One of the strongest aspects of our school district, I believe, is that we have a mission statement that supports students' dreams. I try to help students achieve their dreams by, first of all, having them think about and consider them from different angles at least once a week when I display one of these prompts on the board as students come to class and have them journal a response to the prompt that they afterward share with a partner and then with the class. My hope is to have them develop a better understanding of their own dreams and be inspired to pursue them. As an extension of these weekly prompts, I try to incorporate students' dreams in various class activities by having students use them as the subject in their research papers, individual readings, and choice projects.
I know it's cheesy, but all of these efforts are directed at helping students live according to Thoreau's famous quote on dreams: "If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with success unexpected in common hours."
Through the activities I've described, I hope to help students better identify their dreams and provide them the leeway to pursue them more in earnest as a part of their academic study. This intentional focus on dreams, I hope, will prepare them to make more purposeful, meaningful, and fulfilling choices after they leave school.
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