Patience Tool

Concept:

Patience is the ability and willingness to delay the gratification of our personal desires and wants. Delaying gratification is a key component of emotional intelligence and can be practiced by all of us, regardless of temperament or high levels or impulsivity, and it isn’t easy. When students add the Patience Tool to their Toolbox, they begin to understand and accept the radical notion that we can’t always get what we want, right when we want it. As a result, issues of impulsivity, disruptive behaviors, and intolerance can be directly addressed and minimized within the classroom and throughout the school community.

Hand Gesture: The Patience Tool icon is a wood plane. A wood plan is used to smooth away the rough surface of wooden objects- but it must be used slowly, gently, and patiently, or it will leave a scar. Have your students put their palms together in front of them. Then they can slowly rub their hands together, like they are smoothing off a bumpy surface. Students can use this gesture as a reminder to themselves to that they need to wait patiently, calmly, and thoughtfully. “I am strong enough to wait.”

Suggestions on how to introduce the tool to your students:

• What does it mean to be patient?

• When do you need to be patient?

• What is the impact to us of not being patient?

• When was a time you had to be patient this week?

  • What did you do while you waited?

  • How well did that work for you?

  • What does waiting look like?

• Have students describe what they can do or say to themselves in the following scenarios when they have to wait patiently:

  • Waiting for dinner

  • Standing in line

  • Driving in the car for a long ride

  • Waiting to play until your homework is done carefully

  • Waiting for a movie to start

  • Waiting while someone is having a conversation before you engage.

• What Toolbox Tools can they use during these times?

Practice and implementation- choose from the following:

• Role model using patience when you’re waiting for something or someone in class. Name that you’re being patient and use the hand gesture.

• Look for examples of the Patience Tool in other lessons and subjects (in history when did people need to be patient).

• In classroom circles ask a check in question of when students had to use patience, and another round when they wish others could use patience.