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"In classrooms using the Responsive Classrooms approach, teachers begin their year generating 'Hopes and Dreams.' The process of developing hopes and dreams each year is a process of reviving hope -- and hope is one of our most critical community resources. How do we teach or learn without it?" Ruth Charney shares strategies for developing hopes and dreams.

HOPES AND DREAMS
In classrooms all over the country using the Responsive Classroom™ approach, teachers begin the year generating "Hopes and Dreams." They offer their own hopes for their class. They ask their students to construct hopes of their own. As we create and speak our hopes, we begin to imagine a year full of delicious and shared challenges.

Speaking of the Responsive Classroom
The process of developing hopes and dreams each year in our schools is a process of reviving hope -- and I am convinced that hope is one of our most critical community resources. In today's schools, hope seems almost fragile and under siege from so many external, as well as internal, sectors. Yet, how do we teach or learn without it?

To do our job well, to teach with conviction, patience, and skill, requires a steady infusion of hope. We have to maintain our hope that children can succeed, even in the face of struggle. We need to believe in our own efficacy; our ability to reach hard-to-reach children. We need to assert our own priorities and knowledge of how children learn. We need to say out loud that we have high expectations and good plans. We also need to invite our children to articulate their social and academic goals. When we ask our children to explore their hopes, we give them the opportunity to invest in their own schooling and, with eagerness, to bring their hope into the classroom each year.

Thus, we begin the year with a hopeful statement and a hopeful question: "My hope for you this year is….What is your hope for this year?"

When we ask ourselves and our students to generate hopes, we activate our imaginations and practical knowledge. Our best hopes can be translated into successful action plans. If I want my fourth grade students to become problem solvers, I am ready with opportunities to learn and appropriately phased interventions. To help Keisha become a better reader, a reader of chapter books, together we will select appropriate texts and a series of instructional steps. What is important is that teacher and students are a team working on student- and teacher-named goals.