Protocol Overview and Instructions: 
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​​Creating a safe environment and a healthy culture for your teams will help them build better projects and solutions. Have your teams discuss their hopes, fears and set norms. As students move through their projects, continue to remind them of what they created and hold them accountable.

Hopes, Fears, Norms Protocol Instructions

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Educator Thoughts:
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I chose to use the Hopes, Fears, and Norms protocol with all of my classes at the start of each trimester. In the past I would create a Social Contract with my classes, instead I used the Norms as our class rules for the trimester. In the past my freshman students didn’t really like to share out loud, so using the whiteboard and large post it notes helped everyone to participate. The only challenge was that I did it on the second day of class and everyone wasn’t as willing to discuss the ideas brought up. Overall, I have found it to be more successful than the Social Contracts that I have used in the past.

"I will keep using this protocol at the start of each trimester. It helps me to know my students fears and helps me to make sure that all my students are comfortable with the class and that they feel valued and heard."

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Student Quote:
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"It helped to put me more at ease about World History Class. I was really thinking that I wouldn’t like the class. Talking through the Hopes, Fears, and Norms took away the uneasiness that I had about the class."

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Meet the Educator:
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​I am a Social Studies teacher at Hudsonville Freshman Campus and have been teaching for 23 years. Something that has rewarding to me has been the opportunity to work with Future Prep for 3 years. It has encouraged me to constantly be looking at ways that I might be able to incorporate PBL protocols or projects into my classes.

     "It is a way to put students in the drivers seat of their own learning and we the teachers become passengers that help give directions and watch what happens."
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