Wise Words from Morrie {Weekly Blog}

During fourth period at Big Spring students and teachers participate in Silent Sustained Reading (SSR). This week the topic that was being discussed in my book was "How Love Goes On". The character Morrie says to his friend Mitch, " I believe in being fully present. Morrie defines that as being with the person you're with."

If you are not familiar with the book, it is called Tuesdays with Morrie written by Mitch Albom. The book describes the relationship between a professor, Morrie and student, Mitch and then flash forwards to when Mitch becomes an adult and Morrie is diagnosed with ASL. Mitch returns to visit Morrie after many years without contact, and Morrie and Mitch pick-up their friendship from where it left off. With Morrie dying though, Mitch wants to know everything Morrie thinks about certain topics. The ladder part of the book breaks down their conversations on these topics.

As I read these chapters on the various topics, I find myself learning from Morrie as well. This week the topic was about being fully present. Some of the quotes Morrie uses to describe being fully present  are:

• "I try to keep focused only on what is going on between us"
• "I am not thinking about something we said last week"
• "I am not thinking of what's coming up this Friday"
• "I am not thinking about doing another Koppel show"
• "What medications I'm taking"
• "I am talking to you, I am thinking about you."

This message was important to remind me to be in the moment of what I am doing with a student. Build a relationship with them, that when they are talking I am dialed in and focused on their question, comment, or concern. On the flip side I ask myself, how can I successfully do this with 24 students in a class?

I challenged myself to implement Morrie's teaching this week. This was not easy. My mind wonders easily with concern, thoughts, reminders, to-dos, and emotions. To be fully invested in a conversation, listening to a 6 minute speech I have heard over five times, or students sharing a funny story with me, is challenging.

After an evaluation this week, I realized that I did not know my students as well as I thought in one of my classes. The attention I gave each of them was on the surface because of how large the class was. After my evaluation and debrief I felt bad because I was not investing time into learning more about my students than what I knew through observation. I started making the change Friday and telling students who needed me that I will come to them when I was done with the student I was working with. My goal to to continue to carry this mentality into the rest of my weeks at Big Spring and into my own classroom.