Self Esteem Teaching Ideas

Teaching Tip for starting up the year:

I believe that a child has to have a feeling of self worth in order to be successful, so I spend the first few weeks of school focusing on developing self esteem. This ties in well with setting class goals and establishing routines because students who feel good about themselves are more willing to work together to make others happy as well.

I use success and power words, bucket filling activities, acts of kindness videos and activities, and my unit on optimism to help set the tone for the year. I have found these to be valuable activities and the time spent on them is well worth it.

Wordles are great for creating I Am posters for the children. These can be created and them used as a cover for a special notebook for their personal planning lessons. I also like to do name acrostics using the power words. It is so rewarding to see the children proudly sharing their posters and name poems with their parents when they come to visit.

I discovered some great doodle art coloring pages to go with my success and power words lessons. Check out http://www.doodle-art-alley.com/ for free coloring pages on many different topics. I chose Words and Quotes for the ones I want for my students. Look at my previous post if you want to know more about my Success and Power Words boards.

Even in Korea, the back to school shopping bug caught me. I didn't buy much because I have to fit it in my suitcase, but I did get a few things that I'd like to share with you. The most important purchase was the material for my success and power words board. See my previous post for more on this.

Here are some more treasures I grabbed. The pencils are going to be used for my name magnets so I know who is out of the room at the bathroom. The little string necklaces are for behavior reward tags. The clothespins are for holding student work, and the bear buttons are going to be turned into magnets.

Here are two new products that I just posted in my TpT store. Click on the pictures to check them out.

I have been working hard at making my blog a place where people can come to find out tips about teaching, share in my classroom adventures, and also get to know more about me and my interests as those impact everything else. I feel that I have held true to these things and I am now claiming the Five Star Blogger.
There will be times when I will share about giveaways, products, and other things happening in blog world, but I want that to be kept to a minimum as that is not why I started this blog. I have learned so much from my visits to other blogs and I have enjoyed meeting bloggers from around the world. My hope is that others who visit my blog will find things of value here and want to come back again to visit.

I know some people are already back at school while others have another few weeks of holiday. I hope everyone is feeling refreshed and ready to meet their new students and I wish you all an awesome 2013-2014 year.