Lizzie

The Happiness Project

HW #1: Reaction Paper

Dr. Tal: Lectures 1-4

In Dr. Tal’s 2nd class lecture (which was my favorite), he talks about his role model Marva Collins (who’s the reason he decided to become a teacher). He talks about her method of teaching and how she encourages her students through individuality and constructive techniques to help build their self-
esteem and self-confidence. She says to her students on their first day of class as well as continuously “ We are going to do a lot of believing in ourselves.” By focusing on her student’s individual strengths and having high realistic expectations, Collins is in fact cultivating resilience and success within her students.

This really spoke to me because just like those students many considered me to be “unteachable” which at a young age could really affect a person’s self-esteem. But looking back and
remembering the times I did thrive, most of it was because I had a teacher who took the time to brake down the material in a way I could understand. So it means a lot to have that support and encouragement, because its very important to have people around to believe in you the way you want to believe in yourself. The punishment Collins gives her students to do when they misbehave, of writing adjectives from a to z that describe themselves and why they are too wonderful to be misbehaving, is an awesome exercise that I wish I had done when I was younger. But its never too late so hears mine... lol

I am amazingly awesome. I am beautifully brilliant. I am courageously caring. I am diligently doting. I am effectively efficient. I am fantastically fabulous. I am greatly generous. I am happily hopeful. I am incredibly interesting. I am joyfully jolly. I am kiss-ably kooky. I am lovably loyal. I am magically marvelous. I am notably nurturing. I am oddly outgoing. I am peacefully patient. I am quaintly quirky. I am refreshingly remarkable. I am simply supportive. I am thankfully talented. I am ultra understanding. I am very valuable. I am wonderfully wise. I am extremely xenodochial (had to look up this word- means hospitable or kindly to strangers). I am youthfully yellow. I am zealously zany.