Hopes and Dreams

It began with the question, “Who are you?”  We made self-portraits with colored pencils.  Adding pictures of the things we like, such as board games and experiments.

Then I asked, “What are you good at?” We discovered we have animators, inventors, builders, authors, artists and scientists in our class.

On the following day, I asked the Magical Minds to consider something they would like to get better at, and we talked about the idea of making goals.  On kites, we wrote and illustrated our hopes and dreams for this academic year.

Some of us are hoping to be better at games, while some of us want to build inventions.  Others look forward to working on computers, and others are excited about reading.

By sharing our aspirations and goals, we cultivate a community where everyone’s dreams matter.  In the spirit of protecting each other’s hopes and dreams, I introduced the topic of rules.  We brainstormed a rough list of rules that might be helpful, which we put aside for a couple of days.  I call this composting.  Sometimes you just need to sleep on it.  Two days later I rewrote the rough list of rules on small index cards and spread them out on the carpet.  We discussed why we have rules:

1. So that everyone has fun
2. So that everyone can learn and grow

Together, the Magical Minds and I brainstormed another dozen possible rules. Then, I brought to the carpet three plastic circles.  I asked the kids to group the rules into categories.  Working together, we agreed on three basic rules for our classroom:

1. We are safe.
2. We turn our brains on.
3. We are respectful.

To show that we understand and agree with the rules, we all signed our names:

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Today the Magical Rules appeared above our Accomplishments Board, reminding us how we can best support each other’s hopes and dreams.

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