For Blue Star Elementary fourth grade teacher Mr. Szczerowski, every lesson he teaches represents an opportunity — one his students may only have once.

As he begins his 25th year of teaching at Hamilton Community Schools, Szczerowski introduced his newest group of fourth graders to an analogy they will hear throughout the school year: catch the snowflakes and don’t let your feet get wet.

“I cannot make you intelligent, right?” Szczerowski told his class. “But I can give you an opportunity to become intelligent.”

He asked his students to imagine that every lesson they encounter is a snowflake falling during a blizzard. One snowflake may seem small, but when enough of them come together, they can create something much bigger.

“What are those snowbanks made from?” he asked the class.

“Snowflakes,” his students responded.

Szczerowski explained that learning works the same way. Every lesson, experience and new piece of information is another snowflake students have an opportunity to catch and add to their “snowball.”

“When you grab these lessons, these snowflakes, and you put it into your brain or your snowball, what happens to your snowball?” he asked.

“It gets bigger and bigger and bigger,” the students answered.

That growing snowball represents their intelligence — something they can continue building throughout their lives.

But there’s another side to the analogy. When a snowflake falls to the ground, it eventually melts. That exact snowflake can never be recreated. Szczerowski uses that idea to remind his students that opportunities to learn are valuable and sometimes fleeting.

“Every lesson, you can think of it like a blizzard in here,” he told them. “You have an opportunity to catch a couple snowflakes, shove it in your snowball, and your snowball is your intelligence. And that is something that you can carry forever.”

That’s also where one of his favorite classroom sayings comes from: “Don’t let your feet get wet.”

If too many snowflakes fall past you and land at your feet, you may be missing opportunities to learn. Throughout the year, Szczerowski might simply tell a student, “Your feet are getting wet,” and his fourth graders will know exactly what he means: refocus and start catching some snowflakes.

The expectation, however, isn’t perfection.

“Does any kid ever catch them all? No,” Szczerowski said. “Some days you’re grumpy. Some days someone was mean to you on the bus ride. Some days we’re just not feeling well. No kiddo catches every snowflake.”

Instead, the goal is simple: catch as many as you can.

It’s a lesson about education, but also one about life. Every day brings opportunities to listen, experience something new, ask questions and grow. Each one might seem as small as a snowflake in the moment, but over time, those individual moments can build into something much bigger.

And after 25 years of teaching at Hamilton Community Schools, Szczerowski is once again challenging a new group of students to keep building their snowballs — one snowflake at a time.