Belief

9.14.10 By José Valenzuela

Last school year is definitely in the past.

This school year, among the renewed hope, motivation, and enthusiasm, comes something else: belief.

The physics teacher at my school, who I went to often in those first months of intense struggle last year, told me to just believe. He said, “You have to believe the ‘Do Now’ will be a silent activity. You have to believe your students can prosper and behave according to your classroom procedures. The students can sense when you don’t truly believe.”

There’s a whole lot of truth in that statement. This year has started with that belief that I am capable and confident of my abilities to engage students, teach them difficult content, and help them to feel successful and achieve their goals. Students this year are walking into my classroom knowing - and believing - that I have my - pardon my French - s*** together. With belief comes high expectations, and with those high expectations comes high motivation, high inspiration, and high success. These are the building blocks of my second year of teaching - since BTR.

And not all was lost last year. Whether it was what my former students have told my current batch of 8th and 9th graders about me and my class - it’s a hard class, but you will learn and have fun - or whether it has been talking to those former students to find that they feel prepared for high school history because of the things I taught them last year - Mr. V, we’ve already been talking about the three branches of government, and I have all the answers! - well I do think my students have something to believe in this year.

And so do I.