Here are two dynamic organizations that offer your students opportunities and engaging resources to express and act on what they believe. Encourage your students to take on a service-learning project or submit a personal essay to "This I Believe."
Happiness
What makes us happy?
Use this photo to ask your students what they notice and are wondering. Then share the facts behind the image to connect to greater understanding and discovery.
Here is a range of lessons from Facing the Future for grades K-12, including some projects for university level students.
In this entertaining talk, Sir Ken Robinson asserts that to get the best out of people, schools need to nurture creative thinkers rather than good workers.
Images, photos, and pictures stimulate the mind. For the viewer, they offer a chance to connect and question. They also offer potential for play and imagination, and pulling the observer into purposeful messages.
Here's a resource to connect your students' learning with their local community, culture, and environment. Also learn how knowing yourself can translate to being an even better teacher.
Aka`ula School middle school students in Molakai, Hawaii thrive as they research and create positive solutions for environmental issues affecting their own community. This is Vicki's story.
Professor Tom Murphy wanted his students to reconnect with nature. Now, they work beside farmers, fishermen, wastewater technicians, environmental groups, and Native American leaders through an award-winning service learning program. This is Tom's story.
The Commencement Address by Paul Hawken to the Class of 2009, University of Portland, May 3, 2009
Joe Gillespie started his first school garden in 1993 with 50 raised beds. Today, he and his middle school students grow veggies year-round and monitor wind turbines. This is Joe's story.
For former teacher and "Chicken Soup for the Classroom" co-author Anna Unkovich, a “nightmare” teaching moment was the key to a more open classroom and sharing stories. This is Anna's story.
To teach happiness, be happy. Teachers, in particular, need support to be passionate and content in a challenging profession. The Center for Courage and Renewal's "Courage to Teach" supports this belief with essays, articles, and a retreat program.
Images, photos, and pictures stimulate the mind. With this YES! lesson plan, you and your students can luxuriate—and pause—to truly understand an image, its message, and why it’s interesting (or not).
