At the beginning of a new week, to expand on what I was sharing in today’s Top Tips. I’d like to reflect on the wisdom of embracing openness and the art of listening. I know we all like being right and certain; at the same time, wisdom often lies in our willingness to be curious, and through curiosity learn and change.
In an ordinary domestic situation,I do a great deal of listening,especially first thing in the morning…I have to create little spaces in the day to rest my mind,or find a practical task to help me do the same.
If the listening involves a lot of technical concerns,I can zone out and wonder if I can find ways of making this information more appealing to myself so that I do not go blank!
The comment on open ended questions resonated particularly with me and although this is slightly different, I used to use open ended questions when teaching literature both to younger children and young teenagers as a way of helping them to articulate some of their feelings, thoughts etc. If we were looking at behavior, motivation and so forth in fictitious literary characters my students could enter into a conversation about a character and at the same time explore and consider their own thoughts, perhaps with greater freedom as they were talking about someone else and the focus wasn’t directly on them.
In an ordinary domestic situation,I do a great deal of listening,especially first thing in the morning…I have to create little spaces in the day to rest my mind,or find a practical task to help me do the same.
If the listening involves a lot of technical concerns,I can zone out and wonder if I can find ways of making this information more appealing to myself so that I do not go blank!
The comment on open ended questions resonated particularly with me and although this is slightly different, I used to use open ended questions when teaching literature both to younger children and young teenagers as a way of helping them to articulate some of their feelings, thoughts etc. If we were looking at behavior, motivation and so forth in fictitious literary characters my students could enter into a conversation about a character and at the same time explore and consider their own thoughts, perhaps with greater freedom as they were talking about someone else and the focus wasn’t directly on them.