Since I began The North Star as a way to set the tone for the school year, I have found that I have also changed the way I plan the school year.  While I do spend the summer months reflecting on the past year and organzing for the upcoming year, I don’t quite get the next year set until I have met my new group and find out their plans.  Part of what we do with The North Star is make goals for the new year:  a goal for school, a goal for home, a goal to help the community, a health goal, and the last goal is THE BIG DREAM.  I ask the children, “If you could do anything you wanted, what would it be?”  I teach second graders, and this is a difficult thing, at first, for them to understand – to be able to choose anything. At you might expect, their goals are tied to their interests, but they are also tied to what is happening currently in their lives. It makes me think how important it is to give young children as many positive experiences as we can to help build their dreams!  So, here are some of my current student’s dreams with some ways I can build my year’s lessons and activities around their dreams.  Isn’t it great to be able to have a learning environment based on the learners dreams!

• THE SPORT DREAMS:  I want be a famous gymnast, Major League Baseball player, soccer player, Olympic swimmer, play basketball in the womens’ NBA. I think some of these dreams come from the Olympics this summer.  How can we support children who excel in sports while they are in the classroom?  How about creating a sports newspaper.  Have them teach others some sports moves or share orally what is happening in the sports world to practice oral expression. Share their dreams with the PE teacher. Have them bring in photos and let other children interview them for the Sports Hall of Fame.  There is TONS of math in sports. I have even converted one of our science kits into a week-long “Science CIrcus Camp” with a balance-themed circus performance at the end of the week – one of my favorite parts of the year!
• THE MONEY DREAMS: I want to be rich, have one million dollars. There is some good math here too.  And there are some great fiction stories to be told.  Plus, there are some good life lessons for those who want to be rich – work hard, do your best, what will you do with your money when you have it?  There are some great role models to share, like Milton Hershey.  Get the children thinking now while they are listening!!

Here are some more dreams. How would you use them to teach in your classroom?

• TO STUDY PENGUINS
• TO BE  A ZOOKEEPER
• TO BE FAMOUS FOR SINGING
• TO BE A PINKS DRIVER (racecar)
• TO GO ON A CRUISE TO HAWAII
• TO DO A BACK FLIP ON A SCOOTER
• TO OWN MY OWN HORSE TO RIDE
• TO CLIMB UP A CRATER
• TO GET ONE INCH AWAY FROM A TIGER
• TO BE FRIENDS WITH HANNAH MONTANA AND MILEY CYRUS AND BE A FAMOUS SINGER
• TO LIVE WITH FAIRIES AND HAVE WINGS:  I wasn’t sure whether to allow this as a BIG DREAM.  But then I thought it had good potential for discussion and learning this year.  What do you think?

Have Animationish up and running in our classroom and the students and the teacher are enjoying  it very much.  Hopefully, I will upload a few samples successfuly so you can enjoy our first steps as animators using WiggleDoodleish.  Here goes…  b_fly-21 ,  handwalker ,  heart_1_2 , moon1,  haring_kids The vids were saved as QuickTime animations and have been posted on The Saugus Union School District’s Student Community weblog.  Here are the links to our classroom wiki navigation.pbwiki.com and the Student Community

In a comment to an earlier post it was mentioned that many second grade teachers are noticing that their students aren’t able to identify their “Dream”… or their “Big Dream”.  I’ve noticed the same thing.

I’ve  have asked second grade students (and even first graders) to write their “Dream” on a star, after I’ve read The North Star, and we’ve discussed the story.  After reading the dedication, I ask students what the author meant by a “dream”.  Some kids are confused by the kind of dreams we have at night when sleeping, but others realize the author is talking about something that you want to do some day, or something you want to be some day. 

All in all, how to identify our dream for the future is something that is learned – it’s not an innate ability, and it’s something children can only wrap their brains around when they’re developmentally ready.  Second graders are still very much in the “here and now”.   In other cases, I’ve worked with fifth graders who greatly limited their “Big Dreams” because of their families’ socio-economic status. One boy wouldn’t even let himself consider the possibility of going to college some day because his parents never went to college.  I still encouraged him – saying that for his Dream Star, I wanted him to dream big…  if anything was possible, what would his “Big Dream” be?  It was amazing to see his face light up.

