For example, if a student said she values behaving responsibly, how did she behave responsibly since she made the airplane, and how can she behave responsibly today? Students can share responses with partners or the full group. Questions like these can help them see that values, as qualities of action, are always available to them in a variety of contexts—including school. If they didn’t live their values in the last few days, weeks, or months, can they start now?
Variations
The paper plane works well because of its metaphors. Keeping, losing, and taking on cargo represent how our possessions, relationships, achievements, and interests can be transient. Our flight paths aren’t always in our control, but our piloting is. If folding paper won’t work for your students, or if they wouldn’t be able to handle the mayhem of flying paper planes in class, they can draw planes on paper or with an app, or you can draw a plane to use as a graphic organizer.
You can use this activity to help students think about their cargo and piloting with respect to your specific subject. For example, if you’re a science teacher, you might ask your students what has been meaningful in their previous years of studying science in and out of school: “What topics interested you? What seemed important?” Then you could ask how they want to approach science now: “How do you want to approach this class? How do you want to use scientific skills and knowledge? How do you want to treat your fellow student-scientists? How do you want to treat the science lab?”
Challenges
Students might find making paper planes a little hokey. (We prefer to think of it as playful.) They might have trouble with the idea of giving up valued possessions, relationships, and activities—particularly if they’ve worked hard to gain or maintain them—or with the concept that they’re not in control of outcomes. Those who have experienced loss, such as in a recent move or a death in the family, might find this activity upsetting—but being upset isn’t bad. Feeling sad about a loss indicates that something important is missing, and the point of this exercise is for students to discover what’s important to them. Noticing, appreciating, and mourning what was important in the past helps them recognize opportunities for meaningful connection in the present and future.
Those who haven’t experienced loss might get upset about the mere idea of loss. The point isn’t that students will mess up, get stuck, have conflict, or lose people and things they love. The point is that other people, things, and even the outcomes of their plans might not be in their control, but the qualities of their actions always are. You can tell your students that in every moment, even in the face of pain and defeat, they always have the choice to live by their values. The very act of appreciating the good qualities of an experience or mourning a loss is an exercise of that choice.
Hills of Beans
In this activity, students think about how different people in their lives send messages about how they should spend their time and how they can still serve their values in the context of these messages.
Materials for Each Student
For this activity, each student will need a pen, notebook, cup with 168 dried beans, about twenty sticky notes, and the “Where I Put My Time” handout (figure 1.2, pages 20–21).
Figure 1.2: “Where I Put My Time” handout.
Visit go.SolutionTree.com/instruction for a free reproducible version of this figure.
Sample Script
The following sample script gives an idea of how this activity might work in your classroom.
It seems like everyone gives us messages about how we should spend our time, whether it’s on schoolwork, athletic practice, music practice, a job, family, friends, a romantic interest, or the million other things we do. Today we’re going to think about how we can spend our time.
Each of you is getting a small cup of beans and a bunch of sticky notes. (Distributes the materials.)
Imagine that the cup represents a week of your life. Just like you have only so many beans in your cup, you have only so much time in a week. The sticky notes are going to represent different ways of spending your time that are important to you, like maybe going to school, being with family, hanging out with friends, taking care of a pet, playing a sport, practicing your violin, exercising, and even basics like sleeping and eating. You’re going to write one important way you spend your time at the top of each sticky note. Begin whatever you write with an -ing verb: going to school, being with family, taking care of your dog, dancing ballet. As you write your notes, spread them out.
Now you’ll put beans on each note to represent how much time your parents or guardians would want you to spend doing each of these things if it were totally up to them. Use up all of your beans, because you’re always doing something, even if it’s staring into space. You might need to add more notes if you think of more things your parents or guardians would want you to do. Some notes might end up with no beans. (See figure 1.3.)
Figure 1.3: Sample hills of beans.
Take a moment to write about this arrangement, labeling it Family. It represents how your parents or guardians would want you to spend your time. What do you notice? Where are there a lot of beans? Where are there none?
Now, if you were going to spend your time exactly the way you think your teachers would want you to, where would your time go? Please rearrange the beans as much as you need to, and add any notes you need.
Take a moment to write about this new arrangement, which represents how your teachers would want you to distribute your time. You can label this one Teachers. Again, what do you notice? What about this configuration is similar to the last one? What’s different?
Next, if you were going to spend your time the way you think your closest friends would want you to, where would your time go? Again, add any notes you need and rearrange the beans so they represent how you imagine your closest friends would want you to spend your time.
And again, write what you notice. You can label this writing Friends. What’s similar to the other two? What’s different?
Up until now, you’ve thought about how other people want you to spend your time—or at least, how you think these other people want you to spend your time. Now, think about how you want to spend your time. It is, after all, your time!
Please rearrange the beans as much as you need to, and add any necessary notes. You’re going to leave the beans in this configuration for now, and—last time—write what you notice.
Does anyone want to share any of their observations? Were there any interesting similarities and differences? How does it feel when you start noticing that different people who care about you are giving you different messages about your time?
Do you ever feel like you have to spend your time a certain way because of what you’re trying to achieve? Do you ever feel like you have to spend your time a certain
