This is Your Life

At the end of the school year our class was in charge of learning celebration. I wrote about this in an earlier post. One class every week comes up with the thought for the week and does the morning announcements for the school. At the end of the week the class demonstrates in some way what we have been learning and thinking about. It’s a celebration of what matters to us for the entire school. Every learning celebration is different. It’s one of my favorite times of the week in school.

For our final thought for the week we chose the title to our favorite new song (well, it was new to our class). When these 22 children sang this song it would melt your heart. There was such power, such sincere appreciation for the message. You should have seen these kids with their heads back, some with their eyes closed, singing in full voice. I strummed a very simple version of the chords on my old acoustic guitar. But even “unplugged” there was real intensity.

We had several conversations about what the lyrics mean. The beauty of these conversations is that we are all sharing OUR meanings, OUR impressions. No one is wrong. Often I become so much more aware of the potential understanding of a poem, quote or lyrics through these “language appreciation” conversations. It’s good stuff. Below are the lyrics to this great tune.

yesterday is a wrinkle on your forehead
yesterday is a promise that you've broken
don't close your eyes, don't close your eyes
this is your life and today is all you've got now
yeah, and today is all you'll ever have

don't close your eyes
don't close your eyes

this is your life, are you who you want to be
this is your life, are you who you want to be
this is your life, is it everything you dreamed that it would be
when the world was younger and you had everything to lose

yesterday is a kid in the corner
yesterday is dead and over
this is your life, are you who you want to be
this is your life, are you who you want to be
this is your life, is it everything you dreamed that it would be
when the world was younger and you had everything to lose

don't close your eyes
don't close your eyes
don't close your eyes
don't close your eyes

this is your life are you who you want to be
this is your life are you who you want to be
this is your life, are you who you want to be
this is your life, are you who you want to be

this is your life, is it everything you dreamed it would be
when the world was younger and you had everything to lose
and you had everything to lose

Anyway, for our final learning celebration the kids drew big pictures of who they want to be. Below is an excerpt from a newsletter to parents about the event…


This is Your Life – Are You Who You Want to Be? This Switchfoot song prompted lots of great conversation and thought about who we want to be and how we want to live our lives. Some children wrote about what they want to do when they grow up. Others wrote about how they want to be remembered. Some children wrote about what matters to them most. Everyone shared their ideas and art with the school during our final learning celebration of the year. Here are some highlights:

I want my personality to have a touch of humor and fun and good… When I leave this earth I want people to remember me as a life saver to animals and people… I want to help people to make the right choices… I want to be a person with loving and caring for one and all. This is who I want to be… I have been so blessed. I want my life to be a blessing to others… I want to be a great scientist with animals… I want to be a part of the BIG GREEN HELP, to help our earth be a better place… I want to be kinder, I want people to think I’m heartful… I want to be a person who gives care and love to the poor people… I want to be a writer writing in my books, I want to be a reader and do the journey and adventure through my books, I want to be smart and brave, nice and kind to others… I want to be a person who can change lives… I want to be a singer and a teacher… I want to be a nice, helpful, kind person… I want to be a nurse because I want TO HELP PEOPLE… If I want to make the world a better place then I should recycle… I want to be thankful for what I have… I want to be a joyful peacemaker and poet… I want to make people enjoy my stories and well-crafted sentences with adjectives that make stories beautiful… I want to clean this desperate place so the world will be clean and beautiful… I want to be a person with a good imagination, a person who thinks outside of the box… I want people to think of me as caring, loving, kind, great, generous, terrific, a good friend and student… It’s my life to learn about animals… I will bring life and hope to the poor…

This work of thinking and writing and drawing who we want to be was so meaningful. Think of what the kids did NOT say. No one said they wanted to own a fancy car or a big home; no one mentioned being rich, famous or powerful. Their plans are to make the world a better place, to follow their dreams, to be helpful to others who need it. It is an honor to work and play with people like this. You raise good kids.






As the new school year approaches, I look forward to working with this same group of children in third grade. I say it to my students and their parents often, I really don’t know many people who enjoy what they do as much as me. I’m not bragging. It’s just that I know I am blessed. Think about it. Who else besides a teacher gets to spend so much time with a big bunch of best friends, thinking up together, challenging each other, making each other laugh? Who else gets to share favorite books with best friends, sing and write cool songs, create and solve each other’s math problems, observe animals, do science experiments, research and teach each other about topics that are truly fascinating to us? I’m not saying it’s all 100% perfect. We have some rough spots. But nothing compares to the feeling of a really good day at school and nothing is finer than anticipating another great year with a room full of best friends.

I am blessed.