“Education is not filing a bucket but

lighting a fire”

William Butler Yeats

The Fire

“A person only learns in two ways, one by reading, and the

other by association with smarter people”

Will Rodgers

Learning

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.

Standards

Learning

Performance Time

S0S1

S2

Learning is all about Personal Growth!

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 identity of girl students.

• 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 one’s 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 self-expression, 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 girl’s 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 • Offer assistance to others

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.   • Teach the student to practice making positive self-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.

Do’s• 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.

Do’s

• Help them develop tolerance for normal level of frustration.

• Provide opportunities to use their talent, so that they experience a sense of accomplishment.

Do’s

Help young girls develop short-term, achievable goals and praise them

when they succeed.

Do’s• 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.

5. Let them settle their own disputes between siblings and friends.

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 everyone’s 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 doesn’t 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 experience-orientated 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.