How To Teach Students Perspective Of Time

To Teach Students Perspective

of time is tricky. How can you teach students perspective when they have so little life experience to actually “have” perspective?

On this episode, I discuss the importance of understanding our relationship with time, and how this is especially important for high school students. Time can be a double-edged sword, allowing us to be productive and feel like we’re making progress, but at the same time it can make us feel anxious and even a bit fearful…as if we’re running out of…time!

The development of the human brain is not finished until our mid-to-late 20s, and this is especially relevant for high school students who are in the beginning stages of puberty, or who have yet to enter it. During this time, students are dealing with a lot of stress, both from within themselves and from the pressures of making decisions about their future. It’s important to teach them strategies to leverage time and to build routines that will help them navigate the four years of high school.

However, teaching strategies and routines may not always be enough. To really make an emotional connection with students, it’s important to actually SHOW perspective.

Tim Urban, a blogger and TED Talk speaker, has created a 90-year calendar to illustrate this point. Basically, he placed a box that represents every week of someone’s 90 year life.

1. No one is granted any specific amount of time
2. There’s really not that many boxes!
3. We’ve already used quite a few!

Check out today’s episode to get some ideas to teach students perspective of time in your classroom.

Also you definitely should check out Tim’s Ted Talk!