1. Dream Big! 

 Have you ever met a person that always searched for the next, big idea? One might call this type of personality the “big dreamer”. The individual believes that they will score an A+ on every Math quizzes, or save a lot of money for the next, most popular video game. To dream big is to believe that one can achieve the impossible. A student can enhance that large research paper by adding their own creative, imagery style. Depending on a subject of a class history project, the student can collect novels on how the world languages started. One can also enhance an art class project, by finding items in their home, which are not being used, and make a dinosaur village, or a start a flower, photo collage. One can always “dream big” at any age. 

 2. Think Positive! 

 As a student or tutor, there are a lot of things that we like to do. One has their school, work, and leisure life each day. After school and work, a person might have homework, go to an extracurricular activity, or visit their grandparents. Do you wonder what would happen to a person’s daily schedule, if they did not stay positive? Let’s say that you and your classmates come to school one day. You all walk into the classroom on time, possible 8 AM. All students are chatting and talking to each other about the previous weekend. The conversations that are heard around the classroom could be the planning of a school dance. In twenty minutes, each student notice that the teacher is not seated at his/ her desk. The classroom gets quieter, and everyone wonders if there will be a substitute teacher for the day. After many minutes later, the teacher walks into the classroom but seems different from the previous day. She slowly sits at her desk and does not say a word to the class. Her facial expressions seem tired, and she is looking out of sorts. What would you do to make your teacher smile? This teacher took the class on many field trips during the school year and canceled one surprised pop quiz. What are some ways that the students could make their teacher happy or positive? 

 3. Focus on Strengths! 

 Take a moment to think about who is your favorite television hero? Does this superhero have the mental or physical strength? What makes this hero different from all the other heroes in the movie or book? If you had the strength of this person, how would you use your talents? Are there things in this superhero that you wish was more creative, or used better judgment? Strength is “the quality or state of being strong: capacity for exertion or endurance, a power to resist force: solidity, toughness, or power of resisting attack” according to Merriam Webster, 2018. Most people express strength in many different ways. One can be strong enough to lift 100 lbs of weight at a gym, without too much exertion. Some people have a large level of mental strength to play a game of chess for five hours. The other person could have a large amount of physical strength for climbing six flights of stairs, at a fast pace. Answer the stated questions above, and make a list of your strengths. Students that have unique strengths in different things can dream much bigger. 

 4. Take a Stand! 

 Your best friend tells you at school that he found an abandoned puppy. He took pictures of the puppy with his phone. The puppy is a cute, brown, 2-month-old Lab, with a collar, but no name tag. You and your friend are chatting about the puppy after school. The next day, your friend comes to school and tells you that some strange person came to his home, and demanded that the puppy belonged to them. Your hopes of adopting the puppy are shattered, and you are upset. The two of you go to the local dog shelter and look for another puppy. However, as the week goes on, you cannot stop thinking about the 2-month-old Lab. The next week, the abandoned puppy wanders up to your friend’s home. Your friend and his mother take the puppy to a local animal shelter and try to obtain information concerning the supposed puppy owner. After being told by your friend that the puppy does not belong to a person, you quickly want the chance to adopt the young Lab. You are then told that it is a possibility if the puppy is not adopted in so many weeks, it may be euthanized. Your first thought is to tell your parents about the puppy, run to the animal shelter. The next day, your parents drive you to the shelter, and the puppy is on the list for being euthanized early, because of a health problem, which might be expensive to reverse. Your parents are very doubtful that they can afford the medical procedure, and tell you that the puppy cannot go home with you. What do you do? How will you take a stand, stay positive, and believe your dreams of owning a puppy?

 Reference Merriam Webster. (2018). Definition of Strength. Retrieved on: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/strength