Start the School Year by “Awakening Your Dreamers” — from edutopia.org by Suzie Boss
Excerpt (emphasis DSC):
When your students return to the classroom this fall, how many will bring along the interests, talents, and dreams that inspired or delighted them over the summer months? Will they see any connection between school assignments and their own passions?
Bernajean Porter (@bernajeanporter), a longtime advocate of digital storytelling and engaged learning, has a suggestion to get the year off to a good start: “What if your first project was about getting to know the hopes and dreams and talents of your kids?” By investing time to build a positive classroom culture, while also introducing project-based learning practices, you’ll set the stage for more meaningful inquiry experiences all year long.
Imagination Plus Research
Porter has developed and field-tested a classroom resource called, I-imagine: Taking MY Place in the World that guides students on a multimedia journey into their own future. After a series of guided writing and reflection exercises, students eventually produce “vision videos” in which they star as protagonists of the lives they are living, 20 years into the future.
From DSC:
Along these lines of trying to figure out what one’s passions, gifts, and talents are — as well as seeing the needs of the world around us — I recently read a book entitled, “Visions of Vocation: Common Grace for the Common Good.” One of the key questions from that book is:
Knowing what you know about yourself and the world, having read what you’ve read, having seen what you’ve seen, what are you going to do?
Here are some of my notes from that book, in case you know of someone who is trying to ascertain their purpose in this world…someone who is trying to find out more about their calling. It’s a good book, prompting deep reflection.
