COURAGE

1. I feel comfortable expressing myself –

a. At home – yes

b. At school – sometimes

c. With best friends – yes

d. In front of a crowd – yes

2. I feel comfortable stating my point of view

a. At home – yes

b. At school – yes

c. With best friends – yes

d. In front of a crowd – depends

3. I feel that my opinion matters

a. At home – yes

b. At school – sometimes

c. With best friends – yes

d. In front of a crowd – not so much

4. I feel comfortable disagreeing

a. At home – yes

b. At school – yes

c. With best friends – yes

d. In front of a crowd – someone would have to agree with my point of view

5. In your community, does anything prevent you from expressing yourself? If yes, what? What can you do about those obstacles?

a. At home – Nothing prevents me from expressing myself

b. At school – Yes, because I care what everyone thinks, I can learn not to care and to just be me

c. With best friends – Not at all

d. In front of a crowd – Yes because of nerves – learn how to control nerves and use them

6. Think about how you communicate. Are you passive, aggressive, or assertive? Is your communication style effective in getting your voice heard?

a. I am a little aggressive because I use sarcasm but I’m mostly assertive. Being assertive is effective in getting my voice heard.

***Journal***

7. Write a scenario to optimize your voice – and improve your communications

a. Real life scenario – As I just moved home, I’ve had a lot of stress in my life and adapting to a new school and making new friends while missing my old friends and my mom being away from home 5 thousand miles away. One day on a particularly hard day, my dad found me crying in my room and this is the conversation we had.

Last Conversation:	New Scenario
He said: Why are you crying? I said: Because I all my really good friends are over in London and I don’t have a really good friend here to talk to. He said: Well I know its hard but I think you need to make more effort to make friends here. I said: Humph.	He said: Why are you crying? I said: Because I’m having a rough time making friends here and I miss all of my friends I London. He said: I know its hard but I think you need to make more effort to make friends here. I said: I am making an effort to make friends here.  I do have friends here, It’s just that I don’t have a BEST BEST friend here and it makes me sad.
Outcome: It made me more mad and made me cry more.	New Outcome: I feel like I got everything out of my system
Modes of communication used: Talking/ crying	Modes of communication used: talking and understanding

8. Think of a leader you admire. How does she make her voice heard?

a. Taylor Swift. She makes her voice heard by writing songs and talking about them. She relates to girls and makes them feel a part of something and proud to be a girl.