Ten Lesson Plans Within Context for Teen Girl Faces Time in the Sand

…a Timely Tale about Struggles, Regrets and Survival on Social Media with a Superpower Tool

Annemarie Berukoff

Dec 19, 2020·7 min read

This special e-book is a two hour read, three day account of a teen girl coming to terms with her adolescent timeline within her Selfies domain, addictions and more reverence for the passing of time. Within that brief encounter lies a context for lesson plans that help check comprehension and possible extensions. The following TEN exercises will help to explore some of the story’s content at a more personal level available as a download.

It is this teacher’s hope that every teen girl will discover more personal truths and may wish to share some of their results or ask more questions.

LESSON 1: Show Some Love for your Brain … Part 1 (diagram)

Objective: Be amazed at the complexity and potential of your brain … an amazing organ of soft nervous functioning tissue that coordinates sensation and intellectual activity within different areas.

Directions: For each ability write a few words to show that you use that part very well. Add more contour lines to the brain or decorate it to show how wonderfully complex it is. Realize that in all its power to be, it is not developed fully in adolescents. Your judgement skills don’t develop in the associative areas until mid -twenties. Imagine how much smarter you’ll be then.

Love Your Brain … part 2

A neuron or nerve cell receives sensory input from the external world that send signals to muscles and all other reactions including abstract thought.

Here is a picture to show the complexity of any one neuron. Draw your own neuron in the empty space. Make sure they do not physically connect to any part because neurons pass messages with neuro transmitter chemicals at synapses between the cells. It’s why brain chemicals are so important to what the brain thinks or feel.

LESSON 2: How I Connect to My Real World Connections

Objective: Show how many real-life connections a person can have within their experience or reality. You are not a Selfie or an island unto yourself but are part of a complex whole.

Directions: Within the given frames, add words that describe YOU, FAMILY, COMMUNITY and SOCIETY. Draw lines to connect your Self to the spheres of influence around you. Add more words and personal meanings to lines and spaces including past experiences, present interests and future hopes.

LESSON 3: My Time line and Social Rites of Passage

Objective: See that a time line is very long possible covering the span of a 100 years. Along the time line are located common expected achievements for our culture called Rites of Passage.

Directions: Of course, as a teenager, your travelled time line is very short. Therefore, you can imagine other situations you would like to achieve like type of college, marriage, jobs, etc. Be serious but have fun with your future visions. Who knows they just might come to pass.

LESSON 4: Calendar of Time Experience

Objective: In the story, the teen girl realizes that time can be measured by experience which includes the Past, Today, Today’s choice and the future.

Directions: First, start with TODAY (add date). Now think about YESTERDAYS for the past week counting days backward from today. Add details to the boxes as you remember going back in time, even mistakes.

(Example; if today is Monday, fill in past boxes for Sunday, Saturday, Friday, Thursday, Wednesday and Tuesday.)

Second: Think about some things you would like to do tomorrow. Add words to the open ended lines.

Third: come back to today’s circle and add a smart CHOICE that might help you have a better tomorrow.

Use this calendar as many times ad you wish to keep track of the connections between past, present and future. You will see how closely what you did yesterday plays a part in what you today or what you plan tomorrow.

LESSON 5: Practice Making Smart Choices

Objective: Life is filled with a web of choices. The story points out two important reality checks. One, your timeline is affected by choices. Two, choices, brief as they are, need to be considered at three levels for consequences: past behavior, future possibilities and present realities.

Directions: Practice with six different situations to make smarter choices. Note the situation. Think about what might have happened in the past. Now think about what may happen in the future. Now make note about what may be smarter choice.

LESSON 6: Difference Between Choice, Decision or Habit

Objective: The story points out there is a difference between a choice, making a decision or following a habit. Here is a simple exercise to show the difference.

Directions: Would you like to spend a two-week holiday here? Look at this picture of a resort destination at the Maldives Island. A Choice is simple: YES or NO. If you say YES, then a Decision requires more thoughts both pros and cons. A Habit is made if you return here over and over again, which may include pros and cons.

LESSON 7: Comparing Two Selfies

Directions: What is the message to the world from two different selfies?

Objective: Talk with a friend or parent about how you feel about this excerpt.

But never doubt, when we had serious talks in between the Selfie poses, there were feelings of guilt, rejection and depression because the lifestyles on the screens stayed exciting but nothing different changed in our rooms.

We talked often enough about reasons for feeling anxious, worthless, stupid, useless and very insecure. Too many times, the Celties showed us every day that we couldn’t do anything right. We didn’t know that our ignorance or downward feelings were mostly fed by the Social Media Circus that amplified these downward feelings … like TV, but a 1,000 times worse in its constancy.

One Selfie swipe will instantly show me images and words with as brief an engagement as I wish. There is no debate; it’s not a relationship. It can show me ignorance, intimidation or threats, bombast, or absolute fakery. It is normal to favor only cosmetic standards with plastic interventions and sensational spectacles where regular common everyday things and people no longer matter.

Is this what communication has flat lined to … short term attention spans, immediate reaction, fear and anxiety and judgment calls without facts?

LESSON 8: Garden of Morals and Self-Esteem

Objective: We all learn morals are important for our society. The story mentions as we grow up, we are taught to hold a “bouquet of morals” in our hands. Remember self-esteem is not about objects you buy or what you look like. Self- esteem grows best when we apply our morals to help others and are appreciated in return.

Directions: Here is a flower shape with petals that name important morals. Each petal has two extending lines. Add two actions you can do to realize each moral and usually gain appreciation from others.

Discuss: The deeper tragedy is that there seems to be a tolerance to allow any young people to use their cell phones to present a falsehood to the world and still get applause even if it’s fake. What kind of lesson about morality does this teach them?

LESSON 9: How Do You Spend Your Time Online and Offline?

Objective: Some people say that spending time ONLINE on the internet is a waste of time versus doing things OFFLINE in the real world. Use this chart to keep a tally for a week. On the top mark an X for every day you visit an internet site … name others you know.

On the bottom half add lines about WHAT I CAN DO. Describe some activities you like to do without a cell phone like riding a bike or visiting an animal shelter. Remember spending time on something usually means a return on investment.

LESSON 10: Celebrate My Time Mindset or Mantra

Hear and Draw Your Inner Voice

Objective: get creative with favorite words, images and expressions that are part of your life experience. Get physical with pencils, pens, colors. Combine some past moments with some present activities and future goals.

Include hobbies, friends, places, favorite sayings, movies, pets, slogans, clothing styles, food, drinks, celebrities, goals everything you like or even a few small threads you don’t like. Explore, be creative, connect,

Design ideas: Start in the center and break a clock’s numbers, circle and link words together, fill empty spaces with neurons ( See lesson 1). Be creative …explore and persist until most open spaces are filled with movement, color, emotions and thoughts.

Take away: You can’t do this on your cell phone. Enjoy the process of spending hours of free flow in designing your unique time mantra!

Questions and comments are always appreciated. Leave a message for call-back at 833 471 4661.

Annemarie Berukoff

HelpfulMindstreamforChanges.com