Education is not filing a bucket but lighting a fire William Butler Yeats

The Fire
Learning
A person only learns in two ways, one by reading, and the other by association with smarter people

Will Rodgers

What is Learning?
Learning is a behavior that can influence our personal growth as individuals and as a community. Each individual has his or her individual path to sculpting and unlocking their potential, beginning with their hereditary roots and their learning behavior.

Learning
Is about improvement of the mind as we accumulate and enhance data, information, knowledge, understanding, know-how and wisdom as we live life and gain experience.

Learning is all about Personal Growth!

Learning

Standards

S2

S1 S0
Performance Time

Results

SESSION - PURPOSE
Define the concept of self identity for girl students.

Identify the factors that contribute to positive self identity formation.

Suggest practical ways of increasing the positive self

 When young girls have positive conceptions about themselves both as persons and students, attachment and commitment to school, college and successful academic performance will be more likely outcomes.

How is self identity formed

Self identity if formed through interactions with environment and interpretations of interactions. In general four key influences on the development of the ones identity are: Culture and Society Family. Peers and College and work environment.

Culture and society

Identity is culturally bound as individuals make choices about their careers, values, and relationships within a preordained cultural context. Factors such as societal norms, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and gender are explained as influencing how one proceeds.

Family
Families influence identity formation particularly when adolescence is reached and cognitive maturation facilitates decision-making processes. In families, adolescents learn how to develop their own points of view, they develop attitudes about selfexpression, and a sense of self develops. These processes are dependent upon good communication between parents and the adolescent.

Peers
Peers allow adolescents to see themselves reflected and to decide whether to reject or accept the image that is projected.

College and work environments.

College and work environments allow people to learn about options regarding future work goals, and to learn about values and relationships. Identities are shaped also in response to social and academic pressures of school, or to situated practices in classrooms.

Factors affecting a girls Self Respect:

How much the girl feels wanted, appreciated and loved
How the girl sees herself, often built from what parents, teachers and those close say

Her sense of achievement

How the girl relates to others

A STUDENT WITH HIGH SELF- RESPECT WILL BE ABLE TO

Act independently Assume responsibility Take pride in her accomplishments Tolerate frustration Attempt new tasks and challenges Handle positive and negative emotions

A STUDENT WITH LOW SELF- RESPECT WILL

Avoid trying new things Feel unloved and unwanted Blame others for her own shortcomings Be unable to tolerate a normal level of frustration Put down her own talents and abilities Be easily influenced

LOW SELF RESPECT SYMPTOMS

Inability to accept compliments Verbalization of self-disparaging remarks Avoiding contact with adults and peers Excessively seeking to please or receive attention and praise from adults and/or peers

LOW SELF RESPECT SYMPTOMS

Inability to identify or accept her positive traits or talents. Fear of rejection by others, especially in the peer group Acting out in negative ways that are quite obviously attention seeking Difficulty saying no to others.

LOW SELF RESPECT SYMPTOMS

Close to new experiences.
Inability to work in team. Inability to accept criticism.

Here are some suggestions to keep in mind.

When you feel good about a student, mention it to her.

Be generous with praise.

student to positive self-

Teach the practice making statements.

First few steps

Strength Weakness Inventory.
Help them learn more about who they are; recognize their personal style, values, and needs. Forgive them and teach them to forgive themselves.

Remember
Every one is unique. Let her know that. Let her be proud of that.

The next most important step

Give a progressive picture of themselves to them.

Dos
Give them choices encourage them to take their decisions.

Project criticism as scope of improvement.

Deemphasize importance of appearance at the same time give assurance especially to girls about their looks.

Dos
Help them develop tolerance for normal level of frustration.
Provide opportunities to use their talent, so that they experience a sense of accomplishment.

Dos
Help young girls develop short-term, achievable goals and praise them when they succeed.

Dos
Help young girls learn to deal with stress and to feel in control of their emotions when they are under pressure.

