On January 25th, I began the process of teaching 8th graders how to write a “This I Believe” essay in 350-500 words. It seemed like a simple task until I realized the magnitude of what I was asking them to discover about themselves, in addition to being able to share that information with me. Although I can’t share the essays with you, I have created a video with true belief statements extracted from the original pieces. I hope this will inspire you to ask yourself what you believe in…go ahead…ask your students, too!
These are the original slides that we created the video from:
I believe that our 8th graders have grown up and matured!
I believe that they will make a difference in this world.
I believe that they are learning when they don’t seem like it…
I believe in what we do every day!
Thanks for your response, Yoon. You made my heart smile today! I’m so proud of them, what they are capable of, and what they will become in the future. We are lucky to work with such great kids!
I believe that my child has been truly blessed to have such wonderful teachers in his life. I believe that he will go on to great things because of what he has learned in this great school.
Thanks for your response, Jenn. It has been a pleasure teaching your son for the past three years. Did you guess which slide was his? Don’t post it on here…I’m being very mysterious with the kids about the owners of the slides! ;O)
Nope, I did not guess correctly although I did narrow it down to two. I can’t believe that such a simple thing years ago is still with him today.
[...] I Believe: A personal belief statement essay in 350-500 words. Click here to view the entire [...]
[...] my students to write about their hopes and dreams, their identity, where they are from, what they believe, who makes a difference to them, and I push them to think about what is right, tolerance and [...]