Principles of Life

This week in my classes we were discussing "Principles of Life". This is a wonderful chapter in our book that I love to teach. I believe it is important for everyone to decide what principles of life will guide them to attain their dreams and to live a good and happy life. It was very interesting and fun teaching this topic to my students. They are all looking for something to hold on to and to help them live better lives.

I gave them to some of the principles of life that I live by. The three were mistakes, honesty, and positive attitude.

No one likes to make mistakes, but we all make them. I was hoping to help them to understand that it is okay to make mistakes and we can learn from them. To teach them honesty, we played "Two truths and a lie". They really liked playing this game to see if they could guess the sentence that was a lie.

The last principle was positive attitude. Most of us have a hard time having a positive attitude all the time. I am working on it and do very well most of the time. Many of my students have a hard time understanding this concept, so I really want to teach them ways to become positive. Choose to be happy, find more things to smile about, and surround yourself with happy people are some things we can do.

We also listened to a passage about a woman who learned from one of her high school teachers about how to have a more positive attitude. As we discussed the passage, I also encouraged my students to do what the woman's teacher told them to do. She told them to find something beautiful to notice every day. It did not have to be something they saw, but could be a scent or the sound of a breeze. I encouraged my students to do this, to use all of their five senses to notice beautiful things or things that make them happy every day.

So I did the same thing. I figured I could be an example for my students. I took pictures and put them on WeChat, so my students could see them. If you are feeling down and want to have a more positive attitude, I would also encourage you to take the time to notice something beautiful everyday.

Here are my beautiful things that I noticed this week.

I noticed the beauty of the ocean, the sound of the waves and the feel of the sun on my face. I was trying to use my other senses, not just sight.