For those of you who read this blog from time to time, I will not be posting for the next little while. I don't want to say how long because it may only be a couple of weeks. What I do know is that if I do post during the month of June it will be very sporadic.
I will be back in full force in July and look forward to reflecting on what I am learning about hope on this site once again. In the meantime, you may want to check out the International Hope Data Base that you can access on the Hope Foundation of Alberta's web page at www.ualberta.ca/hope. It is the only data base of its kind in the world and is used by anyone who wants to know more about a specific topic on hope.
When I started at the Hope Foundation, we had one filing cabinet on hope research - theoretical and applied. About 2004, it became apparent that we could not house the articles in the Jack Chesney Resource Centre at Hope House. So a summer student created a taxonomy of hope articles and books on a variety of hope topics. Now you can look up a topic, see what has come to our attention (we have search engines letting us know what is new) and then obtain what you need to know to be able to obtain it.
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Hopes Inspiring
As I begin winding the school year down, my conversations with students in classrooms for the year, I am struck by how profound children and youth are when we make the time to hear what they have to say ~ especially about hope.
Yesterday a fourteen year old student eloquently described the difference between caring with and caring for. Because caring was one of his 7 C's of hope I was curious about how he described the difference. But there was another reason. I believe the Hope-focused Service-learning program is more a "caring with" program. The students description of the difference between the two describes why I think the Hope-focused Service-learning program is about caring with. He said, "Caring with is doing stuff with someone else. Like cleaning up the schoolyard together. Caring for is donating to someone or adopting." Caring with means interacting with another person or as another student described co-operating and communicating with someone to create hope.
Teachers, too, shared, books that they thought I should add to the Hopeful Picture Books bibliography that I am creating and will share on my website www.learningtohope.ca in the very near future. Since all books are essentially about hope, the bibliography will be arranged according to discussion themes like perseverance, courage, and imagination.
These conversations feed my hope to start planning for next year!
Yesterday a fourteen year old student eloquently described the difference between caring with and caring for. Because caring was one of his 7 C's of hope I was curious about how he described the difference. But there was another reason. I believe the Hope-focused Service-learning program is more a "caring with" program. The students description of the difference between the two describes why I think the Hope-focused Service-learning program is about caring with. He said, "Caring with is doing stuff with someone else. Like cleaning up the schoolyard together. Caring for is donating to someone or adopting." Caring with means interacting with another person or as another student described co-operating and communicating with someone to create hope.
Teachers, too, shared, books that they thought I should add to the Hopeful Picture Books bibliography that I am creating and will share on my website www.learningtohope.ca in the very near future. Since all books are essentially about hope, the bibliography will be arranged according to discussion themes like perseverance, courage, and imagination.
These conversations feed my hope to start planning for next year!
Friday, May 16, 2008
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Hope-apotamus Youth Art Show
Every year we invite children and youth to create 2-D representations of hope for Hope Week. Hope Week is celebrated during the last week of January. We are going to change it up this year.
Instead of asking for hope representations we are going to ask for hope-apotami, 2-D and 3-D representations. I imagine that they will be seen all over the city after our Hope Week. I imagine that some of them will be close to life size ~ especially if a group of children or youth take on the project.
We are, at the moment, looking for individuals who would be interested in sitting on a committee to organize this undertaking. Then we will be looking for children and youth to participate. If you are interested in becoming involved, please let me know by contacting the Hope Foundation at (780) 492-1222 or replying to this posting.
Looking forward to hearing from you!!
Instead of asking for hope representations we are going to ask for hope-apotami, 2-D and 3-D representations. I imagine that they will be seen all over the city after our Hope Week. I imagine that some of them will be close to life size ~ especially if a group of children or youth take on the project.
We are, at the moment, looking for individuals who would be interested in sitting on a committee to organize this undertaking. Then we will be looking for children and youth to participate. If you are interested in becoming involved, please let me know by contacting the Hope Foundation at (780) 492-1222 or replying to this posting.
Looking forward to hearing from you!!
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Hope and Courage
Learning to hope and about hope happens most often when I am in conversation with one or more individuals. This happened last week when I met with a group of junior high students. They were sharing what they have been creating in their explorations of hope in their health classes. We were taking photographs of their work from their hope folios so that we could create a digital story of their experience of connecting with their hope individually and collectively.
When we turned to what they have noticed since doing the hope study one of the students said it has made him more courageous to work toward becoming a soccer player. I remembered that it was grade five students who told us courage was missing from our list of 7 C's. Hope research and literature suggests courage is needed to hope and hope is needed to have courage.
Knowing from experience that the original list of 7 C's are a good starting point in a hope discussion, but like hope are unique to everyone and change depending on one's circumstances, we began to tease out the original list of 7 C's. I was surprised that this group of students listed four from the original list. Usually I have to add most of the original list. They listed commitment, creativity, caring, and community. One of the students suggested cooperation, which is not on the original list.
Like I said earlier, this list is really a jumping off point for being able to identify and make explicit one's hope in the moment. If we had created our 7 C symbols on that day, I am certain that they would be different than they will be when we do them this week. Our hopes change. What I gleaned from this activity, is that we could create symbols of our individual and group 7 C's at different points and then reflect on how they have changed depending on what we were experiencing at the time. I believe this is one example of where we can reflect and track how we use hope to overcome adversity and uncertainty in our lives. This would, in my opinion be an excellent hope tool to use when experiencing feelings of hopelessness about an outcome. An adult and child could use these to determine actions, thoughts, feelings, and relationships from the past to overcome a current obstacle in one's life.
