Every Week Matters

Time.  Time relates to so much in our lives from day-to-day interactions to the monumental picture of life itself.  It all revolves around time.  Speaking of time, regardless of the time that has passed since my last post, I couldn't wait to dust off my blog tonight and jump back in with a post that I was inspired by earlier this morning from @pastorstevepoe.  

Did you know that the average number of weeks a parent will have with their child from birth to graduation is a mere 936 weeks?  936 weeks?!  While that may seem like more than enough to many, as a parent myself, that number seemed shockingly low.

Infographic credit: @NorthviewCarmel

As you can see from the infographic above, 936 weeks seems like an incredible gift as time continues to pass as a child gets older and older.  Wow! Talk about perspective!  The more I thought about the gift of time not only with my own children, the more I started thinking and reflecting about the students in our classrooms and the value of their time spent with educators during their years of schooling.  

The following is my own creation of an infographic as it relates to a child's education: 

Created using Piktochart

Ironically enough, the TOTAL amount of time a child spends in school grades K-12 equates approximately to only about 8 or 9 years of a child's life as seen in the first infographic.  Powerful message, isn't it?  

As educators, how are we choosing to spend the time that we have with our students each and every day?  When thinking about the role of the elementary school years, it becomes even more apparent about how crucial these weeks are in laying the foundational blocks in a child's learning.  

As we think about our instruction, are we using our time wisely with our students?  When we begin with an end goal in mind for our students not only now but in the future, we are able to use every minute of time in our classrooms as a gift and opportunity rather than as a burden that often leaves us falling victims to content "coverage".  Each teacher's 36 weeks with a student could either push them  36 weeks closer to that end goal or 36 weeks farther away.  

In the end, every day and every week matters with our students.  The time we get with them now all contributes to that magical number of 468...468 amazing weeks of opportunity and promise.  An educator's influence is inevitable and substantial on a student regardless of their age or grade level.

How will you choose to spend your 36 weeks?