Reflection on the video by Dewitt Jones, "Celebrate What's Right with the World"

As a teacher and a leader, I need to believe my vision of education first and then I’ll see it.  Dewitt Jones says, “You won’t see it until you believe it.”  Spending these past years learning and growing in my education has helped me establish and fine tune what I believe and now I have a clearer vision when I come to school.  In the beginning of my education I wrote of feelings of frustration that I experienced with students throughout the day.  I would feel so ineffective at times that I had thoughts of quitting my profession.  Once my vision of my students began to change, for example, that both genders have unique ways of learning and behaving, I could begin to plan more effectively for those differences.   I began to see the noted differences and changed my vision, I looked at them as strengths rather than weaknesses in the students.  I began to see the differences on a daily basis.  My frustrations gradually left me and contentment and peace settled into my daily teaching routines.  I was changing my perception and was becoming open to who they were as students rather than who I wanted them to be.  Now I am open to the possibilities that each student brings to my classroom.  I am confident that I will find what is right with each student rather than what is wrong with them.  I don’t have to focus on all the things that they can’t do but look at what they can do.  I am becoming more present to who they are as little people.  I am putting it all out there now with them and waiting to be open to how they grow and change.  I trust that they will take in what they need and will grow accordingly.