous and respectful to your pupils. 

6. Always teach lessons that involve life's reality.

Teaching is readying your students to face life's challenges in the near future. Having them understand how wonderful what life has to offer even with struggles help them become responsible citizens of the world. 

*Be an inspirer. 

Doing all these consistently can create resilient and responsible students. We may not create a lot of intelligent students but we can always create students with proper values that will definitely aid them to become successful people achieving their goals in life. With these approaches, we build positive relationships with them. These positive relationships stimulate them to learn more. Thinking teachers are caring teachers. Let us all try our best to influence them positively.
REMEMBER, TOGETHER WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE TO THEIR LIVES.

                    A teacher can make or unmake a child.