Use discipline that is firm but not coercive (do not bully or shame adolescents or withhold age-appropriate freedoms).

Ten additional steps you can take to help a girl student develop a positive self-image:
1.Teach her to change their demands to preferences. Point out to her that there is no reason they must get everything they want and that they need not feel angry either. Encourage them to work against anger by setting a good example and by reinforcing them when they display appropriate irritation rather than anger

2. Encourage them to ask for what they want assertively; pointing out that there is no guarantee that they will get it. Reinforce them for asking and avoid
anticipating their desires.

3.

Let them know they create and are responsible for any feeling they experience. Likewise, they are not responsible for others' feelings. Avoid blaming children for how you feel.

4.

Encourage them to develop hobbies and interests which give them pleasure and which they can pursue independently.
Let them settle their own disputes between siblings and friends.

5.

6.

Help them develop "tease tolerance" by pointing out that some teasing can't hurt. Help them learn to cope with teasing by ignoring it while using positive self-talk such as "names can never hurt me," "teases have no power over me," and "if I can resist this ease, then I'm building emotional muscle."

7.

STRATEGIES
The strategies will be better understood if the content to be discussed with students is included. The basic content is composed of eight sections. They are:

A. People

This section deals with the likenesses and the differences between people. It includes a discussion of environment and of the common needs of all people.

B. Emotions
Here we take a look at a wide range of human feelings and define each. Some emotions to discuss are sadness, happiness, anger, embarrassment, anxiety, nervousness, love, hate, and joy. A class discussion of each emotion could include a sharing of everyones experience with that emotion. Students will be encouraged to discuss what makes them, for example, sad, what they do about it, and the effects, positive or negative, of what they do about it.

C. Attitudes

Students have often been told that they have attitudes. Discuss what this means. Discuss negative and positive attitudes.

D. A Look At Ourselves
This involves an identification of emotions and gaining an insight of what makes me tick. Also, what is it that makes me feel as I do (happy, sad, afraid)? Everyone should be encouraged to learn what they like, and dislike about themselves. This is part of an ongoing search to learn who we are.

E. Looking At Others Students should begin questioning themselves on how they pick their friends, what qualities they like, dislike in others. There should be a discovering of why people act in certain ways. Role playing, which will be discussed later, can be a great aid in understanding this.

F. Values
Here a discussion of just what a value is should be included. Children should begin to see how values are formed. What are some family values? Different cultures encourage different values. The child should begin to see that different environmental situations or family concerns will result in the formation of different values.

G. Value Clarification

The student should begin to recognize her own values. Not ones that the college says she should have but ones she feels comfortable with. With an understanding of what is important, choices and alternatives will be put in better light.

H. Helping Others
After gaining insight into themselves students are in a better position to reach out to others. This has repercussions in their family environment, in the classroom, and in society in general. Students should learn that many feelings are common to all of us. If name-calling hurts one child then that child will understand that it hurts another and that revenge doesnt solve anything. Relating to others and communication skills also should be discussed at this time.

 The approach to the content should be ongoing and spiraling. You can come back to sections to a deeper degree again and again. It is also an experienceorientated matter instead of textbook orientated.

The particular strategies that will be discussed fall into four basic areas: Discussions, Role Playing, Independent Work, and Group Exercises or Activities.

Conclusion
Hope is desire with the expectation of obtaining what is desired. It is my hope that the outlined strategies help teachers to see girl students as gifts first, to see more of who the children are and less of who they are not, and to communicate an unconditional love and care regardless of the children's performances. I also hope teachers know that our student's very best does not require perfection, and recognize that affirmation and acceptance precede any attempt to foster growth within our children.

CONCLUSION
From this foundation teachers help children move mountains with motivation and simultaneously be satisfied with their present place on the mountain. They encourage children to embrace their abilities and inabilities by reinforcing the thought that through weakness we gain strength. Further, I hope teachers replace their thoughts of "you can't" with "you can" and treat children as if they already are what they could be.