I am very fortunate to work with some of the most awesome people in the world. One of them is Wendy Edey. She is Director of Counselling at the Hope Foundation of Alberta.
When I arrived to work with the HOPE KIDS program, she gently stood by my side to help my find my way. When I was called out for the first time to work with grade eight students and their teachers, it was Wendy who told me stories of things she did with students that gave me the courage to go out to hear about their hope. It was her encouragement that helped me begin to pull together the Nurturing Hopeful Souls resource. In addition to her talents as a hope-focused counsellor, Wendy is a story teller extraordinaire.
In her most recent posting on The Hope Lady Blog, Wendy tells what happened when she visited a classroom of very young students who wanted to share their hope representations with her. I urge you to check out Wendy's story called "Drawing Hope in the Classroom" because it is one that I have often experienced, but have not been able to say so eloquently!!
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Student Engagement
Finding the following list of questions embedded in the article "Bringing Student Engagement Through the Classroom Door" in Education Canada Vol 48 no4 by Jodene Dunleavy made my heart sing.
I believe the Hope-Focused Service-Learning project addresses these questions. Take a look ~
Does the work they are asked to do matter to them?
Does it connect to the lives they are living now and the ones they look forward to in the future?
Do they feel the work has value to them beyond achieving success at school?
Do they have opportunities to engage with the ideas of the disciplines they are studying in ways that allow them to develop a deep understanding of complex interrelated concepts and a chance t build 'new to them' ideas or knowledge in a community of learners?
Do they have a sense of ownership and responsibility for their learning, a role to play in co-designing and assessing how and what they learn?
Are they challenged in their learning and supported through relationships that encourage them to take risk, ask questions, make mistakes, and discuss how they feel about learning?
What do you think?
I believe the Hope-Focused Service-Learning project addresses these questions. Take a look ~
Does the work they are asked to do matter to them?
Does it connect to the lives they are living now and the ones they look forward to in the future?
Do they feel the work has value to them beyond achieving success at school?
Do they have opportunities to engage with the ideas of the disciplines they are studying in ways that allow them to develop a deep understanding of complex interrelated concepts and a chance t build 'new to them' ideas or knowledge in a community of learners?
Do they have a sense of ownership and responsibility for their learning, a role to play in co-designing and assessing how and what they learn?
Are they challenged in their learning and supported through relationships that encourage them to take risk, ask questions, make mistakes, and discuss how they feel about learning?
What do you think?
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
From Audacious Hope to Living Hope
As I watched the crowds gather and then listen and cheer as President Elect Obama spoke last night, I could help but think about how things not possible at one time sometimes become a reality. Wendy Edey, my mentor extraordinaire, taught me how things that are not possible at one time, do sometimes become possible. Wendy learned this in her conversations with clients in her hope-focused counselling practice at the Hope Foundation of Alberta. You can read about Wendy's work on her blog at www.thehopelady.blogspot.com.
Having read a good number of books on Obama, both his autobiographies and a biography done on him, I think about how he built his vision on a dream. He did so through tenacity and conversing with others, face to face, in a crowd or through his writing. He mobilized a country to say WE CAN make a difference.
But he did something more than that. Obama demonstrated through his thinking, relating, feeling, and acting that hope is about belief and expectation. He lives hope, audacious, imagined and real. Because his imaginations are "as if behaviours" (Sarbin, 1998), we are drawn toward his vision, believing and expecting that WE CAN work together to be the world a more equitable, peaceful and sustaining place for a greater number of people.
Barack Obama has taught us that if we embrace the multi-dimensional nature of hope great things are possible.
(for more information on "living hope" see Keen, J.A., 1995)
Having read a good number of books on Obama, both his autobiographies and a biography done on him, I think about how he built his vision on a dream. He did so through tenacity and conversing with others, face to face, in a crowd or through his writing. He mobilized a country to say WE CAN make a difference.
But he did something more than that. Obama demonstrated through his thinking, relating, feeling, and acting that hope is about belief and expectation. He lives hope, audacious, imagined and real. Because his imaginations are "as if behaviours" (Sarbin, 1998), we are drawn toward his vision, believing and expecting that WE CAN work together to be the world a more equitable, peaceful and sustaining place for a greater number of people.
Barack Obama has taught us that if we embrace the multi-dimensional nature of hope great things are possible.
(for more information on "living hope" see Keen, J.A., 1995)
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