How often do you breathe?

I am a busy person. I always have been. My mind or my body is usually in motion, and anyone within earshot will confirm that my mouth usually offers a running commentary for my unsuspecting audience. At the front of a classroom, this translates into a need for  more “Wait Time”.

It seems obvious enough that allowing wait time is important in the classroom; giving students time to think of answers before blurting out the right one, waiting for silence before continuing on with a lesson, making room for quiet reflection to ebb in the flow of a busy classroom.

But while this is true, I have also found that I, too, need to open myself to wait time in my own life. Instead of busily racing from Pre-internship into the madcap chaos of our last three weeks of studies, I have found a need for solitude, reflection, and the digestion of the last three weeks. I found myself asking questions and reflection upon the experience, over and over again:

What did I learn? What did I do? What was important to me? What am I proud of? What would I do differently? What kind of teacher do I want to be?

…and so on, and so on. My brain seems to suggest answers constantly, filtering and filing the good ones. Sometimes the answers come in the middle of the night. Other times they pop into my head when I am having a completely unrelated conversation with family or friends. And so my brain, my spirit, my body, and yes, even my mouth, continue to process this experience. I never would have thought that 3 weeks in a classroom could have such a profound effect on me.

As I pause this weekend, before returning to classes, a 5 word truth hits me:

Purposeful pauses provide profound providence.

I have come to appreciate the value of reflection. Reflection doesn’t always reveal immediately what messages are most valuable, but if you give it enough wait time, the cream rises to the surface.

So looking ahead to the next steps, I realized today that just because I am busy does not mean I shouldn’t breathe. Even though I have an aggressive plan for the remainder of my degree, the breaks and pauses now also have my attention. Perhaps this is the root of my next Health Action Plan… taking time to breathe.

So, I will leave you with a question – How often do you “breathe”? What form does it take – journal reflection, incessant rambling, spin class, or something else?

Making room in the schedule for “teaching”

When I walked into my 3 week block this month, I thought my eyes were open. I knew that we only had 10 teaching days available because of extracurricular events. I knew I needed to be prepared, well planned lessons in-hand and ready for the class. Knowing all of this still did not prepare me for the fluidity of the classroom schedule.

I have enjoyed every minute in the classroom, but I have been surprised by the activities and interruptions that detract from “classroom learning”. There were the planned interruptions; a Grade 7-8 ski trip to Mission Ridge, a visit from the high school one day, followed by a tour AT the high school the next, the school-wide “Carnaval” Day, and of course the division PD Day and Teacher’s Conference. These things I knew about and planned for.

What I (and sometimes even my co-op teacher) didn’t anticipate were the other interruptions – half the class leaving mid-lesson for band practice, the Student Council members leaving to tally points in each classroom for Hawaiian Day, an impromptu pep rally for the Boys Basketball team before they headed to the City Finals, vaccination day (bringing with it a lot of drama and chatter in a Grade 8 class). Though a blessing to be in a school with many resources and funding, it can still be a curse in the classroom.

Students absences also created challenges; family vacations, extracurricular performances, sports and illness kept me on my toes.  Even when students are physically present, sometimes students are not mentally ready to learn, or the lesson doesn’t go exactly as planned.

Sometimes technology got in the way of my smoothly planned lesson. Wi-Fi can be sketchy, and buffering videos can be a dangerous game in Middle Years. Squeezing in the last 10 minutes of a video before a Friday ski trip worked!

And so, through the craziness of it all, I found my best weapon is flexibility. I have been thankful for my ability to go with the flow. Whether it was planning some differentiation in my lesson for those students at the head and the back of the pack, or a mid-lesson refocus because a concept needed additional explanation, I have been proud of my ability to react “in the moment”.

Whether the teaching occurred within my preconceived “lesson time”, or on the ski slopes, or during a brief interaction in the hallway, responding to student needs in the moment is one of my favorite challenges of this profession.

Hello… from the other side (of an action plan)

So I recently completed a Personal Health Action Plan for our EHE317 class. The plan was about improving my own emotional and mental health as well as supporting that of my husband and children. As a university student and a married mom of 4, it is understandably challenging to find time to connect in meaningful ways. In addition, our current family dynamics have been impacted by 1) having lived apart from my husband for the past three years, 2) moving homes (and schools) three times in two years, 3) and an older daughter at university during this same timeframe. In June, 2015, we moved to Saskatchewan and, aside from Sarah who remained in Ontario at university, we are now living in a new home. However, living under the same roof doesn’t automatically mean feeling connected to one another. Therefore, this action plan was about healing our sense of “belonging”, as described in the Circle of Courage.

After 21 days, I asked my family how ‘connected’ I had been to each of them, before, during and after the plan. Although there were some surprises along the way, I am pleased with the results. I think I made some good progress in connecting with both my family members and myself. Consider my original intent:

1. To create purposeful timeslots for activities to focus on myself, my husband and my family. I will be in the moment and not divide my attention.

I did create purposeful timeslots for these relationships. Some of the planned activities never or rarely happened. For example, the dog walking with my husband.  The original reason (or excuse) was the cold weather, but other things ‘conveniently’ cropped up. However, the talking and time together with my husband that this was going to provide was fulfilled through lots of time spent indoors, talking and discussing options for remodeling our ‘new’ older motorhome.

Another comment about the timeslots came during feedback from my 14 year old. When I first created this plan, she had asked if I was going to plan time alone with each of the kids. My intention was that I wanted more family time – time spent together as a family. She didn’t seem too keen on the “family time”, but I shrugged this off, telling myself that, “everyone will enjoy family activities”. After the plan was over I asked her how my attentiveness and connectedness changed. She commented that during the Action Plan my attentiveness to her decreased – from “pretty good” prior, to “a little bit” during, and back up to “pretty good” afterwards. We had a long talk about this, and the fact that going into this action plan, she and I had a very strong connection with each other. However, during the Action Plan when I was working hard on family and spousal connectedness, she felt less connected to me. I appreciate my daughter’s thoughtfulness in answering the questions, and I think I overlooked this initially when considering the obstacles or challenges in this plan – what happens if there are strong bonds that will be adversely affected by my efforts to connect with others?

2. To be present in the moment when my family asks for my attention. If I am working on homework or otherwise occupied, I will give them my full attention wherever possible.

This wasn’t so much as structured time, as it was responsiveness. I think I did much better with this goal, as hard as it was. There were times when I knew I had assignments and readings to work on, but when my kids needed help, I gave them my full attention. When I did this, I found that the homework was completed quicker, we were able to make further extensions to their learning, and I enjoyed and appreciated the time we spent together more fully.

3. To “connect to myself”, I will also not take on ownership of resolving disputes if they arise between others. Learning to promote self-regulation, compromise and accountability in my children will improve my “connectedness to self”.

I can’t really tell you if I succeeded with this goal. My time to connect with self was definitely placed last on the list, getting demoted when anything else needed attention. However, as far as the ownership of resolving disputes, I think there were fewer disputes for me to get involved with. Perhaps being busy with my own work also eliminated me from the equation.

All in all, I am pleased with the progress I made. There are many things that I can continue to work on, but I feel that for a first action plan, I stepped up to meet the challenges that I established.

As Emma and I discussed today, now that our action plans are over, we feel the need to create a new action plan, with a new purpose! So, perhaps you have some ideas from action plans or goals you have set in the past… what has worked for you and what goals do you feel are meaningful?