Since I am not in classrooms this week because it is spring break, I find myself re-reading and reflecting on what has transpired over the last six months of this year. I am a grade five class, in two junior high classes and I work with grade sixes during lunch hour on the Hope-Focused Service-Learning program. We have been exploring hope (phase one of five phases) and are now moving outward to think about hopeful places and places where we can bring hope to others. With the exception of the grade six class, which is really a Hope-Focused Community program (not connected to curriculum per se) the other projects are connected to curriculum. Teachers in these classrooms make the curriculum connections and with student direction and leadership determine how the program in each classroom unfolds.
As I reflect back and beyond to other years I am reminded about some of the aha moments. One of those moments happened when I connected what I learned from grade fives and participants in the 'Hope Studies Certificate Program' for LPN's and Health Care Aides which is delivered through NorQuest College here in Edmonton. It is a continuing education program that is divided into three courses: HOPE 1001: Practical Strategies for Using Hope; HOPE 1002: Using Hope to Increase Job Satisfaction; HOPE 1003: Different Theories of Hope. I developed the Hope Studies Certificate Program curriculum and had an opportunity to deliver a number of the initial programs offered.
It was during the second course, using hope to increase job satisfaction, that the word "respect" came up in the conversation between participants. I was not surprised to hear that it came up as a necessary ingredient for hopeful work places. What did surprise me was that I had just heard the word respect the day before in my conversation with the grade five students.
Placing these two conversations side by side led me to add a lesson on "respect" in the Hope-Focused Service-Learning program. Very early in our exploration of hope we do a Y chart on respect. In other words, we unpack what respect looks, sounds and feels like. It is the connection to what respect feels like that I find helps children and youth begin to understand why 'respect' creates a hopeful interaction. We spend a lot of time on how hope and a hopeful learning environment feels in the Hope-Focused Service-Learning program. Taking the time to unpack what a concept like hope and/or respect looks, sounds, and feels like seems to be well worth the time. It seems that when we do take the time, it is much easier to recognize when we need to change our behaviours to more hopeful ones.
And so, as I work on making changes to the draft Hope-Focused Service-Learning Manual this week, I will include a section about the importance of unpacking what words like respect, hope and hopeful learning environments look, sound and feel like.
