Postcard 3/23

This week I have really been thinking about Shay, listening, and mindfulness being introduced in a classroom. In my fieldwork, I had a couple of interesting conversations with the kids- especially with the student who was really interested in the Beatles. I felt like I was really practicing my listening skills just because my conversations were all over the place. The children spoke fast and they changed topics fast as well. They were a little difficult to keep up with. However, I was able to listen to them attentively and I think make them feel like I was someone safe to talk to. I didn't have as many conversations as I would have wanted, but I think I had some pretty interesting ones. I was interested in the ideas of listening without judgement that we were talking about and the idea of making yourself someone who is approachable and easy to talk to, as Shay says. In my placement, even though I didn't know much about the Beatles, I inquired with what little knowledge I had to create a space for this student to engage with me. I think mindfulness comes into play at my placement as well, where this nature walk that we took was really very calming I think to the students. The past couple weeks we had stayed indoors and the kids seemed to have a lot more conflicts than the day that we just stepped outside into the sun and did something a little different. I think it was powerful that the teachers knew that the kids might just need a wide open space to run around in.