Pebbles of Hope

So, this last year I took an AP Calculus class. And it was SO HARD! But it quickly became my favorite class because of the teacher, Mr. Smith. He taught me that I had to really work for it in order to understand. So I dug in and I have never worked so hard for a class ever before. I spent hours and hours after school doing homework with my teacher there to cheer me on. As the AP test loomed closer, desks were added to the room as 50+ kids stayed 6-7 hours after school every day working on derivatives, antiderivatives etc. Mr. Smith literally taught from sun-up to sun-down. A 15 hour work day became normal for him. In our dark, deserted school, nearly 30 kids sat in the calculus room even though it was 9:00 at night.

So Mr. Smith came up with a game. It was called, "The Game". For every question you got right in the reviews, Mr. Smith would give you a pebble (officially known as a Pebble of Hope) and you tried to get as many as you could. For us calculus kids, those pebbles were more valuable than money. Hundreds of kids walked around the school with ziploc bags full of Hope. I got 314 pebbles. (I still remember that because IT'S PI!) Although there was no way to "win" The Game, there was a reward; I learned what I was capable of. And that was more valuable than anything I could have won.

After we took the test, it was time to turn in our pebbles. I asked to keep about 90 and came up with this jar. It says, "I Can Do Hard Things". Because, I can. And I will always be thankful to Mr. Smith for teaching me that.

For this, I just wrapped scrapbook paper (that I already wrote on!) around the jar just under the lip and connected the ends of the paper with Mounting Squares. (You know, those double sided stickers?) Then I wrapped that with raffia and tied a bow! Super simple! You could put anything you like in the jar!

Love, Kristy