It was one of those teacher days… in the class I was observing a lesson in, the co-teacher called in sick and would be out for the rest of the week. A little one vomited in class and that made other children feel sick. The class, though rich in goodness, has their fair share of challenges…on every level.
Every day these teachers do their best. Every day they give a piece of themselves to their students. Yet oddly, they always have something left.
Today I think I saw why.
At the end of the day, the children were invited to gather on the rug for Closing Circle. For those not in education, it’s like Morning Circle, but more like a wrap up of the day…
But it had been a hard day. A rushed day. A day when you give your best but wonder if it’s enough.
It was. I witnessed that as I observed Closing Circle. The teacher introduced the prompt. “What was hard about today? “ She explained that sometimes things don’t go like we hoped and that’s ok… She shared her own “hard about today.” And then invited each child to share.
The whole thing took less than 15 minutes. Every child shared. Every child was heard. No one was rushed. And every child was empowered by their teacher with her heartfelt response.
Whether they were upset because they fell in a puddle on the playground or were sad about missing a special event coming up later that week… each child was respectfully listened to, and then reflectively provided feedback about their own resilience, courage or hope for a better tomorrow. Fifteen minutes.
Imagine if all the adults in our world took that much time to listen to each other…