Creating a Risk-Free Environment Conducive to Weaving Dreams
Whether by choice or not, we are swept up in a national trend that is pushing students and their teachers harder than ever, and the unpleasant by-products of classroom stress are becoming impossible to ignore. Unfortunately, it is easy to forget that our kids have stress too, due to home problems, peer relationships, and classroom pressure. We can help students learn to cope by teaching practical strategies for dealing with stress and maintaining that excitement and love for learning that is so necessary to living a satisfying life. Recognizing and nurturing your students' dreams and taking measures to curb classroom stress can only serve to impact achievement and lifelong success in a positive way.
Construction of a Caring Classroom Community
The first step to help prepare your students to set goals, both academic and personal, is to create a caring, welcoming, risk-free classroom environment. Cover your room with images that stimulate the senses and provide opportunities that encourage students to look forward to all the possibilities of life. Click here for a list of inspirational thoughts to post around your classroom or use for writing exercises. If you are looking for more dream-building activities, one "plentiful" resource to use is Building Dreams, Elementary School Edition, by Mychal Wynn and Dee Blassie.
It is recommended that you take your students through the DreamBuilder site according to the outline below. Use these opportunities to listen, watch, and learn more about your students. You will gather background information that helps you establish successful cooperative groups, select guest speakers, identify personal strengths, plan for unique personality types, and more.
- "I Can't" Burial Site: A delightful classroom activity that gets everyone involved in the elimination of negative thinking
- Feeling Stressed? An attempt to create some built-in time for slowing things down and reflecting
- All About You: An opportunity for children to discover how they learn best, identify interests and build on their strengths
- Acorns and Oaks: A real-life story, in charming story book form, that illustrates how students' dreams and aspirations can represent goals they can strive for throughout a lifetime.
- Dream-Thought Machine: A random, number-picker that points children to various inspirational thoughts that can be used for writing exercises, classroom posters, or thought-provoking discussions.
Start DreamBuilding with your children today! You will be surprised at the impact some of these deceptively simple activities will have upon the lives, hopes, and dreams of your students.
"For some children your love may be the only love they receive that day. Your smile may be the only genuine, caring, and comforting smile they receive. The meals served in school may be the only nutritious meals they will receive that day. What happens in your classroom may be the only hope that your students have for a brighter tomorrow." (Wynn, Mychal and Dee Blassie. Building Dreams, Elementary School Edition. Marietta, GA:Rising Sun Publishing,1995.)