A few weeks ago Maribeth wrote about the challenge of getting children to dream big.  This is my second year of working with the North Star in my second grade classroom.  This year I was more prepared to help the children understand what it means to “dream big,” and I was very pleased with the results.

Here are some of our BIG DREAMS for the year.

• to be an Olympic gymnast
• to go to Hawaii and live on a boat
• to dig a giant hole
• to own a jewelry store
• to make the biggest cookie in the world
• to go to all the places listed in the book, The 1000 Places to See Before You Die 
• to work at a zoo
• to go to Cuba
• to be the most famous baseball player ever
• to have lots of friends

The wonderful thing that happened after the wonderful thing of discussing dreams is that I discovered there are numerous lessons and activities I can generate based on their dreams (who knew!!)  For example, I was able to purchase the 1,000 places book and have it in our classroom library.  I have observed the child whose dream it was to go to these places looking through the book and sharing the places with other children – instant geography lessons upon which I can build.  I found a book about two children who wanted to dig a giant hole and gave it to the child with the giant hole dream – instant reading motivation.  I happened to have saved a story one of my former students wrote about a giant cookie.  I was able to share that with the giant cookie child.  I would like to have the two children correspond.  The possibilities go on, and I feel like I have gotten to know the children in a different way because they have been able to share.  And, their big dreams are all such fantastic story starters I am thinking of using them for a writing project.

We have just begun posting our Featured Journeys, which show the goals, including the big dream, of three students at a time on one of our classroom bulletin boards.  It is a time for those children to reflect on their year-long goals and for the class to see what their classmates’ journeys look like this year.  Those who are featured also choose a motivation PHR poster that they think would benefit themselves or the classroom at the time they are being featured.  (They are usually right on with their choices.)  I am hoping to take the big dreams and make them part of our learning in a special way as those children are being featured for a few weeks.

At the end of the year it will be interesting to see if the children have developed other big dreams or if they have kept their original dreams.  I’ll keep you posted…

With all the news of dangerous toys from China, I am hoping families are thinking of a great alternative. BOOKS. I was interviewed this week by Boston radio station, WBZ1030, about ways to foster reading at home. An obvious way to inspire young readers is to let them see YOU reading. Choose books that connect to your “North Star.” Talk about the book and how it inspires new thoughts, new ideas, new inspiration for your journey. This holiday, make sure that books are on your list for kids of all ages. Choosing a perfect book requires some good “North Star thinking.” Get your gift recipient pictured in your mind and then imagine them doing what they love, or what they would love to be able to do or do more of — then think of a book with that theme!

Happy Holidays! — Peter

For the last week or so I have been PodCasting my students preparing to present “The North Star Musical.” If you would like to listen to the work in progress, type North Tama into iTunes music store and choose an elementary section. Each class (and the piano player) will be perfecting the songs as the weeks continue. One thing I have noticed is that listening to the sound of children singing can brighten the mood…..even if they are the kids I see all week long, there is something about kids singing songs of hope and inspiration that makes even the crabbiest music teacher, happier.

http://www.boston.com/ae/books/articles/2007/11/12/make_way_for_rose/

Here’s a fun article that appeared in the Boston Globe today – the online version doesn’t have all the wonderful pictures and art, but is a good read.  It appears on the front page of the Living/Arts Section – Nov 12.

Thanks to Bella English for “getting it” – and helping us spread the word about our mission to tell “stories that matter, stories that move!”

– Paul Reynolds

I love asking kids that. Grown up kids too. It gets a different kind of response than “What do you want to be when you grow up?”

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!

For months Bostonians, New Englanders, folks from all over the US and the world have been glued to the various media outlets watching the Red Sox become the 2007 World Series Champions.

What draws and motivates millions of fans to partake in this 8 month love affair from spring training to the World Series? Is it the players, the game, a sense of pride, the smell of popcorn and peanuts, Fenway Franks, getting free furniture if you bought before a certain date, ice cold beer in plastic cups, and a great manager like Terry Francona who believed in all his players, even when some of them were challenged?

What makes people want to be part of Red Sox Nation? I think its many things, but perhaps most important is the sense of belonging to a community ~ a community of believers and dreamers. Simply put…The Red Sox love their fans, the fans love their Red Sox. For the Red Sox and its faithful…its all about hard work, creating, dreaming, navigating, encouraging, providing opportunities, taking risks, and celebrating as a team.

Reminds me of FableVision Nation…

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.

One of the things I love about teaching music is the way you can do creative things! I currently have third graders writing their own group song. The lyrics are done, now they have to learn enough about notes and rhythm to write the rest!

One thing I do every year with second grade is to divide a song into short sections, type them on a paper for each kid, and then have them color what they think his or her part of the song would look like. They are always great to look at. Then I scan the pictures, put them in PowerPoint, record the class signing the song, and voila, they have a music video! I think this could be used for parts of a story as well as songs. Kids love it and they are SO proud of the creation.

Finally, using Stationery Studio, I print out animal templates. I have the kids write everything they can think about the animal on the back of the paper, and then make two or four lines that rhyme on the front of the paper and we put them together as an Animal Rap! Last year, I put them in a podcast! Great fun.

Maybe everyone can share their creative activities and we can follow our wonderful leader’s advice….’Let a beam of the North Star light into our classrooms!’

A sign of a great classroom is how much creativity you can sneak in. During this test-centric age of public education, so much seems to revolve around memorization, rather than engaged thinking. Reflection. Connecting the dots. Imagination. Visioning. Great teachers know how to pull these things through the cracks. Schools of Education should teach future teachers a course called “Drop Ceiling Tile Removal: How to Let a Beam of North Star Light into your Classroom.”