March 3, 2025
Daily Peace Action: Positive Affirmations
As part of our Thoughtful Thursday activities
Step 1: Discuss positive self-talk and affirmations. Students shared background knowledge and experiences.
Step 2: We watched A Pep Talk from Kid President to You on YouTube. Our students love Kid President and this was a way for us to open up conversation about what a pep talk is and how important it is to life each other up.
Step 3: Students chose a pre-written affirmation or wrote one themselves and created a mini poster. Students put their mini-posters outside in the hallway.
This was a successful exercise! Students were very excited and proud of their posters. Students who are not usually very engaged with activities like this were motivated and worked with their table groups to share materials so that their posters stood out.
Lesson Reflection
The standout information that I came away with during this lesson was the role of understanding willingness and ability when building relationships with students.
Willing - interest and motivation, readiness in forming relationships
Able - Skills, developmental levels
It was interesting to apply the willing/able model to specific examples of relationships. Certain struggles might highlight that a student is willing to do something but lacks the ability. Understanding which of these might be lacking can help us as teachers know how to adjust the approach to building a relationship with that student in order to encourage them or guide them to success.
I made some notes as the discussion progressed that might apply to former or current students:
Students who are willing to do certain tasks but are not able might need to work on small goals to build up capacity and confidence.
Students who are able, but unwilling or not confident might need some realtionship building to boost confidence in their abilities.
Students who are both unwilling and unable may need a variety of needs to be met. Maybe they are unwilling because they are embarrassed by their lack of ability. Responding to the needs of students like this is important because healthy and trusting relationships can build student confidence.
Students who are both willing and able also need positive reinforcement and feedback! Relationships are important to all students!
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