Activity One = exploration of belief statements

What Do You Think?

Do you agree or disagree?

Life is fair.

Words can hurt.

Police are your friends.

What goes around comes around.

How you act in a crisis shows who you really are.

Love conquers all.

An eye for an eye…

People learn from their mistakes.

You can’t depend on anyone else; you can only depend on yourself.

If you smile long enough, you become happy.

Miracles do happen.

There is one special person for everyone.

Money can’t buy happiness.

Killing is wrong.

Doing what’s right means obeying the law.

Two Sides

1. As I read off a belief from What Do You, if you agree with the statement, go to an “Agree” corner; if you disagree you should go to the “Disagree” side.

2. Write down a response to the belief (anecdote, belief, personal observation)and then post it on the paper on that side. Be sure to write down evidence of the belief in action or an explanation about why you believe the way you do. Be prepared to share for the camera.

3. Repeat this exercise with another belief.

Activity Two = statement for video blog

Personal Writing Prompts For A Video Blog

Choose one or more statements from this page as a prompt for an entry our video blog.

1. Most of us have been in a situation where we made a promise that for one reason or another we were unable to keep.

When were you disappointed because someone made you a promise that they failed to keep? Or when did you break a promise that you made to someone else?

2. We all tend to judge people by their appearances, even though looks can be deceiving.

Have you ever prejudged someone incorrectly based on their appearance or has someone ever prejudged you unfairly based on how you look?

3. All of us are works in progress with a long way to go before we reach our full potential.

In what skill or area are you still working to make progress?

4. Everyone has problems or challenges to overcome.

What obstacles are you proud to have faced and conquered?

5. Our society uses the word hero in many different ways?

How do you define hero, and who is a hero in your life?

6. There is a famous adage: "To err is human, to forgive divine.”

When did you feel divine because you were able to forgive someone for their mistake?

When did someone act divine by forgiving you when you were wrong?

Activity Three = quote response for video blog

Scan these quotations, looking for three different sayings that you have discovered to be true in your own life experiences. Write about these meaningful quotations and be prepared to share your response with a small group of other students.

Cool Quotes for Teens

Each of the following adages appears in a text called Teen Quotes. They are beliefs of both famous and not-so-famous individuals. To which quotation(s) below can you make a text-to-self connection based on your own life experiences?

1. The good or ill of a man lies within his own will. – Epictetus

2. The greatest and most important problems in life are all in a certain sense insoluble. They can never be solved, but only outgrown. – Carl Jung

3. The greatest thing about man is his ability to transcend himself, his ancestry, and his environment and to become what he dreams of being. – Tully C. Knoles

4. The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts... take care that you entertain no notions unsuitable to virtue and reasonable nature. – Marcus Aurelius

5. The life given us by nature is short, but the memory of a life well spent is eternal. – Cicero

6. The love we give away is the only love we keep. – Elbert Hubbard

7. The measure of success is not whether you have a tough problem to deal with, but whether it is the same problem you had last year. – John Foster Dulles

8. The miracle is not to fly in the air, or to walk on the water, but to walk on the earth.

– Chinese Proverb

9. The more you lose yourself in something bigger than yourself, the more energy you will have. – Norman Vincent Peale

10. The only discipline that lasts is self-discipline. – Bum Phillips

Activity Four = Life Lesson video blog

Things I Have Learned About Life

Personal essays are based on ideas—insights we’ve learned based on life experiences. Read the insights expressed by others, and then compose a sentence that expresses one thing you’ve learned about life.

1. I’ve learned that when I wave to people in the country, they stop what they are doing and wave back. – Age 9

2. I’ve learned that if you want to cheer yourself up, you should try cheering someone else up. – Age 14

3. I’ve learned that although it’s hard to admit it, I’m secretly glad my parents are strict with me.

– Age 15

4. I’ve learned that if someone says something unkind about me, I must live so that no one will believe it. – Age 39

5. I’ve learned that there are people who love you dearly but just don’t know how to show it. – Age 42

6. I’ve learned that you can make someone’s day by simply sending them a little note. – Age 44

7. I’ve learned that the greater a person’s sense of guilt, the greater his or her need to cast blame on others. – Age 46

8. I’ve learned that no matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow. – Age 48

9. I’ve learned that regardless of your relationship with your parents, you miss them terribly after they die. – Age 53

10. I’ve learned that making a living is not the same thing as making a life. – Age 58