This Teacher Puts Her Cute Kids on a Pedestal
Anyanna Philipps is no ordinary teacher. She’s an adored kindergarten educator and a mom of three for whom teaching is a calling. She believes that self-esteem and strong relationships are the real building blocks of educational development and the route to self-actualization in life. And Philipps, aka Cool Miss P, continues to win hearts on social media, as well as in the classroom, with millions of views on TikTok and Instagram.
A teacher ‘thriving in her purpose’
And Phillips, from Georgia, in the US, is on a mission to instil self-respect into each and every one of her cute charges. She has hung a mirror on her classroom door so her children can practice daily “mirror affirmations” as she enthusiastically encourages them, just as she does with her own young kids at home every single day, to “be the best that you can be.”
Since she was young, Philipps was told by people around her that her natural interactions with children would make her a great teacher one day. She was also motivated by several of her own inspiring teachers growing up.
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Then a serious accident last year and the insights and gratitude for living that it brought her, only motivated her more to want to bring joy into her classroom, making sure that her students are happy by putting her heart into nurturing the teacher-student bond.
As she shares on one of her Instagram posts: “I am THRIVING in my purpose… It has almost been a year since I suffered a near fatal accident. I am grateful to still be able. I am the mother of Aniyah, Deuce, and Tyson. I am the teacher of so many more, working to impact and inspire, elevate and empower all of these precious little lives.”
The value of encouragement on repeat
Several people in the spotlight have emphasized how believing in oneself is crucial to success in life. Bruce Lee was one of them, as Firstpost reports, and articles regularly ask celebrities to share their own journeys to self-belief, including this offering from London’s Capital radio station platform titled “These 5 Celebs Talk Confidence – From Olivia Rodrigo to Louis Tomlinson.”
Affirmations are positive statements that have become popular in helping people overcome challenges and “self-sabotaging” thoughts. Or as Positive Psychology puts it, “they are positive phrases or statements used to challenge negative or unhelpful thoughts.”
Research including this study analyzing brain activity, supports their value in elevating self-worth and self-competence while lowering stress levels.
As any parent will tell you, encouragement on repeat helps kids bloom. And affirmations for kids are increasingly welcomed for their positive power in the classroom as well as at home. For young kids, positive affirmations can help make them feel empowered to do more “big kid” things and so handle challenges with panache. They can also help boost their self-esteem to make them more resilient to bullying and other negative life situations.
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As Femina reports, positive affirmations for kids can be seen as tools that children can use to support themselves. Zing, a kids’ enrichment program explains on its website that “Positive affirmations help kids to gain confidence, contribute to a growth mindset, and help kids to truly believe in themselves.”
Cool Miss P puts this outlook into action each and every school day to inspire all her young charges. So it’s not surprising that so many people viewing her posts leave comments saying that the world needs more teachers like her.