Eventually it occurred to me that it might be helpful to have students identify some of their interests, strengths and talents before trying to identify  their “Big Dream”.  I now start the activity by having students identify the interests of the boy in The North Star, and then, based on his interests (i.e. leaves, nature, animals, floating things, building things, helping others), I ask students to speculate what the boy’s “Big Dream” might be. Students often come up with being a veterinarian, an architect, a park ranger, an animal shelter owner, etc.  Students then each fill out an “Interest, Strengths and Talents” survey, and use their completed survey to help them come up with their “Big Dream”.  This approach has really opened up the “Dream Star” activity in a whole new way – and has become very enlightening to students, to not only realize how many interests, strengths and talents they have, but to then think of a dream they’d never considered before… based on interests they have right here in the “here and now”.

I’m uploading the lesson plan for this “Dream Star” activity that includes the modified “Interests, Strengths and Talents” survey, and the “Star” template (the Star template is also found in the North Star Classroom Resource Guide).  Click here to download the lesson plan PDF.

Here’s to cheering on all our young dreamers!

As I continue to refine my version of the North Star Classroom, I’ve stumbled onto a particular idea that seems to work…

Every year, I’m fortunate to teach my students about the remarkable story of Virginia.  We’ve got a complicated and fascinating history, rich with memorable, unique people from a variety of backgrounds.  Learning who’s who, and what’s what can be a challenge, especially for ten year olds.

That’s why, each time we learn about a new historical person or figure, I ask my students to take a blank constellation (from the North Star Educator Guide) and complete it, using that person’s particular strengths, preferences, experiences, hopes, goals, fears, and/or intelligences.  We spend time talking about what the person must have been like – day to day  – and how he or she did (or didn’t) fit into to surroundings at the time.

It’s interesting to consider which of Gardner’s intelligences Chief Powhatan must have possessed.  It’s enlightening to uncover what hobbies Nat Turner enjoyed.  It’s fascinating to ponder how Rosa Parks’ strengths led to a turn of events that literally changed the world.

The most exciting part of all of this is that my students realize that history is conducted by people no smarter, no braver, and no more capable than my students themselves; by exploring the constellations of the folks we study, they begin to see themselves in a context, and as part of the story.

Maybe one day a former students of mine will be the person kids are studying.  The possibility is enough to keep me going.

Hello, North Star friends!

I’ve heard that some of you are planning to produce a North Star Musical Journey performance at your school this year, so I want to make sure you’re aware of FableVision’s little “North Star Musical Journey” website, which you can find at http://www.fablevision.com/northstar/musical .

If you go to that website, click on the “Performances” button, and you’ll find an interactive map of many North Star Musical Performances that have taken place across the country, and even around the world.  There’s a little write-up about each performance (including two performances that took place at my school in Falmouth, Maine!).  I find it helpful to read about other peformances because it illustrates how simple, or how elaborate, a North Star Musical production can be, not to mention you might find some helpful ideas.  However, you’ll also see that each performance, from school to school, and from state to state, is very different and unique too – which is, of course, very “North Star!”

One final note: the map and list of performances you find on the “Performances” page doesn’t include ALL the North Star Musical Journey performances that have taken place to date.  If your school or community has performed a production of The North Star Musical Journey performance and it’s not listed on the NSMJ website, please post about it here in the “comments”, and FableVision will add it to the map!  I think the more we share, the more we inspire others… and it really is a wonderfully inspiring musical, regardless of how big or small your production.

Maribeth

Fellow Voyagers,

This is my first blog entry as a “writer” and an invitation to visit and post comments on my students’ wiki at http://navigation.pbwiki.com/ .

For several years, my students and I created and regularly updated a North Star themed website using Netscape Navigator that was effective…Yet certainly dated and time consuming. Each year, I spent a great deal of time teaching students how to understand HTML and where to save information on the computer used to publish the page.
Last year, a colleague shared the website Peanut Butter Wiki with me and helped set up my classroom site. Ever since, it has become integral aspect of my home-school communication and a great way to share my students’ work with the entire world.

Wiki is a Pacific Islander term meaning “quick” and setting up a classroom wiki can be as quick as making a peanut butter sandwich. Hence the name Peanut Butter Wiki (PB Wiki). What’s great about PB Wiki is that updates to the site can be made at any computer by anyone who has password privileges. My students and I now update the page at school and at home nearly every day, and parents see and read about our classroom’s journey whenever they wish.

Check out navigation.pbwiki.com or go to the site http://pbwiki.com and start your classroom site today.
Cheers,
Kevin

It’s almost the end of August, and those of you who haven’t started school yet are probably preparing!

Are you using the North Star Approach this fall?  Now’s the time to share your plans, or other sites where you find resources.  How did you, or how will you start off the year?

(In related news, here’s an interesting suggestion for how to develop a better budget to support field trips for hands-on learning experiences!)