This
week, I am writing about mindful observation – observing with increased awareness
and presence. Let’s start by being
present in this moment, wherever you are, while you are reading this blog. Breathe in slowly. Breathe out slowly. Pause. Center yourself. Now notice.
What do you see? Look around.
Pause. What do you hear? Any
subtle smells? Do you feel your back
against the chair? Your feet on the floor?
Intentionally raise your awareness of your senses and pause before
reading on. How do you feel?
When
teaching, the onslaught of sounds, movement, and decisions bombards us, with
little time available to process.
Observing, however, provides an opportunity to mindfully attend to what
is going on in the classroom. Jon
Kabat-Zinn* defines mindfulness as “the awareness that emerges through paying
attention, on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally to the
unfolding of an experience.” Even if
judgment will come, it can wait until you have genuinely experienced the
moment.
Being
mindful is about being fully present where you are and how it feels to be
there. When we are mindful, we are open
to new information and aware of more than one perspective. When we make ourselves mindfully present
during observations, we pay attention to aspects of the environment that we
might otherwise overlook. Being mindful
helps us delve deeper and challenge moment-to-moment judgments. We become aware of our assumptions. We take stock of how we are feeling and become more attuned to how others are feeling.
Achieving
mindfulness in the midst of commotion
Much
like the exercise at the beginning of this post, I encourage you to pause and
become mindful, multiple times, during an observation. If you’re like me, your fingers are flying on
the keyboard while you observe, trying to absorb everything that happens. However, that very preoccupation can keep me
from being completely present. Without
missing too much in my notes, I can purposefully pause, center myself, and do a
“sense check,” attending to all that is going on around me. Turn my head, shift my position. Listen for more than just words. After this expectant pause, I can go back to notetaking and capture the richer, broader experience of being in this lesson,
in this classroom.
Reflecting
mindfully through writing
Soon
after an observation, give yourself a few minutes for reflective writing, while
all is still fresh. Four minutes is
enough. Really. You just need to capture those fleeting
feelings while they are fresh. Challenge
your judgments. Step back from
instinctive reactions. Look deeper. Scan your body and mind for impressions and
write these down. Notice your emotions
and concerns. Mindful writing increases perceptiveness
and discernment and supports our reasoning.**
Use
your notes from during and after the observation to write to the teacher whose
class you’ve observed. Share with her an
important insight you gained while in the classroom. This initial communication can open
opportunities for deep thinking together during a debrief.
Share mindful observation
with others
Once
you have some practice with mindful observation, share the practice with others. Give the teacher who will observe you some
tips for how to observe mindfully. What
has worked for you? When the teacher you
are modeling for observes mindfully, your demonstration lesson will be more
powerful.
As
mindful observation spreads throughout your school, you might notice an
increased focus, more openness, and a certain sense of calm, even amidst the
busy, decision-packed moments of the everyday.
Breathe in. Breathe out. Notice.
*
Kabat-Zinn, J. (2003). Mindfulness-based interventions in context: Past,
present, and future. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice,10,
144–156.
** I am indebted to Nicole Damico and
Anne Whitney for their thoughts on Mindful Writing. See Damico, N., & Whitney, A. E. (2017).
Turning off autopilot: Mindful writing for teachers. Voices From the
Middle, 25(2), 37-40.
This week, you
might want to take a look at:
Growing as a coach by providing
powerful feedback:
Teach on the first day:
Building
independence so teachers can confer during reading workshop:
Helping
teachers deal with the emotional side of change:
Beat beginning-of-school-year stress:
That’s
it for this week. Happy Coaching!
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