On my walk back to the Hope Foundation, I thought about cooperation. After spending a year making hope explicit from time to time, these students identified cooperation as an important component of hope. Studying what contributes to a hopeful community is part of the hope-focused service-learning program. Working cooperatively in teams is one of the service-learning competencies. The fact that these students identified cooperation as one of the 7 C's of hope tells me, once again, that we are on the right track. Imagine what our world would look, feel and sound like if we cooperated with each other?
When we turned to what they have noticed since doing the hope study one of the students said it has made him more courageous to work toward becoming a soccer player. I remembered that it was grade five students who told us courage was missing from our list of 7 C's. Hope research and literature suggests courage is needed to hope and hope is needed to have courage.
Knowing from experience that the original list of 7 C's are a good starting point in a hope discussion, but like hope are unique to everyone and change depending on one's circumstances, we began to tease out the original list of 7 C's. I was surprised that this group of students listed four from the original list. Usually I have to add most of the original list. They listed commitment, creativity, caring, and community. One of the students suggested cooperation, which is not on the original list.
Like I said earlier, this list is really a jumping off point for being able to identify and make explicit one's hope in the moment. If we had created our 7 C symbols on that day, I am certain that they would be different than they will be when we do them this week. Our hopes change. What I gleaned from this activity, is that we could create symbols of our individual and group 7 C's at different points and then reflect on how they have changed depending on what we were experiencing at the time. I believe this is one example of where we can reflect and track how we use hope to overcome adversity and uncertainty in our lives. This would, in my opinion be an excellent hope tool to use when experiencing feelings of hopelessness about an outcome. An adult and child could use these to determine actions, thoughts, feelings, and relationships from the past to overcome a current obstacle in one's life.
On my walk back to the Hope Foundation, I thought about cooperation. After spending a year making hope explicit from time to time, these students identified cooperation as an important component of hope. Studying what contributes to a hopeful community is part of the hope-focused service-learning program. Working cooperatively in teams is one of the service-learning competencies. The fact that these students identified cooperation as one of the 7 C's of hope tells me, once again, that we are on the right track. Imagine what our world would look, feel and sound like if we cooperated with each other?
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Five Major Components of a Hope-Focused Service-Learning Program
There are many wonderful outcomes that we are seeing in our pilot Hope-Focused Service-Learning programs! I think you will agree that comments like the ones from students in the last post tell us that we need to continue this work.
Perhaps if I tell you about what it is that contributes to the success of the program you will better understand why I am so very excited about what I see and hear when I interact with teachers, students, community members and funders.
Simply put there are five main components that must be addressed in a Hope-Focused Service-Learning program.
1. It must have a hope focus. The Nurturing Hopeful Souls: Hopeful Practices and Strategies for Children and Youth provides a solid foundation for exploring and maintaining a hopeful perspective. Up until this point this resource has been used in its draft form. However, it will be ready for purchase on the Hope Foundation's website or by calling or visiting the Hope Foundation in June 2008.
2. Secondly, service tasks must be connected to and help to ensure curriculum outcomes are addressed.
3. Hope-Focused Service-Learning seeks to maximize student voice through inquiry-based, experiential learning.
4. Students must be engaged in service tasks that meet genuine "hope" needs of the school or local community and have significant consequences for themselves and others.
5. Assessment and especially self-assessment is used as a way to enhance student learning. Self-assessment requires ongoing reflection before, during and after service.
There are other components of course, many of which are incorporated into these five main ones. For example, students and teachers develop an essential question that guides their inquiry around a hope-focused service-learning project. Because reflection is a hope practice it is embedded into the self-assessment component.
As we conclude our third year of pilots, the Hope-Focused Service-Learning manual and training modules are being pulled together so that whole schools can use a Hope-Focused Service-Learning focus. I will keep you posted as we move into this arena next year!
Perhaps if I tell you about what it is that contributes to the success of the program you will better understand why I am so very excited about what I see and hear when I interact with teachers, students, community members and funders.
Simply put there are five main components that must be addressed in a Hope-Focused Service-Learning program.
1. It must have a hope focus. The Nurturing Hopeful Souls: Hopeful Practices and Strategies for Children and Youth provides a solid foundation for exploring and maintaining a hopeful perspective. Up until this point this resource has been used in its draft form. However, it will be ready for purchase on the Hope Foundation's website or by calling or visiting the Hope Foundation in June 2008.
2. Secondly, service tasks must be connected to and help to ensure curriculum outcomes are addressed.
3. Hope-Focused Service-Learning seeks to maximize student voice through inquiry-based, experiential learning.
4. Students must be engaged in service tasks that meet genuine "hope" needs of the school or local community and have significant consequences for themselves and others.
5. Assessment and especially self-assessment is used as a way to enhance student learning. Self-assessment requires ongoing reflection before, during and after service.
There are other components of course, many of which are incorporated into these five main ones. For example, students and teachers develop an essential question that guides their inquiry around a hope-focused service-learning project. Because reflection is a hope practice it is embedded into the self-assessment component.
As we conclude our third year of pilots, the Hope-Focused Service-Learning manual and training modules are being pulled together so that whole schools can use a Hope-Focused Service-Learning focus. I will keep you posted as we move into this arena next year!
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