“Don’t mistake movement for achievement. it’s easy to get faked out by being busy. The question is” ‘Busy doing what?'” ~ Jim Rohn
Lessons come from the oddest places. Being a teacher, my lessons usually come by way of my students. Being able to read people is a must when you are a teacher. If you are lacking that skill or having a hard time at seeing what people need, your students will be the first to show you what they want or need. Some students are louder than others.
I have been extremely busy this semester. Balancing graduate school, full time workload, and a social life. It never fails that when I focus most on one the other two begin to fall. I know I will get through it and be fine. The struggle is not hopeless just exhausting. My body has been trying to tell me to take a rest, from laryngitis, to stomach flu, to a virus that sapped all of my energy. I need to rest, I know this but it is very hard for me to do so. I have an insane amount of things to do. I have students, co-workers, friends all needing me to do something.
No worries here is where the lesson comes into play. My 9th graders are one of my favorite classes. They know it too but I feel that I love all of my classes in different ways. I try to make every class feel like they are the favorite. Well my 9th graders seem to really be feeling it. They are also the hardest and the biggest. Which means they do tend to get a lot of my attention. Every week we have current events. This past week a student trying to be a little smart found an article discussing how doing nothing is important. Her main solution is that when your parents or teachers tell you to stop doing nothing you could use the article to explain to them that doing nothing is important.
How I see it a teacher could do one of two things with this current event. They could argue against it or they could embrace it. I like to say I have a supper power, a power that shows itself, at times, uncontrollable. The super power is that I subconsciously choose to counter the norm. The norm in this case, for my very Asian students, is to embrace the news. After a few jokes about some of them maybe doing TOO much nothing, I told them that it was important to rest. I told them that for 5 minutes we would all do nothing. Rather it was closing our eyes for a bit, siting there, or praying (I work at a Christian school), we would do nothing. They were of course shocked but were not about to argue with me.
As we all sat there for 5 minutes in silence it was peaceful. Yet, I could not stop my brain from creating a to do list, mentally checking things off. It showed me that I have been training myself these past few months not to breath. Not to rest. Though I would take a break and watch tv I would still be thinking of a plan to get everything done. Or watch tv while I was working…you know multitasking. I have a lot still to do but there is importance in taking a break. To get away, to remove myself for a little while.
There will always be a crazy amount of things to do. There will always be an action plan. Knowing me, I will always have things to balance. However, I hope that I will always remember the lesson that my 9th grade student taught me.
So take a break and enjoy some photos from Iteawon’s International Food Festival.
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