Each day in my classroom we started with GOOD THINGS - “ tell me something good that has happened to you since we have seen each other last.” It was fun! It set the mood for the day. However, during this opening activity after we learned about reframing (taking a negative situation and making it positive), kids would often bring up negative things happening in their lives for the class to reframe. To be honest, it sometimes wore on me, but they were practicing good skills at seeing the positive, so I would let them go.
One day after hearing “ I hate my math class!” or “My parents are driving me crazy! I want to move out!” and such, I changed the lesson…. whatever lesson we were doing went out the window and I said, “OK! Everybody in the hall!” They looked at me puzzled but were good with it (they knew to expect the unexpected from me, so some were a little excited I think). The kids strolled to the hall and sat down along both sides of the walls. I walked out and stood in the middle of the hall with my 100 ft industrial tape measure. I was going to teach them a lesson I had heard from a friend of mine.
I asked a kiddo to grab the end and run down the hall with it until it reached 78 feet. I began by stating this…
“The average life is 78 years so we are going to look at this measuring tape and see that each foot - 12 inches- represents 1 year ok?”
They all nodded their heads.
“Now, let’s think of major milestones in your life by age. What is first?
“When you walk!” a kid said loudly!
“GREAT!” I said back,”Now go stand by the 1 ft mark”.
We proceeded to decide that age 5 was important because of kindergarten and 12 was junior high. Different kiddos stood on the tape for each “Life Milestone.”
“16 is important because you can drive!” One kid shouted and jumped up to stand on the tape! We went on and on! 18, 21 (oooh they all wanted to be at legal drinking age- ha!) and so forth. Then the numbers slowed down. We couldn’t narrow down the age you get married or have kids because everyone had a different opinion.
One of them said, “Mrs. C where do you fit on this line - how old are you?” I have never been ashamed of my age and at this point I was 48.
“OOOOHHHHH Mrs. C you are over ½ way to death!” (Oh how I miss hanging out with teenagers)
They all laughed and I responded with a smile saying, “ I am closer to heaven than I was yesterday is how I choose to look at it thank you....now let’s refocus and let’s look at the years between 14-18. What important time of your life is going on?”
“High school?” a kiddo said questioning his answer.
“Correct!” I said, “Let’s look at this even closer. If each year of high school is 1 foot, then 1 semester is 6 inches. If you have 6 classes a day then each class per semester is really only 1 inch!” I went on explaining, “I heard some of you complain about a class. Let’s say it’s math. Guys…. Look at the big picture! You are only in this math class for 1- 2 inches of your entire life!!!!! If you mess around and don’t do the work you might get to take it over again adding inches that you could be doing things you like - and if you are doing that with ALL your classes, then your 4 feet of high school may end up being 5 feet! Look at the BIG PICTURE … when something is hard think about this…..You can do ANYTHING for 1 inch! Or even 1 foot!- Just suck it up and do it!”
“Some of you can’t wait to move out of your houses for whatever reasons! You may only have 1-2 years (feet) left with your family, so instead of dreading it, make the best of it! I promise you, most of you will miss your momma bugging you everyday when you move out. You have only 1-2 feet at home in your '78 foot' life. YOU CAN DO IT!!!!!!! Does this make sense?”
“Some of you seniors are athletes or in the band….. this is it for you. Most of you will not go on and play at the collegiate level and less of you on a professional level. So how are you practicing and playing during these last few feet or inches of your athletic/music career? How do you want to be remembered?”
Many of them sat against these hall walls nodding their heads - I had hoped it made sense! I actually heard a kid say to himself, “Ok Ok I can do ____ class for an inch. It’s only an inch!” I smiled.
Sometimes life is hard and it seems like certain situations in our lives won’t ever end. I promise, they will. You may have an inch, a foot or a yard still to go in that situation. At the time your situation takes forever but looking back at it, it wasn’t that long. Focus on the specific inches and feet of life you are in now and make them count! They will be over before you know it! Trust me! My 30 feet as a teacher flew by so fast! One day I was starting my 1st job and the next day I was packing up 30 years of memories.
What has been a momentous time in your life that you were looking forward to? Did it take a long time to get there? How quickly was it over? What is something you have been or are going through that you can look at differently now and realize it really won’t last forever? Whatever it is ~ YOU CAN DO IT!!! Inch by Inch!!!
*I heard a lesson similar to this from another educator and decided it was spot on. I have added my personal twists and examples each time I have gone over it. Shared lesson plans are a great part of teaching. If you ever read this post, BG, thank you for the inspiration!