Affirmations

by Sarah Hobson

Affirm yourself every day, and who knows what you can accomplish -- as a teacher, a student, and a valuable member of your community.

Many of us are fortunate to have families, teachers, and others in the community who offer us support as we grow and develop self-esteem, positive self-images, and belief in our abilities to learn and achieve. However, I have found that the majority of students in my GED classes have not been as fortunate. They have failed in school and not been able to find well-paying and satisfying employment. Their families have often not been able or willing to give them the support they needed; nor have they encouraged them and nurtured them so that they were able to develop a strong belief system in either the value of learning and in their ability to learn.

Therefore, I have learned that one of the most important components of the GED class is the development within each student of a sense of self-worth, self-esteem, belief in their abilities, and a confidence that life can offer them more than they thought was available to them. They can learn and achieve academically, they can obtain good jobs, and they can develop a sense of self so that they will be able to establish positive personal relationships with others in their families and within the community.

While the development of self-worth is an integral part of each lesson plan and each contact between teacher and student, I find that it is also very important to make this a lesson in itself. So, my students write affirmations for themselves. Before they write their own affirmations, we study the meaning of the words "affirm" and "affirmation" by reading the dictionary definition and discussing this. Then, each student writes his/her individual affirmation. Some are as simple as, "I can do it. I can get my GED." Others write paragraphs about their goals or a poem about how they feel about learning and themselves. When this task is completed, each student is invited to share his/her affirmation with the class. After each person finishes, the class applauds and cheers in support of that individual. We state: "(Student's Name), we believe in you. You can do it." As a teacher, I also write an affirmation stating my belief in the class, how they work together to help each other, and how they are establishing a support system within their community. In this way, they also receive an affirmation as a group.

The verbal recognition by the class is loud, energetic, and enthusiastic. It is given at the end of the class to end the day on a positive note. Then, as the students leave for the day, I, as their teacher, encourage and reinforce their affirmations. To extend this project, some of the affirmations have been incorporated into several books the class has published. The publication of these affirmations serve as inspiration to others and further enhance the student authors' self-esteem as they are able to see their affirmations in print. Finally, the students are encouraged to place their written affirmations somewhere in their rooms so that they can turn to them whenever they begin to doubt themselves and their abilities to achieve the goals they have established for themselves.

The fact that this lesson has been well received was brought home to me recently when I received a Valentine's Day card from a former student. In this card she wrote, " I bet you are surprised that I'm writing you. Did you think I would forget you? How could I forget the one person besides my mother who ever believed in me? Thank you for all you did for me." The best thing about reading this was that I know the student was affirmed personally. She now believes in herself and her abilities to learn. While in my class, she studied and passed the GED Test. I am very proud of her, and she is proud of herself! She has applied to a community college where her newly acquired self-esteem and sense of self-worth will help sustain her as she works to achieve her future goals.

Affirm yourself every day, and who knows what you can accomplish -- as a teacher, a student, and a valuable member of your community.