“We never remember days, only moments.” — Cesare Pavese
It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking about your day in units when you work in education. 3 periods before lunch… Math, then ELA… Special, then lunch… One more period before the end of the day…
While these units make sense and give us a structure for planning our day, you can also think about the moments embedded within your day. There are many moments that you might be missing, or glossing over, especially when waiting for the next unit of your day.
When you find these moments, give the gift of these moments to the children with whom you work.
Try and embed moments into your day- it can help develop an aspect of seeing the “down” times in life as moments for silence or contemplation.
Encourage your students to close their eyes and listen to the building- Julian Treasure, a speaker and consultant (who has one of the most watched TED talks of all time) talks about thinking about the soundscape around you as a “mixer” from a recording studio.
Take 2 minutes and listen to the environment around you in the school… Can we focus in on voices nearby?
Can we tune out one sound and focus on another?
Can we use our imagination to try and listen to something and put the other sounds into the background?
Not only is this a useful exercise for mindfulness, it can also work to help people calm down and refocus students.
No matter how much time is in your day, give the gift of moments to your students.
Check out this link for a downloadable “Mixer” page to use in small groups or your whole class
