Practice This: Power of the Pause

It’s officially summer! Hopefully, that means you can have a different pace as you walk through the days. It’s also a good time to practice attributes and practices that work in your personal life and can be carried into your coaching work when school resumes.
 
Last week’s post describes the value of focusing on strengths. This week, let’s think about the power of the pause.
 
Taking a beat, a break, a brief recess in the flow of life has many benefits. This hesitation can help us to use our senses and be more fully-present. A wait can clear our focus, elevating what’s important. Pausing – especially when accompanied by a deep breath – reduces stress, sending calming hormones through our system. Pausing increases self-awareness and improves decision-making. There is power in the pause as we determine next steps.
 
In interactions with others, pausing helps us listen more deeply, improving communication as we respond, rather than react. A thoughtful silence after listening demonstrates respect. A well-timed pause can reduce tension and deflate an escalating situation. Pausing creates a gap that invites others into the conversation.
 
Pause and consider the two paragraphs you just read. Which of those benefits do you want in your day-to-day life this summer? How will you practice the pause? Maybe you’d like to grab a sticky note and write that single word – pause – on it. Maybe you want several of them, scattered around your house or on your car’s dashboard. You could write “pause” on your mirror with a marker, offering a reminder at the start of the day until pausing becomes your habit.
 
When the school year starts, you can carry this habit forward. In classrooms and coaching conversations, pausing will help us notice. We will see subtle shifts in emotion and understanding as we take a brief break to soak in the situation.
 
During coaching conversations, pauses support teachers’ thinking, giving them the space to reflect and generate their own insights. This pause supports teachers’ agency and professionalism. Coaches who pause resist the urge to jump in with their own solutions, creating, instead, teacher-directed learning. When we respond after pausing, our words will be aligned with teachers’ interests and goals.
 
This is why WAIT time is so important. You’ve thought about it for students, and it matters with teachers, too. I use this acronym for WAIT to remind me to pause: WAIT stands for Why Am I  Talking. This little acronym encourages me to hold my tongue and really consider what the teacher has been saying before jumping in. Waiting allows me to listen better, because while the teacher talks, my mind isn’t rushing ahead thinking about what I’m going to say in response – I know I’ll have time for that once she pauses. My response is better because I’ve really listened, and because I’ve allowed myself a few seconds to think about what I’ve heard. The pause pushes my own thinking to a higher level. That thoughtful pause also sends the message that I value what the teacher has said.
 
We have probably all been a victim, at one time or another, of a solution that was provided by someone who didn’t really understand the problem. My goal is to avoid that situation by talking less and listening more during coaching conversations. The pregnant pause – silence – sometimes makes us feel like no one is thinking. But, in actuality, that pause is usually when the highest-level thinking occurs, for both you and the teacher.
 
A thoughtful pause is important when asking questions. Silence sponsors a teacher’s thoughtful response, leaving room for the teacher to consider. It grants the teacher the opportunity to process both your question and her answer. This means not rushing in to fill the quiet with words of your own. A pause for uninterrupted thinking is a courtesy in teachers’ overfull days.
 
After asking a question, give teachers the gift of time and receptivity. Make eye contact. Don’t appear rushed or make the teacher feel rushed. When the teacher pauses, don’t be quick to give a response. Instead, ask them to “Say more about that.” Or say, “Yes, go on.” Or just pause and offer silence. There’s a wise Quaker saying that applies to coaching: “Never miss a chance to keep your mouth shut.”
 
This lack of action sounds like it should be easy, but waiting can be hard work! As we give our full attention to teachers’ thinking, we give them space to reflect. We give them space to wonder. We give them space to generate new ideas. It can be difficult to keep your mouth shut, to offer a silent, thought-filled pause – but the coaching rewards are worth it!
 
This week, you might want to take a look at:

Using number lines to support deeper understanding:
 
https://choiceliteracy.com/article/developing-flexibility-with-number-lines/
 
 
Boosting comprehension through movement:
 
https://ccira.blog/2025/06/17/boost-student-comprehension-through-intentional-movement/
 
 
Skillsets for AI Literacy:
 
https://community.theeducatorcollaborative.com/prompting-progress-teaching-ai-literacy-in-the-classroom/
 
 
Using wordless picture books in middle school:
 
https://www.middleweb.com/37177/4-ways-to-teach-with-wordless-picture-books/

4 Ways to Build Safety in Coaching:
 
https://tinyurl.com/CoachingSafety
 
 
That’s it for this week. Happy Coaching!
 
Want more coaching tips? Check out my book, Differentiated Mentoring & Coaching in Education: From Preservice Teacher to Expert Practitioner, available from Teachers College Press!  I’m so excited to share it with you! You can use the code: FDNS25 for 20% off. Click  here  and I’ll email you the free Book Group Study Guide that includes questions, prompts, and activities you can use as you share the book with colleagues.  I hope you’ll love this book as much as I loved making it for you!