With our eighth graders off in DC (#lreidc) exploring memorials and monuments and making connections to their humanities inquiry and the seventh graders in Williamsburg (#lreiwb) doing research for their Colonial Museum exhibits, our fifth and sixth graders have gotten to stretch their wings a bit in our middle school spaces. Our fifth grade civilization simulation is just getting under way and sixth graders are using insights gained from the religions they created to begin to explore the impact of religion on life in Europe and the Middle East during the Middle Ages. Our fifth and sixth grade student reps have also been hard at work planning for the activities that they will run at this weekend’s Halloween Fair.

In Fifth Grade Adolescent Issues, we have started a project that asks students to envision their future selves that we’re doing with our friends at Inquiring Minds  (@InquiringMonica  and  @InquiringDK). We started this process by exploring some general thoughts and ideas about the future. We will then will take a trip back into the past as students research  people that they admire to tease out qualities and characteristics that they would like to cultivate in themselves. Students will then use these insights to design a possible future for themselves.

Below are a few images that capture some of the data that we have already collected:

When I am grown up I will be _________

The way I will continue to learn when I grow up will be by _________.

• “going out and discovering things”
• “making mistakes”
• “educating other people”
• “practicing (making perfect)”
• “never giving up”
• “learning one thing new every day”
• ” living what I learn”
• “learning from the world around me”
• “questioning everything”
• “striving and never giving up”

I will really be excited about the invention of the __________ . . .

One current problem that people in the world face today that will be solved in the future is _________.

An action that I’ll take in the future to help solve this problem is ___________.

• “stop wasting a lot of things”
• “spread the word and not be racist”
• “be a scientist solving it”
• “travel around the world and help endangered animals”
• “trying to make a medicine that helps”
• “write newspaper articles”
• “by proving to people that believe otherwise what women can do whatever they want”

One current problem that still won’t be solved in the future is _________.

To help to try and solve this problem in the future, I can imagine myself ___________.

• “talking instead of resorting to violence”
• “being good to other people”
• “being a role model”
• “doing my best and working hard”
• “taking a lot of public transportation”
• “protesting”
• “doing a lot of research”
• “becoming the President

In the future, people will say this about me, “_________.”

• “She was helpful to us. And didn’t let us down”
• “He was extremely extraordinary.”
• “She was a strong and positive presence.”
• “He always helped out and was a good friend”
• “Really? I didn’t know that she was the one who did that.”
• “He inspired me when I read his books.”
• “She was a good role model”
• “He changed lives.”
• “Encore! Bravo!”

Indeed! The future certainly looks bight when seen through the eyes of our fifth graders. What does the future look like to your students?