Experience Albania: Travel, Pictures, History, Culture

My favorite part about being a teacher is this: I get to share the things I like most about life with my students. The opportunity to share the power of writing, the power of expressing yourself and your ideas on paper with classrooms full of high school students is awesome. Combined with the fact that they’re thinking, discussing, and writing in English, which is the second – sometimes third – language they’ve learned. Therefore, these students experience very unique and beneficial moments of self- discovery via writing about their lives in English.
At least this is my hope!

The writing samples that you’ll read below are what I see as positive proof of something well beyond them improving their English writing skills. I see that these students are willing and ready to take on the responsibilities that await them in their futures. They have just a semester to go until they graduate. I want them reflecting and thinking about what’s going on, what’s going to change, and where they want to go.
My students spent the first five minutes of class the other week reacting to Gandhi’s famous words, ‘Be the change you wish to see in the world.’
Below are my favorite sentences from each of their responses.

-Don’t think that you cannot change yourself, because the power you have is very big. It is so big you cannot imagine.
-Do different things from the others – show other people that you have changed.
-How can we ask things from others if we don’t first do it ourselves?
-Everyone loves to change in a good way. Everyone should strive to do only good things.
-If you decide to be different, the things around you will change.
-I can’t change the world if I don’t change myself.
-Don’t expect others to do something for you – make the changes yourself.
-I can say only three words: ‘Me, myself, and I.’
-We are the future of the world. If we want to live in peace we should first change ourselves.
-I want to change things for myself, then to change things for the world.
-If we notice that something wrong or bad is happening, we must not be passive but react.
-The world is so big that you cannot change the others without changing yourself.
-Everything will go in the right direction if we first look at what we’re doing.
-Why shouldn’t we be the first to change and then make a good impact on other people?
-Before you do something you must know what you want to do, what you want to happen.
-It’s difficult, but together as young people we can create a better and more peaceful world.
-We must remember the power of looking at the world with another point of view.
-It’s up to you to change, it’s up to you to make an impact on the world.