PAY ATTENTION!
We ask our students all the time to “pay attention”. Why?
What is our intention behind the request?
What results are we expecting?
What does attention look like, and how do we know/measure it?
What purpose does “paying attention” serve?
Attention-attentive-attend to… from attendere "give heed to," literally "to stretch toward," from ad "to, toward" + tendere “stretch."
As teachers, we have to pay attention to a lot of things. One of the first things administrators look for when evaluating a teacher is “with-it-ness”. Are they paying attention to the things that we think they should be paying attention to?
“With-it-ness” is really just another word for “awareness”. To be aware of something is to be awakened and open to what is going on, and then, from there to make choices. What choices are we making as teachers?
We want our students to be awake in class while we are delivering instruction. But do we really want to awaken them to their learning and the connections they can make that are personal and meaningful to them? Or do we want them to pay attention to us, what we are saying, literally take our words, memorize them and be able to recite them perfectly back to us on a test? That is Ego.
REAL paying attention means that we, as teachers, are awake and open to stretching with our students on the learning journey of life. We are not demanding controlled outcomes that meet our prescribed expectations.
Rigid, relentless, restrictive, ridiculous, regurgitating until rigor mortis sets in. When that happens, teaching and learning die a slow, painful death!
Paying attention for our students means that they are stretching the boundaries of their limited knowledge into a growth mindset through curiosity, exploration, mistakes (missed takes that they get to do over), support, encouragement, inspiration and a hand to cheer for them or lift them up when they have fallen.
What do we want them to tend to? What do we want them to stretch toward? And why, do we use “pay”?
Because there will be a “pay off” in the end? A passing grade on a test or passing on a love of learning and feelings of worthiness?
Because if they don’t, there will be a “price to pay”? A failing grade, shame, blame, no more chances, feelings of failure and unworthiness?
I know there needs to be a better way for this new remote learning environment, but becoming more rigid, relentless, restrictive and ridiculous about the expectations only causes trauma for all stakeholders...students, parents and teachers.
Here is what we need to PAY attention to. Here is where we need to “stretch” and grow in order to develop those learning muscles and to strengthen the learning environment and experience:
PAY ATTENTION to the whispers in your heart, your intuition and what you know to be the kind, humane choice to make. Step away from the stories in your mind that others are telling you or that you are making up to feel safe, in charge, right, not vulnerable, in control…that’s the Ego!
PAY ATTENTION to how you feel, how the students/parents/admin feel. Reach out, be open and willing to listen. Then, share your empathy, compassion and kindness from a place of love and real caring. “Seek first to understand, and then, be understood” from Stephen Covey in 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (effective being the operative, key word here or maybe it should be affective too).
PAY ATTENTION to this moment and the choices you have. Be intentional about how you choose to respond, keeping in your heart (not mind because that is where the Ego lies, literally!) what you want to show up and manifest, from Latin manifestus “plainly apprehensible, clear, apparent, evident.”
PAY ATTENTION to the real lessons you are teaching children and the behaviors you are modeling for them because we all know THAT is the real payback and pay forward that teachers are looking for. Those students who come back and tell us how we made a difference and helped shape them into the fulfilled, happy person they are today who has found their real value. There is the real PAY off in teaching and learning!
So, PAY ATTENTION to what really matters in teaching…....for you and your students.
Let go of the rest! PAY ATTENTION to your heart and don’t pay too much mind to the rest
because, in the end, we are growing hearts, children and futures, together!
That is the real PAY OFF and PAY FORWARD!
Inspirational song: Wake up and pay attention from the movie Sister Act 2
Picture credit:
“Teacher with students in classroom, The University of Iowa, February 1928”
by The University of Iowa Libraries is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0
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